With these words he dismissed the girl, but when again alone with his wife he admitted to her that the poor fellow might easily fare badly—­ nay, might even lose his tongue—­if on the rack, which was one of the instruments of torture to which he must again be subjected, he confessed having forced his way into the house of an “Honourable” at night.  True, the fact that in doing so he had only followed his master, would mitigate the offence.  He must bind the judges to secrecy, should it prove impossible to avoid the necessity of informing them of Eva’s somnambulism.  If the sentence were very severe, he might perhaps be able to delay its execution.  Sir Heinz Schorlin, who stood high in the Emperor’s favour, would then be asked to apply to the sovereign to annul it, or at any rate to impose a lighter punishment.

Here he was interrupted by his nieces and Cordula, and soon after Frau Christine went out with Els to go to the Eysvogels.  Herr Pfinzing remained with the others.

A personage of no less distinction than the Duchess Agnes had complained to him of the reckless countess.  Only yesterday she had ridden into the forest with her father, and when the young Bohemian princess met her, Cordula’s dogs had assailed her skittish Arabian so furiously that it would have been difficult for a less practised rider to keep her seat in the saddle.  This time the docile animals had refused to obey their mistress, and the duchess expressed the suspicion that she had not intended to call them off; for, though she had carelessly apologised, she asked, as if the words were a gibe, if there was anything more delightful than to curb a refractory steed.  She had an answer ready for Cordula, however, and retorted that the disobedience of her dogs proved that, if she understood how to obtain from horses what she called the greatest delight, she certainly failed in the case of other living creatures.  She therefore offered her royal condolence on the subject.

Then she remarked to the magistrate that the incident had occurred in the imperial forest where, as she understood, the unrestricted wandering of strange hunting dogs was prohibited.  Therefore, in future, Countess von Montfort might be required to leave hers at home when she rode to the woods.

The magistrate now brought the complaint to the person against whom it was made, adopting a merry jesting tone, in which Cordula gaily joined.

When the old gentleman asked whether she had previously angered the irritable princess, she answered laughing, “The saints have hitherto denied to the wife of the Emperor’s son, as well as to other girls of thirteen or fourteen, the blessing of children, so she likes to play with dolls.  She chanced to prefer the same one for which she saw me stretch out my hands.”

The old magistrate vainly sought to understand this jest; but Eva knew whom the countess meant by the doll, and it grieved her to see two women hostile to each other, seeking to amuse themselves with one who bore so little resemblance to a toy, and to whom she looked up with all the earnestness of a soul kindled by the deepest passion.