The Eichhofs Part 20

He paced his room to and fro in some agitation, then consulted the paper for the list of names of new arrivals, among which he had already seen Mohazy's address, and, after re-reading it, tossed the paper aside and ordered his carriage.

Half an hour later a servant handed Herr von Mohazy the Count's card.

Herr von Mohazy was wont to rise about noon, and was therefore still wrapped in his silken Turkish dressing-gown when his unexpected visitor was announced. As the visitor followed close upon his card, there was nothing for it but to prepare for his reception as best he might by tightening the silken cord and ta.s.sels around his waist.

"Excessively delighted to see you. Quite an unexpected honour," he called out, as Bernhard hastily entered the room and closed the door behind him; "but I must beg you to excuse this." And he indicated his brilliant habiliments.

"I have a very special reason for my visit, Herr von Mohazy," Bernhard replied curtly, without accepting an offered seat. "You asked yesterday for a lady who is held in high esteem in society here. I know that you had certain relations with this lady, which, by a monstrous deceit, as you know, you----"

"Sir!"

"I am ready to answer for my words,--which relations you established by a monstrous deceit."

"I must pray you to use less violent language!"

"I must pray you to hear me out!" Bernhard said, in a raised voice, and with flas.h.i.+ng eyes. "From what you said yesterday, I cannot but suppose that you intend to compromise this lady, and to destroy the peace of a happy home."

"Not an idea of anything of the kind," Herr von Mohazy calmly remarked.

But Bernhard had grown so eager in his part of chivalrous defender that he neither heard nor heeded.

"I am come to you now to give you an opportunity of leaving Berlin this very day, if you would not be so insulted by me as to make a hostile meeting between us inevitable."

Herr von Mohazy was speechless for a moment, staring by turns at Bernhard's tall, threatening figure, as it stood between him and the door, and at a singular object which the young man had taken out as he spoke, and which strongly resembled a braided leather riding-whip.

Bernhard's eyes were riveted upon him, and the singular object quivered meanwhile in his hand. But Herr von Mohazy was not bewildered for longer than a second, and, putting the entire length of the table between Bernhard and himself, he suddenly threw back his head and burst into a fit of laughter.

"Delicious!" he cried. "But, my dear Herr von Eichhof, all this could have been arranged very much more comfortably. I think your Berlin so insupportably tedious that I should certainly have left it to-day or to-morrow, and because I find it all so tiresome, I thought it might possibly have amused me to see that lady again; although, I a.s.sure you, she is far too indifferent to me to make it worth while to run the risk of a bullet or a sabre-cut for a sight of her. I am rejoiced to learn that she has found so devoted a friend in you. I--ha! ha!--I--'tis so excellent a joke that it more than atones to me for not seeing her again. A thousand thanks, Herr von Eichhof!"

Bernhard had grown pale. He had not looked for this turn of affairs, and it was his part now to be bewildered for a moment.

"You are as coa.r.s.e as you are cowardly," he ground out between his teeth, coming up to the table, whereat Herr von Mohazy thought best to bl.u.s.ter a little.

"No need of such ugly words, sir," he said, with a forced smile.

"Will you leave Berlin to-day?" Bernhard insisted.

"_Mais oui, mon cher_; I see no reason why I should remain here."

"I should have no more difficulty in finding you to-morrow than to-day!" Bernhard exclaimed, with a glance of menace, as he turned towards the door.

Herr von Mohazy came out from behind his table. "Oh, you have nothing further to fear!" he cried, as Bernhard opened the door. "I dislike to disturb the amus.e.m.e.nts of others. My remembrances to Frau Julutta Wronsky!" And he laughed once more.

Bernhard slammed the door behind him.

Julutta now had nothing to fear, and Bernhard and she had one more secret, one more memory, in common.

Herr von Mohazy left Berlin the same day, and an hour later a note from Bernhard informed Frau von Wronsky that there was no reason why she should absent herself from the opera on the plea of illness, as she had resolved to do in case Mohazy did not leave town.

She appeared in her box, and when Bernhard paid his respects to her between the acts he read in every glance of her fine eyes the grat.i.tude that she could not otherwise express in her husband's presence.

Hugo von Hohenstein sat in Councillor Kohnheim's box opposite, and his opera-gla.s.s was scarcely, during the _entr'acte_, turned away from his _vis-a-vis_.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CONSEQUENCES BEGIN TO APPEAR.

Lothar was sitting in a rocking-chair by the window of his room in the officers' quarters and gazing after the blue rings of the smoke from his cigar. His thoughts were far, however, from being as placid as his att.i.tude, and his eyes would now and then turn from the airy rings to various papers tossed in a confused heap upon his table. At last he threw away his cigar and took up these papers.

"Monstrous!" he muttered; "the man must be insane! How the deuce could I ever use one hundred marks' worth of soap and perfumes? The bill, to be sure, dates from last year. I can't prove that it's incorrect, but I believe it to be so. And here again, three hundred marks for gloves,--now that's an utter impossibility,--and the Berlin tailor insists, too, that he has never been paid. The scoundrels are rolling in the money they steal from the pockets of us poor lieutenants."

Then he remembered that he had the day before ordered another large supply of gloves and perfumery, for in that 'den of a garrison' there was nothing to be had fit to use. And for a moment he really reflected upon some method of regulating his finances. In fact, it was all a mere bagatelle not worth mentioning, but then the 'scoundrels' dunned so insolently, and it would really be refres.h.i.+ng to be rid of them all.

Werner had relieved Lothar of his large gambling debt, and the latter had had a lucky evening at play shortly afterward, and had repaid his friend every farthing. What if he should have recourse to his friend in his brother's absence? But then the fellow was so priggish. He had lectured him when he went to pay him because he had won the money at cards. As if there were any positive harm in cards! To be sure, he had never played in Berlin, there were so many other ways of amusing one's self there. But here in this 'infernal den' what else was there to do but play cards, unless one was a tiresome bookworm like Werner? And from his vexation with his bills Lothar pa.s.sed into quite a fit of irritation against Werner, and decided that he certainly would ask no new favour from him.

"Haberdasher, perfumer, tailor & Co. may wait," he decided. "Why in thunder did they let their bills run on so?"

A knock at the door interrupted his disagreeable reflections, and upon his "Come in," a very unexpected visitor appeared,--Hugo von Hohenstein. He had come to pa.s.s a few days in Rollin to superintend the alterations there, and would not go back to Berlin, he said, without "hunting up" his old friend and comrade. He laughed as he noticed the pile of bills upon the table.

"Why not follow my example?" he cried, tapping Lothar on the shoulder.

"Marry a daughter of Israel with heaps of money. 'Tis the only salvation for a poor lieutenant, and a very delightful salvation besides, upon my honour! The young Baroness von Hohenstein, in spite of the _nee_ Kohnheim, is a model of high-bred elegance, and our apartments and our equipage are quite perfect. Oh, absolutely aristocratic, I can tell you! As for Rollin, I am turning it into an El-Dorado. You would hardly recognize it."

"What does your father say to it all?" asked Lothar, who with all his levity could hardly bring himself to treat his former comrade with the old genuine cordiality.

Hugo shrugged his shoulders. "Since my governor no longer lives at Rollin, I see no reason why I should consult his taste, especially as it seems likely at present that I shall seldom have the pleasure of seeing him; that little witch Adela has turned his head with her high and mighty ideas. Fortunately, he was not himself when the bombsh.e.l.l exploded in the midst of us, and he could do nothing to prevent my arranging my affairs as seemed to me best. But now when he is perfectly well again and ought to be reasonable, he scolds and rages at my marriage."

"Then the reports are true? I had heard something of this----"

"Of course they are true, and it is all Fraulein Adela's doing. She has the governor absolutely in leading-strings. He has lately refused to see me."

"But what will he do?"

"Oh, Fraulein Adela has arranged all that. Unfortunately, she has a small income of her own, which was not lost in the universal crash, and which makes her independent of me, or I could soon bring her to terms."

"But that seems to me to be very fortunate for her, and for you too----"

"Hm! That's according to circ.u.mstances. I have not sufficient influence; people will talk, and it's deuced disagreeable to be at odds with the old man. It's all that witch's doing."

"Adela is a deuce of a girl!"

"She was always a good-for-nothing hoyden, but I never supposed that she would so meddle in business matters and take such an obstinate stand. Fancy the old man's writing to me that he was quite willing to accept everything from her, but that he would take nothing from me!"

Lothar shook his head. He was wavering between feelings of old-comrades.h.i.+p and the involuntary disgust with which Hugo's conduct and talk inspired him.

"Well, let's have done with these cursed matters!" cried Hohenstein. "I am so glad to see you that I must crack a bottle of champagne with you.

Have you one here?"

"No, not here; but let us go to the Casino: our dinner will be served in half an hour."