Eloise snatched flowers from the flower-beds as we passed them, and pelted the drummer with them as he marched before us; and so we went, a gallant company, through the garden, past the running man, and under the forest trees, the echoes and the bluejays answering to the drum.
My father, the Countess Feliciani, our host, and a number of ladies and gentlemen were in the garden. They laughed as we marched away; and when the shadow of the trees took us they forgot us, I suppose, and the pretty picture we must have made.
* * * * *
Scarcely twenty minutes could have elapsed when screams from the wood drew their startled attention, and out from the trees came Carl, dripping with water, without his drum, running, and screaming as he ran.
After him ran Eloise and I.
"He tried to drown me in the lake in the wood!" screamed Carl, clasping the knees of his father, who had run to meet him, and looking back at me. "He tried to drown me; he did it before—he did it before! Save me from him, father, father! Father! Father!"
Baron Lichtenberg's face, as he clasped the child, was turned on me. He was white as little Carl, and I shall never forget his expression.
"Did you try to drown my child?" he said. And he spoke as though he were speaking to a man.
Before I could reply Eloise struck in: