Truda told him that he would have to go. When the Old Herr Baron asked for a thing it had to be given him. The only person who dared to disobey him was Fräulein Elsa, who was very brave, and a “hübsches Mädchen.”
Brand braced himself for the interview, but felt extremely nervous when Truda rapped at the drawing-room door, opened it and announced, in German,
“The English officer!”
The family von Kreuzenach was in full strength, obviously waiting for his arrival. The Baroness was in an evening gown of black silk showing her bare neck and arms. She was sitting stiffly in a high-backed chair by the piano, and was very handsome in her cold way.
Her husband, General von Kreuzenach, was pretending to read a book by the fireside. He was a tall, bald-headed, heavy-jowled man with a short white moustache. The ribbon of the Iron Cross was fastened to the top buttonhole of his frock-coat.
Elsa was sitting on a stool by his side, and on a low seat, with his back to the fire, was a tall young man with his left arm in a sling, whom Brand knew at once to be Franz von Kreuzenach, Eileen O’Connor’s friend.
When Brand came into the room, everybody rose in a formal, frightening way, and Elsa’s mother rose very graciously and, spoke to her husband.
“This, Baron, is Captain Brand, the English officer who is billeted in our house.”
The Baron bowed stiffly to Brand.
“I hope, sir, that my servants are attending to your needs in every way. I beg of you to believe that as an old soldier I wish to fulfil my duty as an officer and a gentleman, however painful the circumstances in which you find us.”