Johan, who had followed, supervised the examination that was made of Guido’s pockets and clothes with a benign air. When certain that he had no papers concealed about him, he withdrew, saying:
“Good-night, my young friend. Next time, don’t try any tricks.”
He added to himself:
“He said he had the proofs of a great secret. Either he has lied like an idiot, or he has been cautious, like a man that understands business; but he was not cautious enough. So much the worse for him. A small dose of imprisonment will fetch either the proofs or the confession.”
Meanwhile the baron, although in great physical pain, quietly entered the supper-room, ate a little with an air of appetite, and was as gay as it was in his nature to be. That is, he stated, with an icy smile, sundry propositions of a frightfully atheistical kind, and indulged in various odious and cruel insinuations about sundry persons who were absent.
When calumniating his neighbors, it was the practice of this amiable gentleman to speak in a low voice, and with an air of indifference; but, on such occasions, his heirs and flatterers were only too ready to repeat his witty sayings with much noise and laughter. As was natural, many persons present would be shocked by these remarks; but, by accepting their host’s invitation, they had put it out of their power to contradict him boldly, and such timid defence of the absent as they ventured upon only served, as a matter of course, to make their case the worse. The baron would repeat his remarks with an air of disdainful bravado, and would be eagerly sustained by his satellites. Those of his guests who were really right-minded could only sigh and blush at their own weakness in having allowed themselves to be dragged into such an ogre’s den. But the master of the house never protracted any discussion. After hurling some bitter sarcasm at good-natured and timid people, he would rise and go out, leaving it quite uncertain as to whether or not he intended to return. A universal sense of constraint would prevail, until it became evident that he was not going to return, and then everybody would take breath, even his most unscrupulous dependents, who were quite as uneasy in his presence as the rest of the company.
On this evening, however, Baron Olaus lost a good opportunity of revenging himself, and inflicting pain upon another. Had he known of Margaret’s two visits to Stollborg, he would not have failed to proclaim the fact in some bitterly satirical way. Fortunately, Providence had guarded the young girl’s innocent secret. Her enemy, who would have read in her conduct conclusive proofs that the counterfeit Goefle was at Stollborg, had not received the slightest hint on the subject. Johan had caused Ulphilas to be closely questioned about all the persons who had visited the old tower in the course of the day; but Ulphilas had not seen Margaret, and he had a sufficient reason for making a singularly appropriate reply to all inquiries about Christian’s appearance; to wit, the terror with which he had been inspired by the young man’s grimaces and threats in an unknown tongue. To Ulphilas he had appeared even more frightful without a mask than he had seemed to Johan with one; the assertions of the boor satisfied the major-domo that his opinion was correct, and led him to confirm the baron in his error. The result of the investigation was, therefore, that the handsome Christian Goefle had disappeared, and that the real Christian Waldo was a monster.
The baron communicated this latter piece of intelligence to the party at the supper-table with a kind of satisfaction; for, just as he came in, they were praising the artist, and he found a certain pleasure in dissipating an agreeable illusion.
“You ought not to spoil his beauty in the eyes of Countess Margaret, baron,” said Olga, “she was enthusiastic over his delivery, and now I wager anything that she will not take the least pleasure in listening to him.”
Margaret, who was seated near Olga and the baron, pretended not to hear, so that she need not be obliged to answer, in case the latter should seek to enter into conversation with her, as he had already tried in vain to do several times since the previous evening.