It humiliated her for the prince to speak with
such confidence of her affection as of a thing impossible to lose.
She determined, therefore, to punish him. With a bright smile, she
held out her hand to the count, and said to him a few kind words of
welcome. How she had trembled at the thought of this meeting--how
she had blushed at the thought of standing beside the count with the
conviction that not one of her words was forgotten--that the
confession of love she had made to the departing soldier belonged
now to the returned nobleman! But her husband's confidence had shorn
the meeting of all its terror, and made the road she had to travel
easy.
The count bowed deeply before her and pressed her hand to his lips.
She returned the pressure of his hand, and, as he raised his head
and fixed an almost imploring glance upon her, he encountered her
eyes beaming with unutterable love.
The court assembly stood in groups, looking with cold, inquisitive
eyes at the piquant scene the prince in the innocence of his heart
had prepared for them--which was to them an inimitable jest, an
excellent amusement. They all knew--what the prince did not for a
moment suspect--that Count Kalkreuth adored the princess.
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