"Walk so that you can be heard--I don't like to have my servants glide about like spies, remember that!"
"At Princess Hohenstein's we were all obliged to wear felt slippers. Her Highness could not endure any noise."
"Well I have better nerves than Princess Hohenstein."--
"And apparently a worse conscience," muttered the maid, who had not failed to notice her mistress' confusion.
"May I ask once more about the evening toilette?"
"Street costume--I shall not go to the theatre, I will drive out to the estates. Order Martin to have the carriage ready."
The maid withdrew.
The countess felt as if she were in a fever--must that inquisitive maid see her in such a condition? It seemed as though she was surrounded like a hunted animal, as though eyes were everywhere watching her.
There was something in the woman's look which had irritated her. Oh, God, had matters gone so far--must she fear the glance of her own maid?
Up and away to nature and her child, to her poor neglected husband on the cliff.