Truyn looked extremely dignified, repeatedly expressed his great pleasure in the progress made by his beloved countrymen, in the course of the last fifteen years, as well as in the advancement of the national cause. Once during the conversation he attempted to make use of the Bohemian idiom, but he only excited the merriment of his auditors. Oswald was pale and silent. "What is the matter with you, my boy?" asked Truyn, observing with some anxiety, his weary air, and the dark rings round his eyes. "I am not quite up to the mark," said Oswald. "I hope you're not going to be ill," remarked Truyn. "Bah! He hasn't yet recovered from his conversation with Capriani," said Pistasch. "For my part I cannot understand how you can be in the slightest degree affected by what such a man as that says or leaves unsaid." "We are not all such philosophers as you," Georges observed, glancing anxiously at his cousin. The door of the box opened--a slender, dark-complexioned man entered. "Good evening! How are you?" "It was Sempaly, younger brother of Prince Sempaly, to attend whose marriage he had just returned from the East. He was much tanned and his sharp features wore an air of languid weariness. Prince Sempaly had a few days previously married Nini Gatinsky. The new-comer was warmly welcomed, and then, of course, inquiries were made concerning the bridal pair, Truyn declaring his pleasure in their marriage. "It pleases me too, exceedingly," said Sempaly, with more warmth than he was wont to display. "They are both to be congratulated. Nini was always a dear creature, and she is prettier now than ever; and a nobler character than my brother's I have never known." "One thing however surprises me," observed Pistasch, the indiscreet, looking inquisitively at Sempaly, "your brother has been a widower for five years; it cannot be that he has spent all that time in bewailing the loss of the Princess. Why did he not grasp his happiness before?" "I cannot enlighten you on that point," replied Sempaly with a shrug. But Truyn said, smiling, "Perhaps it did not depend altogether upon Oscar; Nini may possibly have had a voice in the matter." "You too are going to have a wedding soon," said Sempaly, apparently desirous of changing the subject. "How these young people are growing up! If the resemblance to his mother were not so striking, I should hardly recognise your future son-in-law. Let me congratulate you," and he held out his hand to Oswald, "congratulate you most sincerely. And how are you at home?" he added, turning suddenly to Truyn. "All well," Truyn replied a little stiffly. "Pray, carry to your wife and daughter the regards of--one who shall be nameless," said Sempaly with bitterness. A short pause ensued; then he began, "What do you think of Seinsberg's suicide?" "Suicide?" exclaimed Truyn. "Did you not know it?" asked Sempaly. "I suspected something of the kind," said Pistasch. "What was the cause of it?" asked Truyn.