"Really!" said Felix. "Why, I thought Mr. Stein was fully aware of his position!"
"Well, you will learn to know him better. He is one of the most arrogant men of his class I have ever known."
"We'll soon get that out of him," said Felix, twirling his very diminutive moustache. "With such people short answers are best. I know that. These low-bred people are all alike. As soon as they find out that we really mean to be what we are by right--the masters at home and in the State--they become submissive. It is our own fault if they are impertinent. They have to be kept down in a proper knowledge of their position. You have been too kind to that man, that is all. To tell the truth, I was wondering at dinner why Miss Helen should submit so very patiently to some correction or other."
"Well, Helen is not generally a friend of his. She has a thoroughly aristocratic aversion to everything plebeian. I hope you will encourage her in these principles. Besides, that is the nearest way to her heart."
"Well, I hope the way will not be so difficult to find," said Felix, with a self-complacent smile; "I have some experience in that line, ma chère tante."
"Which you will all need in this case, dear Felix. Helen is a very peculiar character, hard to understand. I confess I have not ventured yet to tell her of our plan. I wished first to see what impression you would produce on her heart. You have the finest opportunity here to show yourself in the most favorable light; there is not even a rival to fear. We live very retired, and I shall take good care that our retirement is interrupted as rarely as possible while you are staying with us."
"Pardon me, dear aunt," said Felix, "if I differ with you on that point. I should really have to pay forfeit if I had to be afraid of a comparison with the young men of my class here in the country. On the contrary, I am very anxious to measure myself with these goslings! Every one of them whom I defeat is a step nearer to my goal, if it is really so far off. No! Ask as much company as you choose. Make Helen's presence and mine the pretext for giving little dinners, suppers, teas. etc.; and then sum it all up in a great ball, on which occasion our engagement can be proclaimed, and thus produce a sensation such as these people have not often experienced."
"You are bold, dear Felix," said the baroness, who liked this method all the less that it was rather expensive.
"What else would have been the use of my wearing a sword by my side so long?" replied Felix, gallantly kissing her hand.
While the baroness and Felix were disposing so coolly of Helen and her fate, she and her father had had a conversation which oddly crossed the cunning plans of the baroness, and the idea of the victorious race which the young ex-lieutenant so naïvely expected to win.