"Very well, Duval. Go, for the guests will be corning."
The steward went, and the pair looked at each other in anxious silence.
Both were pale, both were frightened.
"What can it mean? What can it mean?" faltered the countess.
"What can it mean?" echoed the count, and he stared, for again he thought that he saw his mother's shadow darkening the splendor of those princely halls, whose lights were flickering as though they were about to be extinguished and leave the guilty accomplices in irretrievable darkness.
"Arabella, something threatens us!" whispered Podstadsky.
"Nonsense! Our guests are arriving." said she, rallying "Cour age, Carl, courage! A smooth brow and bright smile for the aristocratic world, Count Podstadsky!"
The doors opened, and crowds of splendid women, accompanied by their cavaliers, floated in toward the lady patroness, who received them all with bewitching grace, and won all hearts by her affability.
CHAPTER CLI.
THE TWO OATHS.
"Already, beloved? Think that for three long weeks I have not seen you, Gunther! It is so early: no one misses me in the house, for my father returns from his bank at nine only. Who knows when we shall meet again?"