Herr von Stielow glanced at the paper.
A deep blush overspread his face.
He ran his eyes hastily over the writing, then casting his eyes on the ground, he said:
"I do not know how this letter came here, yet I thought, from a few words Clara once said, that she knew of an error into which I fell: I thought that in spite of the past she gave me her heart, and I cannot understand----"
Clara rose and looked at him with flaming eyes.
"In spite of the past!" she cried; "yes, because I believed your word, that all this past was at an end; I did not know that this past was to share my present!"
"But, my God!" exclaimed Herr von Stielow, looking at her with great surprise, "I do not understand; how can this old letter----"
"An old letter?" said the Countess Frankenstein severely, "it is a week old."
"It bears the date of your last letter to me!" cried Clara.
Herr von Stielow looked at the paper with amazement.