"I hope not," Seleneck said, who was now busy with the gloves she had laid out for him. "No doubt you are too modest, and your English only needs a little polish to reach perfection. At any rate, you can but try, and, as far as I know, Frau von Arnim can help things along with her German. She has been in Karlsburg ever since May, and ought to have picked up something of the language."
"Oh, if it comes to that, I dare say I shall manage quite well," said Frau von Seleneck, who was secretly very proud of her English, "but I wish she were erne gute Deutsche. I can't think why Wolff married an Englishwoman. All English people are dreadful. I had an English governess who frightened me to death. At meal times she used to keep up a fire of unpleasant criticism, and glare at me as though I were a sort of heathen monstrosity. 'Elsa, don't bolt your food! You eat like a wolf! Your manners would disgrace a bricklayer!' I simply hated her, and I hate all English people. They are so rude and stiff and ungemtlich. One sees that they despise everybody except themselves, and one wonders how they manage it."
Her husband laughed good-naturedly.
"I don't think they are as bad as you paint them," he said. "I believe some of them are quite decent fellows, and Frau von Arnim is, I know, charming. At any rate, do your best to be agreeable; there's a kind soul. I expect she will feel rather forlorn at first."
Frau von Seleneck bridled with indignation.
"Of course I shall be agreeable! If she doesn't freeze me, I shall do everything I can to make her feel she is one of us. At least——" she hesitated, "I suppose she is one of us, isn't she? Who was she before she married Wolff?"
"My dear, if you knew you wouldn't be much the wiser," Seleneck said, preparing for departure. "English people are different. I believe it is quite an honour to marry a rich tea-merchant—or a rich anybody, for that matter. As far as I know, Frau von Arnim was a parson's daughter, and quite good family. The fact that Wolff married her and has been able to stay in the Army is guarantee enough."
Elsa von Seleneck looked relieved.
"Of course!" she said. "How stupid of me! Well, I shall go and see what I can do to help her. I expect she is in frightful trouble with her servants. I know I am."
She accompanied her husband to the door of their flat, brushed an imaginary speck of dust off his uniform, kissed him and rushed to the window to wave him a last farewell as he rode off down the quiet street. Until eleven o'clock she busied herself with her household matters, then arrayed herself in her best clothes and set off on the proposed voyage of discovery.