As the pastor's words ceased, he covered his head, greeted him by a silent movement of the hand, and slowly entered the quiet, simple building, which protected the last rest of his parents.
CHAPTER VI.
[AN ERRING METEOR].
In the boudoir of the house in the Ringstrasse, where Lieutenant von Stielow had repaired after Count Mensdorff's soirée, the same wonderfully beautiful woman who had received him with such glowing passion lay stretched upon a couch.
She wore a pearl-grey morning dress with light rose-coloured ribbons, and a white lace handkerchief surrounded the fine oval of her face, and nearly concealed her glossy hair.
The morning sun streamed through the window hangings of her very elegantly furnished room. The reflections that played over her face at every movement were most becoming to the young lady's extreme loveliness, and apparently she knew it, for she glanced from time to time at a round mirror, which was so placed on the opposite wall as to show nearly the whole of her form, and she was careful not to withdraw the dark red cushion on which her head lightly rested, from the softened sunbeams.
Her features did not wear the enchanting expression of softness and enthusiasm with which she had received Lieutenant von Stielow; an icy coldness rested on her face, and a look of scorn played round the beautiful lips, which were slightly parted and showed her white teeth to be firmly closed.
Before her stood a man of about thirty, dressed with a much greater adherence to fashion than is usual amongst persons of real distinction. His features were not ugly, but they were common, and his appearance betokened a dissipated man of the second or perhaps third rank of society.
This man, who accorded so ill with the really elegant arrangements of the boudoir, and still less with the graceful and æsthetic beauty of the young lady installed there, was her husband, the merchant and exchange agent, Balzer.
The conjugal tête-à-tête did not appear to be of an agreeable nature, for the husband's face bore evident traces of anger and scornful irony.