Going to the window he saw it was the princess's carriage.
Returning quickly to the young girl, who was looking with a frown, as if feeling a jealous presentiment, at the portrait of the stranger, he said to her:
"My little Sarah, if you are a dear, good little thing, you will go now. Here are visitors, and they had better not see so pretty a girl as you here."
"Why so?" replied the model, coldly. "Do Carolus and Henner send me away when visitors come?"
"I am not sending you away. I only ask you simply—"
It was too late.
There was a knock at the door, and, without waiting for an answer, the person came in.
It was the Princess Olsdorf.
At first she did not see Sarah, and was on the point of running to Paul, but, catching sight of this young girl, whose great black eyes were fixed on her with a strange look, Lise at once felt instinctively that she was in presence of a rival.
A complete change came over her face. The mistress was lost in the great lady as she said in a patronizing and ironical tone of voice.