Hartmut smiled with undeniable satisfaction. He had succeeded in breaking the icy reticence of his companion. All of his charming politeness had been without effect, but he saw now that there was something which could call life into those cold features, and he found it attractive to draw it out. If he offended by it, it did not matter; it gave him pleasure.
"That sounds like a reproof which, alas! I have to accept," he said, with an undisguised sneer. "It is possible that this understanding is wanting in me. I am accustomed to measure nature differently from most people. Live and work! It depends greatly upon what one calls living and working. I have lived for years in Paris, that mighty centre of civilization, where life throbs and flows in a thousand streams. Whoever is used to being borne on those sparkling waves cannot bring himself again into narrow, petit views--into all those prejudices and pedantries which in this good Germany are called 'life.'"
The contemptuous stress which he put upon the last words had something of a challenge in it, and reached its aim.
His companion came to a sudden standstill and measured him from head to foot, while from the formerly cold, blue eyes there flashed a spark of burning anger. She seemed to have an angry reply upon her lips, but suppressed it. She only straightened herself to her fullest height, and her words were few and of icy, haughty reprimand.
"You forget, mein Herr, that you speak to a German. I remind you of it."
Hartmut's brow glowed dark-red under this stern reproof, and yet it was directed only to the stranger--the foreigner--who forgot the consideration of a guest.
If this girl had an idea who spoke so to her--if she knew! Hot, burning shame rose suddenly within him, but he was man of the world enough to control himself immediately.
"I beg your pardon," he said with a slight, half-sarcastic bow. "I was under the impression that we were exchanging only general views, which have the right of unbiased opinions. I am sorry to have offended you, gracious Fraulein."
An inimitable, proud and disdainful motion of the head assured him that he did not even possess the power to offend her. She shrugged her shoulders in a barely perceptible manner.
"I do not wish to bias your opinions in the least, but as our views are so widely different on this matter, we will do better to discontinue our conversation."