When the butler came a strange
hoarse voice, half-stifled by folds of scarf, asked for the
countess, alleging for pretext a message from myself. The man
hesitated, as well he might, to leave the stranger alone with the
door open and the contents of the hall at his mercy. Murmuring an
apology in case his visitor should prove to be a gentleman, he
shut the door and went in search of his mistress. His description
of the untimely caller at once roused my wife's quick wit; she
had heard from me how Rudolf had ridden once from Strelsau to the
hunting-lodge with muffled face; a very tall man with his face
wrapped in a scarf and his hat over his eyes, who came with a
private message, suggested to her at least a possibility of Mr.
Rassendyll's arrival. Helga will never admit that she is clever,
yet I find she discovers from me what she wants to know, and I
suspect hides successfully the small matters of which she in her
wifely discretion deems I had best remain ignorant. Being able
thus to manage me, she was equal to coping with the butler. She
laid aside her embroidery most composedly.
"Ah, yes," she said, "I know the gentleman. Surely you haven't
left him out in the rain?" She was anxious lest Rudolf's features
should have been exposed too long to the light of the hall-lamps.
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