Part 36 (2/2)

”Not understand one another! Wallmoden is almost forty years your brother's senior, and he's the lad's guardian, too, for two years more, until Eugen attains his majority. So the boy had nothing to do but obey orders for that brief s.p.a.ce.”

”Of course, but Eugen, while warm-hearted, is impetuous and inconsiderate, as he has always been from a small boy.”

”That's a pity! He'll have to change all that when he a.s.sumes the responsible position which is awaiting him, if he expects to follow in his father's footsteps. But there seems something more than that the matter here. I made a pa.s.sing allusion to your marriage, Ada--that it had surprised me a little, more especially as I had known your husband so well, and had not imagined you were so ambitious. Whereupon Eugen turned on me and defended you in the warmest manner. Said you had been sacrificed for him, and left me quite bewildered by his pa.s.sionate words and insinuations.”

”You should not have paid any attention to him,” said Adelheid, with noticeable uneasiness. ”Such a young hothead sees the tragical side of everything. What was it he did say?”

”Really nothing. He said you had made him promise to say nothing without your permission, but that he hated his brother-in-law. What does it all mean?”

The young wife was silent; this talk was anything but pleasant to her.

The colonel looked at her searchingly, while he continued:

”You know it is not my habit to force myself into others' secrets. I take little interest, now-a-days, in the doings of my neighbors, but the honor of my oldest friend is called into question by the insinuation of a boy. I had no patience with Eugen, and told him to go to Wallmoden and threaten him if he had anything to say. His answer was: 'O, Herr von Wallmoden would explain the thing by calling it diplomatic; he has shown himself a great diplomat. Ask Ada, let her tell you her experience.' So I did as he bade me, I asked you, but as you will say nothing, I have no alternative but to speak to your husband. For I cannot keep silence concerning such insulting remarks.”

He spoke without excitement, in a measured, cold tone, as if, while a matter of no moment to himself, he felt it his duty to interrogate his friend's wife.

”Pray don't mention it to Herbert, I beg of you,” Adelheid said, hastily. ”I will tell you myself. Eugen has been carried away by his temper; he has taken the affair too much to heart from the beginning.

There was nothing dishonorable in it.”

”I supposed that when Wallmoden had to do with it,” the colonel interrupted with marked emphasis.

Adelheid lowered her voice, but she avoided the colonel's eye as she continued:

”You know that I was not engaged to Herbert until after our year's residence in Florence. My father was very ill and his physicians ordered him to Italy for the winter. We went to Florence for a couple of months; our farther movements were to depend upon my father's condition. My brother accompanied, us and when the winter set in he was to return home. After a few weeks we took a villa just outside the city, and lived, of course, a very retired life. Eugen saw Italy for the first time under very sad and depressing circ.u.mstances; it was very trying for him, a mere boy, to sit day after day in a sick room, so I seconded his request to be allowed to go to Rome for a few weeks, and obtained the desired permission for him. I ought never to have done so. But I did not know how great was his inexperience or into what it would lead him.”

”Which means that he plunged into frivolous pleasure or dissipation while his father lay on his death-bed,” the Colonel interposed harshly.

”Do not be hard on him. My brother was scarcely twenty years old, and while he had a loving father, he had a severe one, who had brought him up with such strictness that this little breath of freedom proved too much for him. The young German, with no worldly experience whatever, was enticed into a circle where play ran high, and where, as was afterwards proven, cheats and gamblers plied their vocation. Eugen in his ignorance saw nothing of all this; he lost considerable sums, and at last one night the club was raided by the police. The Italians resisted them and a scuffle ensued, into which Eugen was drawn. He only defended himself, but in so doing severely wounded one of the police, and he was arrested with the others.”

The Colonel had listened in silence to Adelheid's agitated recital, but he showed neither interest nor emotion as he said severely: ”And poor Stahlberg had to live to see his son, whom he imagined a model, come to this!”

”He never knew it. It was only a momentary seduction, a boy's misstep through ignorance, which will never be repeated; Eugen has given me his word of honor for that.”

Falkenried laughed out suddenly, such a bitter, mocking laugh, that the young wife looked at him in alarm.

”His word of honor. Certainly, why not? It is as easy given as broken.

Are you really so credulous that you would take the word of such a boy?”

”Yes, I am, indeed,” Adelheid answered earnestly, as she looked reprovingly into the face of the man whose bitterness she could not understand. ”I know my brother; he is his father's son in spite of everything and will not break his word.”

”It is well for you you can still trust and believe; for me such days were over long ago,” said Falkenried, scowling, but in a milder tone.

”And what happened then?”

”My brother had word sent to me at once. 'Do not tell father, it would kill him,' he wrote. I knew better than he that it would do so; my father was far too ill then to bear any excitement. It was hard for the moment to know what to do, for we were strangers in a strange land. Then I thought of Herbert, who was at that time amba.s.sador to Florence. We knew him slightly at home, and he had called upon us in Florence, and offered his services or those of his attaches if we should desire anything. Since we had taken a house he had been to see father frequently, and came now immediately in answer to my request. I had reliance in him, and told him all, asking for advice and help, and he gave me both.”

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