‘I cannot marry her!’ exclaimed Greif, so sharply and suddenly that his companion started and looked anxiously into his face.
‘Then you will kill her,’ answered Frau von Sigmundskron, after a short and painful pause. She, too, was roused to abandon the harmless attempt at diplomacy which had failed, and to speak out what was in her heart.
She was indignant with Greif, and she forgot altogether that she had at first felt precisely as he did himself in regard to the marriage. As the trees flew past and every effort of the strong horses brought her nearer to her home, she knew Hilda was first, and the instinct to defend her child from pain and sorrow gradually began to dominate her. Mild and gentle as she was, she was ready to attack Greif and to force him to marry her daughter whether he would or not. She grew nervous, for the coming meeting between the two might decide their fate, and every moment lost might be the most important. Greif did not reply at once to what she had said, but a shiver passed through his limbs and he drew the furs more closely about him.
‘You are wrong,’ he said at last. ‘Hilda will forget me in time and will marry a better man and a happier one. I did not mean to tell you—I may as well—I shall make arrangements to give her half of what I have in the world. She will be an heiress then, and can marry well.’
Frau von Sigmundskron did not understand him. To her, the speech seemed cynical and brutal, an insult to Hilda’s love, a slight upon her own poverty. The gentle lady’s pale and delicate face flushed suddenly with righteous anger and her small hands were clenched tightly beneath the furs. There was a bright light in her soft blue eyes as she answered him.
‘Hilda will neither accept your fortune, nor forget you—though it would be better, perhaps, if you could pass out of her memory.’
Greif could not see her face which was hidden by the hood she wore, without leaning forward, but her words and her tone surprised him. He had been very far from supposing that he should offend her by making such a proposal or by hinting that Hilda might marry happily at some future time. The emotion he had felt had probably made his voice sound harshly, and after all, he had perhaps shown little delicacy in speaking of the money, but he was quite unprepared for his companion’s freezing answer. With Greif, however, it was impossible that any misunderstanding should last long, for he was too honest and frank to submit to being misunderstood himself.
‘I do not know what you thought that I meant,’ he said, turning towards her. ‘But you would not be angry if I had explained myself better.’
Frau von Sigmundskron gave him no assistance, but sat quite still in her seat. In her view he had spoken lightly of her child’s love and had proposed to set matters right by giving her some of his money. She was angry, and she believed that she had a right to be.
‘I love Hilda,’ continued Greif, and his voice trembled a little. If there were a phrase which he had not meant to pronounce, or to think of during the day, it was that. He found himself in a position which obliged him to affirm the strength of his love, and the mere sound of the words disturbed him so that he stopped short, to collect his thoughts.