“Yes, I am, indeed,” Adelheid answered earnestly, as she looked reprovingly into the face of the man whose bitterness she could not understand.  “I know my brother; he is his father’s son in spite of everything and will not break his word.”

“It is well for you you can still trust and believe; for me such days were over long ago,” said Falkenried, scowling, but in a milder tone.  “And what happened then?”

“My brother had word sent to me at once.  ’Do not tell father, it would kill him,’ he wrote.  I knew better than he that it would do so; my father was far too ill then to bear any excitement.  It was hard for the moment to know what to do, for we were strangers in a strange land.  Then I thought of Herbert, who was at that time ambassador to Florence.  We knew him slightly at home, and he had called upon us in Florence, and offered his services or those of his attaches if we should desire anything.  Since we had taken a house he had been to see father frequently, and came now immediately in answer to my request.  I had reliance in him, and told him all, asking for advice and help, and he gave me both.”

“At what price?” asked the Colonel, suddenly, with darkening face.

“No, no; it is not as you think, or as Eugen will persist in believing.  I have not been forced.  Herbert gave me my free choice.  He explained to me that the matter was much more serious than I had thought, that all sums lost at play must be paid, and that the affair might yet assume serious proportions on account of the wounding of the policeman.  He explained that it would be very embarrassing for him in his position, to be personally mixed up in such an affair.  ’You desire me to save your brother,” he said.  “Perhaps I can do it, but I place my present position, and my whole future at stake by so doing, and one hardly cares to do that for any one less than a brother, or brother-in-law!”

Falkenried rose with a start and paced the room once, then he stood before his friend’s wife, and said in an angry tone: 

“And in your deadly anxiety, naturally you believed him?”

“Do you mean that it was not so?” questioned Adelheid.

He shrugged his shoulders as he answered: 

“Possibly.  I understand little of diplomatic considerations, but I know that Wallmoden showed himself a greater diplomat than ever in this hour.  What answer did you give him?”

“I begged for time, it had all come on me so suddenly.  But I knew not a moment was to be lost, so the same evening I gave Herbert the right to rescue his brother-in-law.”

“Naturally,” muttered Falkenried with keen contempt.  “Wise Herbert.”

“He left for Rome at once,” continued Baroness von Wallmoden, “and returned eight days later with my brother.  He had succeeded in getting Eugen off without making him conspicuous; his name was not even mentioned in the papers as connected with the affair.  How Herbert did it I never knew.  He spent money like water, and he told me later that he pledged half his fortune to cover the gambling debts.”