"Are you satisfied with your stay at Furstenstein?" he began anew. "I have not yet been there, and have only seen the castle from afar, but it seems to overlook the whole vicinity. A peculiar taste is needed, however, to find the country beautiful."
"And this taste does not seem to be yours."
"At any rate, I do not love the monotony, and here one has the same view everywhere. Forest and forest and nothing but forest! It is enough sometimes to create despair."
It sounded like suppressed resentment. The poor German forests had to atone for torturing the returned prodigal to such an extent that he had been upon the point several times of fleeing from their whispering and rustling. He could not bear it--this grave, monotonous tune of old times which the leaves whispered to him.
His companion heard, of course, only the sarcasm in the remark.
"You are a foreigner, Herr Rojanow?" she asked calmly.
A dark shadow passed again over Hartmut's brow. He hesitated for a moment, then replied coldly: "Yes, gracious Fraulein."
"I thought so; your name, as well as appearance, betrays it, and therefore your opinion is conceivable."
"It is certainly an unbiased opinion," said Hartmut, irritated by the reproach contained in the last words. "I have seen a great deal of the world, and have but now returned from the Orient. Whoever has known the ocean in its brilliant, transparent blue, or its majestic, stormy uproar; whoever has enjoyed the charm of the tropics, and been intoxicated with their splendor and coloring--to him these evergreen forest depths appear but cold and colorless, like all of these German landscapes, anyhow."
The contemptuous shrug of the shoulders with which he concluded seemed to finally arouse his companion from her cool indifference. An expression of displeasure flitted across her features, and her voice betrayed a certain excitement as she answered: "That is probably solely and entirely a matter of taste. I know, if not the Orient, at least the south of Europe. Those sun-glaring, color-shining landscapes intoxicate for the moment, certainly, and then they weary one. They lack freshness and strength. One can dream and enjoy there, but not live and work. But why argue about it? You do not understand our German forests."