“Not so far, father,” she answered, with a laugh, and she introduced Von Tressen, who had been the object of his rather suspicious scrutiny.
The accident was related and the Lieutenant’s apologies accepted not ungraciously; the Count, who had dismounted and led his horse up the ascent to the house, standing in silence with his lips drawn back in the inevitable smile. At length he spoke, and it was to the purpose.
“The Herr Lieutenant has most kindly offered to ride into Kulhausen for a doctor to see Fräulein Philippa’s hand. Dare one suggest that the sooner it is professionally examined the better it will be?”
“There is no hurry; it hardly pains at all,” the girl protested.
For an instant the expression on the Count’s sharp face was not a pretty one. But he replied merely by a shrug of mingled protest and annoyance.
“Certainly. I am going at once,” Von Tressen said, watching the girl’s face involuntarily for a sign. “I only came so far, sir,” he added to Harlberg, “at the desire of the Fräulein, who was good enough to express a wish to present me to you.”
“But how will you get to Kulhausen?” Harlberg asked, with what seemed to the young man a rather too suggestive glance at the Count’s horse.
Anyhow Zarka accepted it with some alacrity. “If the Lieutenant will honour me by making use of my horse, it will be the quickest way, and I shall be only too charmed.”
As he turned to the animal to bring him over, Von Tressen instinctively glanced at the girl. She was biting her lip, and as their eyes met she gave a little, almost imperceptible, shake of the head.
“The Herr Lieutenant,” she said, “tells us he also has a horse close by. If he is kind enough to ride over to Kulhausen it would be perhaps a pity to deprive the Count of his means of getting home.”