"As madame pleases," replied the servant.
"Open!" cried the countess, and a third groom, who had been waiting for this order, threw open the double gates of the court-yard, letting in a flood of morning sun-light. All reared beneath his lovely burden, as if he would soar with her into the clouds, but a quick cut from her whip somewhat cooled his Pegasus ardour, and he sprang forward, almost running over a servant, who had not moved aside quite quickly enough, and gained the street. Here, however, his mistress reined him in.
"The dogs!" she called.
The servants all hurried into the court-yard, and a frightful noise was heard. The barking, howling pack came rushing from their kennels, and leaped around their mistress with all the signs of delight that their mad gambols can evince. And now a wild race began. Away tore the Arabian, tossing the foam from his mouth. As he flew rather than galloped along, he tossed back his head, pointed his ears, and distended his nostrils, striving to outstrip the yelling pack at his heels. The beautiful hounds followed hard behind, in long leaps. The servants stood grouped about the gateway, looking after their mistress.
"Aha," muttered the chief among them to himself, "she is turning into the Bergstrasse. The dogs must waken Professor Möllner again, and bring him to the window."
But the bearded old Russian observed sadly, "She'll break her neck some day."
Peaceful, and buried in slumber, lay the quiet little town. The windows,--eyes of the houses,--were closed, as were those of their inmates; but, as the countess dashed by in her mad career, one after another was opened, a curtain drawn aside here and there, and a sleepy, curious face appeared.
The countess laughed at the crop of night-capped heads which her ride past their windows suddenly caused to appear. The warm-blooded Arabian shivered beneath her in the fresh, dewy morning air, and she felt its bracing breath colour her cheek. "What a miserable race is this, that spends such hours in bed! They rise only when the smoke from the chimneys and the weary sighs of labourers have thickened the air. That is the atmosphere for their delicate lungs! They are afraid of the cold breeze of dawn!"
She passed by Herbert's dwelling, and, with a vigorous stroke of her whip, excited her dogs to a more furious barking. How should she know that his invalid wife, in that upper chamber, had just fallen into a refreshing slumber after a wakeful night of pain, a slumber from which the noise aroused her to a day of suffering?
Here, too, a curtain was drawn aside, and Elsa's dream-encircled head peeped out.