"I shall be glad to introduce you as my guest to our mess," Lothar said, more courteously than cordially. "Let us wait here, then, for the half-hour." "Agreed. And now tell me all about the people hereabouts, and in especial how your sister-in-law fares at Eichhof. You go there a good deal, eh?" This question was accompanied by an odd sidelong glance. Lothar gave various particulars with regard to his comrades and the county gentry. "Of course I am frequently at Eichhof," he concluded, without further mention of Thea. "Hm! And what are you doing at Eichhof?" Hohenstein asked. "I go to see my brother's wife," Lothar answered, with an air of cold reserve. "And to make love to her?" Hohenstein said, with a laugh. The colour mounted to Lothar's forehead; his blue eyes gleamed almost black for a moment. "I beg you to refrain from expressions which I regard as insulting," he said, angrily. "Oh! ah!" said the other. "I had no idea that you would fire up so at an innocent jest. For the matter of that, your brother Bernhard's views on such matters are not so provincial; he is making furious love to a certain blonde lady from these parts." "Bah! such stuff as is called 'making love' in Berlin society," Lothar said, depreciatingly. Hohenstein looked at him in his half-sneering, half-malicious way. "Ah, you fancy you understand it better here in the country. Well, well, in spite of that, I can assure you that Bernhard understands it too, and that Frau Julutta Wronsky is an admirable teacher." "You would not suggest that he is actually making love to that woman?" Lothar said, with a shrug, and a struggle to preserve an appearance of indifference. "I suggest nothing; I only mention what I have seen and heard." "And that is?" "That is, that friend Bernhard is daily seen riding with Frau von Wronsky in the Thiergarten; that he is her inseparable cavalier at every ball and party; and that, last though not least, he very nearly fought a duel upon her account,--would have fought it undoubtedly had not his opponent preferred to make his escape----" "Nonsense, Hugo! Bernhard is much too sensible." "Ha! ha! Why, what a country bumpkin you are become, Lothar! Well, it is really of no consequence whether you believe it or not. The duel I know all about from a perfectly trustworthy source. The occupant of the next room to that belonging to the gentleman in question, who was no other, in fact, than the lady's first husband, is a business friend of my father-in-law's, and knows Bernhard quite well. He could not help hearing a part of the conversation in the next room, for Bernhard must have roared like a lion."