"You know that my engagement happened a year ago at Florence. My father was even then very ailing, and the physicians desired that he should remain in Italy during the winter. We went to Florence, intending to stay two months, and then make further plans according to the wish of the invalid. My brother had accompanied us, but was to return home at the beginning of winter.
"We took a villa outside the city, and, of course, lived quite secluded. Eugene saw Italy for the first time, and it was so mournful for him to sit day after day in the lonely sick room, that I seconded his request to go to Rome for a short time. He finally received permission. Oh, if I had never done it! But I could not know how deeply his inexperience would involve him then."
"That means that he followed up adventures, although his father was at death's door."
"Do not judge so harshly. My brother was scarcely twenty years old then, and had always lived under the eyes of a loving but very strict father. The short freedom proved dangerous to him. The young German, who had no knowledge of the world whatever, was enticed into circles where high--and as it was afterward proved--false gambling was the order of the day, and where a number of bad, but outwardly charming, elements met. Eugene, in his ignorance, did not understand it, and lost heavily, until suddenly the party was raided by the police. The Italians defended themselves, and it ended in a fight, into which Eugene, too, was drawn. He only defended himself, but he had the misfortune to injure a policeman severely, and was arrested with the others."
The Colonel had listened silently, with impassive face, and his voice was as harsh as before as he said: "And Stahlberg had to live to see this of his son, who had been a model until then?"
"He never heard of it; it was only a momentary losing of one's self--a case of one misled, rather than guilty, and it will not happen again. Eugene has given me his word of honor for that."
Falkenried laughed so scornfully that his companion looked at him in consternation.
"His word of honor! Yes, why not? That is given as easily as it is broken. Are you truly so trusting as to believe in the word of such a young lad?"
"Yes, that I am," asserted Adelaide, in an injured tone, while her eyes, earnest and reproachful, met the gaze of the man whose awful bitterness she could not explain. "I know my brother. In spite of this escapade, he is the son of his father, and he will keep his word to me and to himself--I know it."
"It is well for you if you can still believe and trust. I have long forgotten how," said Falkenried, in a low but milder tone. "And what happened then?"