Rex looked at him, nodded gravely and answered nothing.
‘We must go together, Rex,’ said Greif after another long pause. ‘Will you come?’
‘I will go with you wherever you will. If we part it shall not be my fault.’
‘Thank you.’
The great logs crackled and blazed, sending up leaping flames and showers of sparks into the wide chimney and reflecting a warm red glare which contrasted oddly with the cold and sunless light of the winter’s afternoon. The sound and the sight of the fire supplied the place of conversation and animated the stillness.
‘Rex, did you know that I was to have been married next month?’ Greif asked the question suddenly, as though he had come to an unexpected decision.
‘I thought it possible that you would marry soon,’ answered his companion.
‘I was to have been married to my cousin Hilda in January. How far away that seems!’
‘The daughter of Frau von Sigmundskron?’
‘Yes. We have been engaged for years.’