“Little Helene? Is it all settled?”
“They have not told her yet, but I can’t help thinking that she begins to perceive the truth. There is a look in her eyes——”
“But why doesn’t the Grand-Duchess break it to her, and let her have time to get accustomed to the idea?”
“She is afraid. The child has such a horror of Ivan Petrovitch that Adelheid thinks it would nearly kill her. She has always been so delicate, you know.”
“But it will be much worse, surely, if it comes upon her suddenly?”
“So I should think, but I can see that Adelheid is afraid both of Ivan Petrovitch and her husband. Ludwig is bent upon the marriage. He has never cared very much for Helene; she has always been her mother’s child. And he thinks he sees the romantic strain coming out in her.”
“No doubt of that, I should say. It is really curious how it reappears once or twice in a generation.”
“Yes; and Ludwig can never forget his cousin Ernest Albrecht, who died long ago. He was originally intended to marry Adelheid, you know, but they allowed him, after years of waiting, to resign his rank and betroth himself to dear Sister Chriemhild at Brutli. Ludwig is determined never to allow anything of the kind while he is head of the family.”
“Still, he might find the girl a more attractive husband of her own rank than that unspeakable Scythian. Has the Grand-Duchess pointed that out to him?”
“Ah, but Ivan Petrovitch is also determined upon the match. I hope I don’t misjudge him, Cyril—or rather I hope I do, for Helene’s sake—but it seems to me that he sees the child’s horror of him, and enjoys it. It gives him actual pleasure to play upon her sensitive nature, and watch the torture it inflicts upon her.”