"Rohritz--aha!--we all thought him an extinct volcano. I, notoriously reserved as I am, permitted myself to tease him slightly now and then, thinking him entirely harmless. And now, now I find him in the yellow drawing-room, tête-à-tête with Stella, both her hands in his, gazing into her lifted eyes, deep in a flirtation,--a flirtation à l'Américaine,--quite beyond what is permissible. Really perilous!"
"If you thought the situation perilous for Stella, I really do not understand why you did not interrupt the tête-à-tête," says Katrine, severely.
"It was no affair of mine," Stasy replies. "How was I to know that so sentimental an interview would not end in an offer of marriage? Improbable, to be sure, for Rohritz is too cautious for that,--even although he allows himself on a summer afternoon to be so far carried away as to kiss the hand of a pretty girl in a tête-à-tête with her."
Her eyes sparkling with anger, the Baroness hurries into the castle and up-stairs to the drawing-room.
"Stella, what are you about here? Have you nothing to do? Come with me!"
In terror Stella follows her mother as she strides on to their apartments. There the Baroness closes the door behind her, and, seizing her daughter by the arm, says,--
"Must I endure the disgrace of having my child conduct herself so shamelessly in a strange house that strangers inform me that she is flirting à l'Américaine with young men?"
"I, mother! I----" exclaims Stella, her eyes riveted upon her mother's angry face. "But I assure you---- Mother, mother, how can you say such dreadful things to me?" And the girl bursts out sobbing. "It is Stasy that has accused me. How can you attach any importance to what she says?"
"No matter what Stasy says. Your conduct is extraordinary."
"But, mother, mother----"