Lemde wished very much to offer his arm to Sara, but, looking furtively at her, decided with a sigh not to venture, and turned instead to Emily Leigh, the other English girl, who immediately put her hand within his arm, and tripped after Frau von Trockenau with the utmost cheerfulness. Sara followed, dignified and solitary. It was Jerome Wellfield who handed her into the carriage.
‘Also—bis Morgen!’ said the countess, bowing, and waving her hand as they drove away. Wellfield and Hans Lemde were left alone.
‘Are you going to the party to-morrow?’ asked Wellfield.
‘I? certainly. I go to all Frau von Trockenau’s parties.’
‘That shows your good taste,’ replied Jerome, gravely, raising his hat and wishing him good-evening; and then, after another look after the carriage as it drove rapidly away down the Nassau Road, he turned and sauntered slowly along the road towards the hotel of the Vier Jahreszeiten, where Mr. Wellfield and his family were staying.
CHAPTER II.
FRAU VON TROCKENAU’S ‘GESELLSCHAFT.’
The Count and Countess of Trockenau were both young, rich, and what their countrymen call lebenslustig, a word for which we have no equivalent shorter than a well-rounded sentence of explanation.