'I understand you,' the Countess burst out. 'Did the Count Moszynski tell you to spy on me?'
At that moment the rustling of a silk dress was heard, and a lady who a few minutes previously had entered the room and slipped behind a Chinese screen, came slowly to the centre of the room.
Watzdorf was struck dumb with amazement. There was something so unusual in the apparition that even the Countess trembled.
The lady was tall and not young; her gaze was piercing; her mien majestic; her face beautiful notwithstanding her age; she was dressed so strangely that one might have thought she was mad. She wore a large gown, bordered with galoons. The girdle worn on the dress underneath was golden with black cabalistic signs; on her black hair she wore a kind of turban with a band made of parchment inscribed with Hebrew letters, the ends of the band hanging over her shoulders.
She looked piercingly at the intruder, frowned contemptuously, and said severely:
'What do you wish for here? Did you come to spy on my daughter and her mother in order to entertain the Prince by telling him that you have seen the old Cosel? You son of "the pagan and buffoon from Mansfeld," do you intend to annoy me also? Get out! Let us alone!'
She pointed to the door. Watzdorf, confused, retreated. His eyes shone angrily--he went out. Cosel followed him with her eyes, then she turned to her daughter.
It was not her day for her visit from Stolpen, and this time the Countess Moszynski did not expect her. Thinking that Brühl when he saw Watzdorf go out would return, she grew confused. The Countess Cosel sat on the chair previously occupied by Brühl. After having driven off the intruder she became almost absent-minded as she struck the table with her white and still beautiful hand and gazed round the room.
'I came unexpectedly,' she said at length, not looking at her daughter, 'but you permitted me to receive people here whom I wished to see. I asked the minister to come here.'
Moszynski's face expressed surprise.