"No," said the young German lady, looking at her plate. "There is an invalid in the house." "Did you hear Heléne?" asked Olga, looking at Johannes earnestly. "I never hear her now. At first I used to very plainly, but now I sleep through it. Poor Heléne!" "Poor Heléne!" lisped Frieda dutifully after her, resuming her busy spooning of the malted milk. * * * * * At noon Johannes was again summoned to the drawing-room. He had had a long walk, alone, beside the sea, and felt more at his ease. He had resolved to ask if he might not go away, since he was out of place here, and felt unhappy. And the party the next evening, at Lady Crimmetart's, where he was expected with an instrument--that was too much for him. He must get away before that. But ere he had a chance to speak about it, his hostess began thus: "Were you alarmed in the night, Johannes? Did you hear anything?" Johannes nodded. "Well, now that I trust you, fully, I will confide to you my sorrowful secret. Listen." And the estimable and attractive woman beckoned him, with her loveliest smile, to sit beside the sofa, on a low stool. It made Johannes feel as if he had been brought, nearly benumbed, into a warm room. Pleasant tinglings coursed down his back, and a fine feeling of contentment and security came over him. The countess rested her soft, delicate hand upon his own, and looked into his eyes, kindly. How beautiful she was! And what a sweet, caressing voice she had! All the distress of those recent days was more than amended. "I am going to speak to you, my dear Johannes, as if you were much older than you are. You really do seem to me older and wiser than your years would lead one to expect." Johannes was charmed. "You must know, then, that my life has been full of suffering. Sorrow has been, so to speak, my constant companion, from earliest youth." Johannes' heart was aglow with compassion. In well-chosen words, and in the flowing English that Johannes more admired than comprehended, the lady continued: "My marriage was very unhappy. Constrained by my parents I married a rich man whom I did not love. He is dead now. I will not speak any evil of him." Johannes that instant made up his mind to a certainty that the man had been a wretch. "Neither will I trouble you with the story of all our misery. It suffices to say that we did not belong to each other, and each embittered the other's life. After six years of torture--it was nothing else--something happened ... what usually happens in such cases.... Do you understand?" Johannes, greatly to his vexation, did not understand, and he felt himself to be very stupid. "I became fond of another.... Do you think less of me for that?" "No! No!" said Johannes' head, as he shook it emphatically.