To reach Wolff's study it was necessary to pass through the drawing-room. On his way, therefore, Captain von Seleneck encountered Nora, who was seated at her table writing. He bowed, she answered with a slight inclination of the head and he passed on, as a total stranger might have done, into the inner sanctuary.
He found Wolff at work on some nearly finished plans. He was standing over them, and with a compass measuring distances with a careful, painstaking exactitude, and his face, as he looked up, though haggard almost beyond belief, was absolutely determined, without trace of weakness.
The two men shook hands and Wolff went on working.
"It was good of you to come, Kurt," he said. "I know you must be overburdened with duty just now."
"One has always time for a comrade, and especially for you," was the answer; "and whether you had sent for me or not, I should have come—like a bird of ill-omen. I felt I owed it to you as your friend, and you would rather have it from me than from another man. It seems, though, you know all about last night?"
"Quite enough."
"It was a wretched affair," Seleneck said, placing his helmet on the table. "I got it from an eye-witness. Of course, your precious brother-in-law had had too much to drink. That was inevitable, and might have been hushed up. But then came the row with Bauer. It was obvious that Bauer was on the look-out for mischief, and I should like to give Mr. Ingestre the credit for knocking him down as a return for what he said about your wife. Unfortunately, the real subject of dispute was—money."
Wolff nodded.
"How did you hear of it?" he asked.
"Ebberstein came straight to me. It was rather decent of him. He knew, of course, that I was your friend, and the best person to tell you what had happened. It was obvious that you had to be told. You see—it was not only your brother-in-law. Your—wife's name and—and honour were dragged in."