"That stranger there. What a strange resemblance!"
"To whom?" asked Herbert, growing more attentive and looking sharply at the stranger.
"To--impossible! That is not only a resemblance. It is he himself."
She sprang up, pale with excitement, and her look fastened itself upon the features of the man just now putting his foot upon the first step of the veranda. She met his eyes, those dark, glowing eyes, which had so often shone upon her from the face of the boy, and the last doubt disappeared.
"Hartmut--Hartmut Falkenried--you----"
She was suddenly silenced by Wallmoden's laying his hand heavily upon her arm and saying slowly, but with emphasis: "You are mistaken, Regine. We do not know this gentleman."
Hartmut stopped short when he caught sight of Frau von Eschenhagen, who had been hidden by the foliage. He was not prepared for her presence. At the moment he recognized her the words of the Ambassador reached his ear. He knew that icy tone only too well; it forced the blood to his brow.
"Herbert!" Regine looked doubtingly at her brother, who still held her by the arm.
"We do not know him," he repeated in the same tone.
"Is it possible that I have to tell you that, Regine?"