'If Egon were here——'
'Oh, poor Egon! I think he would not like your friend at all. They both want to shoot eagles——'
'Perhaps he would not like him for another reason,' said the Princess, with a look of mystery. 'Egon could never make the spinet speak.'
'No; but who knows? Perhaps he can take better care of his own soul because he cannot lend one to a spinet!'
'You are perverse, Wanda!'
'Perverse, inhospitable, and ill-natured? I fear I shall carry a heavy burden of sins to Father Ferdinand in the morning!'
'I wish you would not send horses to S. Johann in the morning. We never have anything to amuse us in this solemn solitary place.'
'Dear aunt, one would think you were very indiscreet.'
'I wish you were more so!' said the pretty old lady with impatience, and then her hand made a sign over the cross of emeralds, for she knew that she had uttered an unholy wish. She kissed her niece with repentant tenderness, and went to her own apartments.
Wanda von Szalras, left alone in her chamber, stood awhile thoughtfully beside the fire; then she moved away and touched the yellow ivory of the spinet keys.