In a flash Johannes comprehended.
"Oh, Mevrouw—but you mistake—completely. I am not in the least enamored of that girl, but formerly she was my little comrade, and she thinks a great deal of me. She saw that I was unhappy yesterday, and then she came to sympathize with me."
"Sympathize?" asked the countess, hesitatingly, and not without irony, of which Johannes, however, was unconscious.
"Yes, Mevrouw. But for her, I should have done desperate things. She prevented me. She is a brave girl."
Then he told her still more of Marjon.
Countess Dolores believed him, and became more friendly. In that caressing voice which had caused Johannes so much unhappiness, and which even now completely fascinated him, she asked:
"And why were you so desperate, my boy?"
"Do you not understand? It was because of what you told me yesterday."
She understood well enough, and Johannes thought it charming in her to be willing to listen so kindly. But although she felt flattered she pretended not to know what he meant—as if such an idea were unthinkable.
"But how can that make you feel so desperate, my boy? I have not said, however, that you must leave my house on account of it."