"Mariska, open the door!"
The wife hastened to embrace her husband, admitted him, fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses; but, perceiving suddenly that the kisses her husband gave her back were quite cold, and that his arm trembled when he embraced her, she looked anxiously at his face—it was grave and full of anxiety.
"My husband!" cried the unusually sensitive woman with a shaky voice. "Why do you embrace me—us, so coldly," her downcast eyes seemed to say.
The Prince did not fail to notice the expression, and very sadly, and sighing slightly, he said:
"So much the worse for me!"
His hands, his whole frame shook so in the arms of his wife; and yet the Prince was a muscular as well as a brave man.
"What has happened? What is the matter?" asked his wife anxiously.
"Nothing," said the Prince, kissing her forehead. "Be quiet. Lie down. I have some business to do which must be done to-night. Then I'll come to you, and we'll talk about things."
Mariska took him at his word, and lay down again. But she still trembled—why, she knew not.
There must be something wrong, something very wrong with her husband, or else he would not have welcomed his wife so coldly at the very moment of his arrival.