“But you know, sir,” said the gentle voice of the steward, “that the baroness, when she is at home, is always at this hour in the reception-room, and receives her visitors here without any previous announcement.”
“That only proves that the baroness receives her visitors in another room to-day,” shouted the voice of Baron Weichs. “I know positively that there is a visitor with the baroness at this very moment. Go, then, and announce my visit. It remains for the baroness to turn me away, and I shall know then that the baroness prefers to remain alone with the gentleman who is with her at the present time.”
“Ah, this prebendary, it seems, is growing impudent,” exclaimed the prince, with flashing eyes, walking toward the door.
The baroness seized his hand and kept him back. “Pay no attention to him,” she said, imploringly; “let my steward settle this quarrel with that insolent man. Just listen! he is even now begging him quite politely, yet decidedly, to leave the room.”
“And that fellow is shameless enough to decline doing so,” said the prince. “Oh, hear his scornful laughter! This laughter is an insult, for which he ought to be chastised.”
And as if the words of the prince were to be followed immediately by the deed, a third voice was heard now in the reception-room. It asked in a proud and angry tone, “What is the matter here? And who permits himself to shout so indecently in the reception-room of the baroness?”
“Ah, it is my husband,” whispered Fanny, with an air of great relief. “He will show that overbearing Baron Weichs the door, and I shall get rid of him forever.”
“He has already dared, then, to importune you?” asked the prince, turning his threatening eyes toward the door. “Oh, I will release you from further molestation by this madman, for I tell you the gentle words of your husband will not be able to do so. Baron Weichs is not the man to lend a willing ear to sensible remonstrances or to the requirements of propriety and decency. He has graduated at the high-school of libertinism, and any resistance whatever provokes him to a passionate struggle in which he shrinks from no manifestation of his utter recklessness. Well, am I not right? Does he not even dare to defy your husband? Just listen!”
“I regret not to be able to comply with your request to leave this room,” shouted now the voice of the prebendary, Baron Weichs. “You said yourself just now, baron, that we were in the reception-room of the baroness; accordingly, you are not the master here, but merely a visitor like the rest of us. Consequently, you have no right to show anybody the door, particularly as you do not even know whether you belong to the privileged visitors of the lady, or whether the baroness will admit you.”
“I shall take no notice of the unbecoming and insulting portion of your remarks, baron,” said the calm voice of Baron Arnstein; “I only intend at this moment to protect my wife against insult and molestation. Now it is insulting assuredly that a cavalier, after being told that the lady to whom he wishes to pay his respects is either not at home or will not receive any visitors, should refuse to withdraw, and insist upon being admitted. I hope the prebendary, Baron Weichs, after listening to this explanation, will be kind enough to leave the reception-room.”