The baron paused all at once and looked at his wife with a surprised and inquiring glance. She had started in sudden terror; a deep blush was burning on her cheeks, and her eyes, which had assumed a rapturous and enthusiastic expression, turned toward the door.
The baron’s eyes followed her glance, and he heard now a slight noise at the door.
“I believe somebody has knocked at the door,” he said, fixing his piercing eyes on his wife. She raised her head and whispered, “Yes, I believe so.”
“And it is the second time already,” said the baron, calmly. “Will you not permit the stranger to walk in?”
“I do not know,” she said, in great embarrassment, “I—”
Suddenly the door opened, and a young man appeared on the threshold.
“Ah, the Prince von Lichtenstein,” said the baron, and he went with perfect calmness and politeness to meet the prince who, evidently in great surprise, remained standing in the door, and was staring gloomily at the strange and unexpected group.
“Come in, my dear sir,” said the baron, quietly; “the baroness will be very grateful to you for coming here just at this moment and interrupting our conversation, for it referred to dry business matters. I laid a few old accounts, that had been running for five years, before the baroness, and she gave me a receipt for them, that was all. Our interview, moreover, was at an end, and you need not fear to have disturbed us. Permit me, therefore, to withdraw, for you know very well that, in the forenoon, I am nothing but a banker, a business man, and have to attend to the affairs of our firm.”
He bowed simultaneously to the prince and to his wife, and left the room, as smiling, calm, and unconcerned as ever. Only when the door had closed behind him, when he had satisfied himself by a rapid glance through the reception-room that nobody was there, the smile disappeared from his lips, and his features assumed an air of profound melancholy.
“She loves him,” he muttered; “yes, she loves him! Her hand trembled in mine when I pronounced his name, and oh! how radiant she looked when she heard him come! Yes, she loves him, and I?—I will go to my counting-house!” he said, with a smile that was to veil the tears in his eyes.