“I must have other witnesses to this transaction,” she said.
Again she rang the bell. Riki darted blue fire of indignation towards me. I did not speak; I believe I looked a greater culprit than she did at this moment.
“Request Mademoiselle Wrex and Fräulein Schumacher to come here immediately,” said the Baroness, her tone now one of great imperiousness. The servant withdrew, and the French and German governesses made their appearance. The Baroness handed the letter in question to each in turn.
“Do not speak,” she said; “I only want you to witness exactly what will immediately take place.—Comtesse, will you have the goodness to tell me the name of the individual who calls himself Heinrich?”
Silence on the part of the Comtesse.
“If there is such reluctance to your making a full confession of your disgraceful conduct, I shall be forced to send a telegram to your father, the Count Kronenfel, and request him to attend here in order that he may take his daughter away in disgrace from my establishment.”
This threat had a due effect on Riki, and she now, in a very nervous voice, confessed that the name of the youth who called himself Heinrich was Holgarten. Further investigation proved that Holgarten was a boy at a large school near Riki’s native place, that he and she had met two or three times, and that the idea of a correspondence had started between them. She did not wish, she said, to enter into a forced marriage. Here she burst into tears.
“It is not the English way,” she said.
“And pray, Comtesse, what have you to do with the English way? You are a German girl.”
“I—I love Heinrich,” she said.