"Now I know from whom the letters are which she so often reads! You shall pay for it, per Bacco!" he murmured between his white teeth.
CHAPTER XIV.
That same evening in the elegant salon of the Royal Hotel, Unter den Linden, sat Count Golm and Councillor Schieler at a table covered with maps and plans. The two gentlemen had conversed long and eagerly over a bottle of wine; the bright colour in the Count's cheeks was deeper, and a certain look of displeasure appeared in his face as he now leaned back in his rocking-chair, and began silently to rock himself backwards and forwards; the Councillor still continued to turn over the plans for a little while, sipped his wine, and then also leaned back, and said:
"I find you, take it all in all, Count Golm, less inclined to concur in our project than our correspondence had led me to believe."
"But is it our project?" cried the Count, rousing himself. "What does it signify to me if you want a harbour in the north instead of in the east? The railway will cut one of my properties in half, and come in contact with another. Voilà tout! I don't see why I should excite myself about that."
"We only want the northern harbour because we cannot get the eastern one," answered the Councillor coolly. "A harbour to the north might be conceded by the Government. As to one to the east--well, Count Golm, I think that after such very interesting explanations as you heard at your own table from the lips of the General and the President, we must give up any hope of it. Get the concession for the harbour to the east for us, and the Sundin-Wissow Railway Company will be formed to-morrow."
"How can I do so if you cannot, who are at the very fountain-head?"
The Councillor shrugged his shoulders.
"You know, Count Golm, that I no longer hold any office, and have only now and then to give an opinion; that I have not failed to do so on this side you will believe without my trying to convince you."
"And you have not been able to get the concession?"