"You——" Frau von Seleneck gasped, and her eyes distended with unaffected horror. "Aber, du lieber Gott im Himmel!—you cannot mean what you say, you do not know——" she choked. "Es ist unmöglich!" she decided, as though addressing an unreasonable deity.
"I don't see why it is unmöglich," Nora said. "There is no purpose in calling on people whom I do not want to know. I told Wolff so."
"Ah, you have told your husband! And what did he say?"
Nora hesitated. She remembered now that Wolff had looked troubled, and the remembrance caused her a sudden uneasiness.
"He said I could do as I liked," she said slowly.
"Ah, the young husbands!" Frau von Seleneck threw up her hands. "What folly! It must not be. You must call on the Mayos—on everybody. You must not show that you hate or that you love. You must be the same to all—gracious, smiling—though you may want to scratch their eyes out. You must remember we are all comrades."
"Comrades! I do not want Frau von Mayo as a comrade!" Nora cried indignantly.
Frau von Seleneck bent forward, and her voice sank to a mysterious whisper.
"Nor do any of us. I tell you in secret—she is a hateful person. But we must not let her see—it is our duty to pretend."
"Why?" Nora demanded uncompromisingly.