'Yes, allowance,' my lady answered firmly. 'There was every need.'
'You would have me drink nothing, I suppose?' he said fretting and fuming.
'I would rather you drank nothing than too much,' she replied. 'Because a German and a drunkard have come to mean the same thing, is that a reason for deepening the reproach? For shame, Rupert!'
'You treat me like a boy!' he cried bitterly. And I thought that she was hard on him.
'Well, you have only yourself to thank,' she retorted cruelly, 'if I do. You behave like a boy. And I do not like to have to blush for my friends.'
That cut him deeply. He uttered a half-stifled cry of anger and reined in his horse. 'You have said enough,' he said, speaking thickly. 'You shall have no farther cause to blush in my case. I will relieve you.' And on the instant, with a low bow, he turned his horse's head and rode down the column towards the rear, leaving my lady to go on alone.
I confess I thought that she had been hard on him; perhaps she thought so too, now he was gone. And here were the beginnings of a pretty quarrel. But I did not guess the direction it was likely to take, until a horseman spurred quickly by me, and in a moment General Tzerclas, his velvet cloak hanging at his shoulder, had taken the Waldgrave's place, and with his head bent low over his horse's neck was talking to my lady. I saw him indicate this and that quarter with his gauntleted hand. I could fancy that this was Cassel, and that Frankfort, and another his camp, and that he was proposing plans and routes. But what he said I could not hear. He had a low, quiet way of talking, very characteristic of him, which flattered those to whom he addressed himself and baffled others.
And this, I suppose, it was that made me suspicious. For the longer I rode behind him and the more I considered him, the less I liked both him and the prospect. He was in the prime of his age and strength, inferior to the Waldgrave in height and the air of youth, but superior in that which the other lacked--the bearing of a man of the world, tried by good and evil fortune, and versed in many perils. Cool and resolute, handsome in a hard-bitten fashion, gifted, as I guessed, with infinite address, he possessed much to take the fancy of a woman; particularly of such a one as my lady, long used to comfort, and now learning in ill-fortune the value of a strong arm.
The possibility of such an alliance, thus suddenly thrust on my notice, chilled me. Anything, I said, rather than that. The Waldgrave had not left his post five minutes before I began to think of him with longing, before I began to invest him with all manner of virtues. At least, he was a German, of a great and noble family, tied to the soil, and fettered in his dealings by a hundred traditions; while this man riding before me possessed not one of these qualities!
Von Werder's warning, which the loss of Marie Wort's necklace had driven from my mind for a time, recurred with double force now, and did not tend to reassure me. I listened with all my might, trying to learn whether my lady was pledging herself to any course, for I knew that if she once promised I should find it hard to move her. But I could not catch a syllable, and presently there came an interruption which diverted my thoughts.