He was still wondering when he reached home, after an unusually tedious and disagreeable walk. More than once he had been tempted to take the tram, in order to be quicker home to Elsa and the comfort of shifting on to her willing shoulders the burden of his doubts; but the consideration of expense held him back. After all, trams become too easily a habit. Two trams a day cost 20 pf. and six days amount to 1.20, and 1.30 will buy a bottle of Landwein good enough for the little "evenings" which one is bound to give if one is a good comrade. So Freiherr von Seleneck had walked, and those who had observed him had envied the immaculate uniform and the lordly bearing, making no guess at the empty pockets of the one and the entire innocence of the other. For lordliness and Seleneck were unknown to each other; and if he bore himself with a certain unconscious assertiveness, it was because he wore the King’s uniform, and not in the least because he thought himself a great man. Somewhat to his surprise and disappointment, his wife was not at the door to receive him when he arrived. The _Bursche_ who helped him off with his coat told him the _gnädige Frau_ had visitors and was in the drawing-room. Thither Seleneck at once repaired. Usually a sociable and hospitable man, he felt he could have dispensed with guests in the one hour of the day when he was certain of his wife’s undivided company, but his slight annoyance evaporated as soon as he saw who the visitors were. Nora herself occupied the sofa, and her fair young face, lit by a faint, almost embarrassed, smile of greeting, inspired Seleneck with the brilliant reflection that she had no doubt come to confide the trouble, whatsoever it was, to his wife’s sympathetic ears. The hope was immediately dispelled, however, by Frau von Seleneck herself, who drew his attention to the presence of a young man seated at the other end of the room, nursing an elegantly booted foot with the air of profoundest boredom. "I do not think you have met before," she said. "This is Frau von Arnim’s brother—Mr. Ingestre."