"This is an unexpected meeting, Baroness," von Sternburg said, in English.
"Why have you come?" she asked, in the same hoarse but articulate whisper.
"As I told Fr-riedrich, Baedeker brought me. I had no idea that I was to have the pleasure of seeing him again among these mountains, much less, you."
"You two men must have had an enormous amount to say to each other," said Mrs. Carroll. "John, give Hilda that large chair. The surprise of seeing Baron von Sternburg has been too much for her."
Hilda sank into the offered seat, and von Sternburg placed himself beside her. He fitted his clothes to the cracking-point, and he had the lack of impressiveness that goes with rotundity. Yet it was clear that he felt himself to have the whip-hand of the situation, and Hilda's manner acknowledged it.
Across the room the others were talking together, though von Rittenheim was not without preoccupation.
"You don't seem glad to see me," von Sternburg said, in German.
Hilda ignored his opening.
"I suppose you have told Friedrich everything," she said at once, in a tone dull with the chagrin of defeated hope.
"Yes," replied von Sternburg, "I think I have."