"Not quite!" replied the Staatsräthin with a smile. "You were trilling very gaily as you came along the Bergstrasse."
"Really, did you hear me?" asked Elsa in charming confusion. "My voice, then, was more fortunate than I,--it reached you sooner!"
"How is your wife?" the Staatsräthin inquired of Herbert.
"Thank you,--she is always the same. The constant spectacle of her sufferings, without the power to alleviate them, is almost too much for me."
The Staatsräthin looked compassionately at Herbert's sunken cheeks. "Poor Frau Herbert! and you too are greatly to be pitied!"
"I thank you for your sympathy,--it helps to lighten the burden of my anxiety on her account."
Elsa had not listened to this grave conversation; she had already joined the company, and the Staatsräthin followed with Herbert.
"A bat! a bat!" cried one of the younger gentlemen as Elsa approached, and he pointed to a bird just whirring past.
"You are severe," one of his brethren said to him in a low voice.
"Only look," whispered a third, "Herbert is as fine as usual in a dress coat. It is not fair to appear in full dress when he knows that by the rules of these meetings we are all to come in morning costume."