She started and sprang up, Möllner was approaching her across the lawn.
"Oh, no, these are not tears, only the dews of evening," she lisped, drying her eyes.
Möllner looked at her with pity. "Poor creature," he thought, "it is not your fault that nature has proved such a step-mother to you, and that your brother's distorted views of education have made you ridiculous, and even deprived you of the sympathy that you deserve."
He offered her his arm. "Come, my dear Fräulein Elsa!" he said kindly, "I am sent to bring you in. Thanks to Fräulein von Hartwich, you are spared the mystification that was contemplated for you."
"How so?" asked Elsa, who, upon Möllner's arm, felt like a vine nailed against the wall.
"Fräulein Ernestine was requested to exchange dresses with Frau Taun, whose hair is also black, and both were to wear masks, in order to deceive you. The younger portion of the company so insisted upon it that I could not prevent it. But Fräulein von Hartwich, convinced that you were not so secure in your art as to be impregnable to deceit, refused so obstinately to do what was asked of her that the assemblage fairly broke up in disappointment."
Elsa was silent from shame. She knew that she could not have come off victorious from such a trial. She had depended upon easily distinguishing individuals by their hair, and it had not occurred to her that Frau Taun's hair was of the same colour as Ernestine's. And yet, glad as she was to be thus relieved, she was humiliated at having afforded her enemy an opportunity for such a display of magnanimity in her behalf.
"You will make a trial of your skill some time when we are more alone, will you not?" asked Möllner in the tone one uses to comfort a child.
"Yes, if you desire it, and if you would allow me to subject your own magnificent head----"
Her voice trembled with emotion as she preferred this bold request.