"Yes, you! I would have followed you also with a lighter heart."
The avowal betrayed, unconsciously, how hard had been the struggle which the young wife had not mentioned by a word. But she spoke the truth.
She would much rather have given herself to the gloomy, reticent man, with his harsh and often offensive manner, if the sacrifice had to be made, than to the ever polite and attentive husband, who, in the face of her extremity--had traded with it.
"You would have had a hard lot then, Ada," said the Colonel, with a grave shake of the head. "I am one of the men who cannot give or receive anything more in this life. I have finished with it long ago. But you are right; it is better to let that subject remain untouched between Wallmoden and me, for if I wished to tell him my true opinion about it--well, he will always be a diplomat."
Adelaide arose, breaking off the conversation, and tried to assume a lighter tone.
"And now let me take you to your rooms at last. You must be exhausted by the long trip."
"No, a single night's journey will not tire a soldier. Duty makes harsher demands than that on us."
He drew himself up straight and firm; one could see that his physical strength was yet unbroken. Those muscles and sinews seemed like steel. It was the features alone that bore the mark of age.
The eyes of the Baroness lingered upon them thoughtfully, especially upon the brow which was so deeply and heavily furrowed and yet was formed so high and powerful under the white hair.
It seemed to her as if she had seen that brow somewhere else, under dark locks; but there could not be a sharper contrast than between this too early aged, care-lined face and that youthful head with the foreign, southern beauty and the uncanny light in the eyes. Yet it had been the same brow over which the lightnings had flamed on that lonely forest height; the same high, powerful curve; even the blue veins which were so pronounced at the temples--a strange, incomprehensible likeness!