“Glum, I should say. Where’s Lady Jess?”
Wolfgang elevated his eyebrows, shrugged his shoulders and made a gesture of ignorance, but said no word.
“Lost your tongues, mostly, hey? I say––where’s the captain?”
Elsa lumbered forward to the doorway, and dully regarded the visitor; then, after a time, replied:
“Not here.”
Her brevity was another contrast to her former volubility, but it was sufficient to thrill the questioner’s heart with fresh dismay.
“Has she been here to-day?”
Elsa shook her head. Otto came out from the shed and glanced disconsolately at Samson, then slowly returned whence he had come.
The herder’s temper flamed, and, snapping his whip at the air, he cried out, hotly:
“Look at me, you passel of idiots! You think you know what trouble is just because you’ve lost a handful of money? Well, you don’t! You haven’t even guessed at it. Money! The world’s full of that, but there never was more than one Lady Jess, and I tell you––I tell you––she’s lost!”