"Everything. I shall work at these plans as long as possible, and if I get them finished I shall take them to Colonel von Beck before I come to you. If not, I shall leave them locked in here and bring you the key. If anything happens to me, you will know where to find them. They are of some importance, and I would be grateful if you would see to it that they are taken at once to head-quarters."
"Pray Heaven you may be able to take them yourself!" Seleneck returned earnestly.
Wolff made no answer, but he straightened his shoulders and held out a steady hand.
"In any case, thank you for your friendship, Kurt," he said. "It has been the best—no, almost the best thing in my life."
That loyal correction touched the elder man profoundly, and for the first time a faint trace of emotion relaxed Wolff's set features.
"Do not let my wife suspect that anything serious has passed between us," he added. "She suffers enough."
The two men embraced, and Seleneck went out of the room with his brows knitted in bitter, painful lines. He did not wish to see Wolff's wife, much less speak with her, but she was still seated by the table, and as he entered she rose as though she had been waiting for him. She did not offer him her hand, and in spite of all his resolutions he felt that the enmity and distrust were in his eyes as he waited for her to speak.
"Has anything happened?" she asked breathlessly.
If he could have forgotten his friend's face, he might have pitied her in that moment. Only a few months had passed since he had welcomed the girlish bride on the Karlsburg platform, and now all the girlhood had gone. She looked old as she stood there—pitiably old, because the age lay only in the expression, which was bitter, miserable, and reckless.
"What should have happened, gnädige Frau?" Seleneck answered, parrying her question with an indifference which concealed a very real anxiety. He could not free himself from the conviction that she knew. He could not imagine it possible that she was ignorant of the consequences of the last night's catastrophe.