"Nothing. Let me alone," was the rather peevish reply; but Benno went up to him and laid his hand upon his shoulder:
"If your betrothal had been an affair of the heart I should think something there had gone wrong, but----"
"I have no heart; you have told me so often enough," Wolfgang interposed, bitterly.
"No, you have nothing but ambition,--absolutely nothing," Reinsfeld rejoined, seriously.
Elmhorst made an impatient gesture: "Don't lecture me again, Benno! You know we never shall understand each other on that point. You are, and always will be----"
"An overstrained idealist who would rather eat dry bread with the darling of his heart than drive about in a gorgeous equipage beside a grand wife whom he did not love. Yes, I am unpractical in the extreme, and since at present I have not bread enough for two, it is fortunate that there is no darling of my heart."
"We must go," said Wolfgang, rising; "Alice expects me at twelve o'clock. And now do me the favour to look your best. I do not believe you know even how to make a bow."
"My patients are glad enough to be cured without one," said Benno, defiantly. "And if I do you no credit in your betrothed's society, it is your own fault: why do you take me there like a lamb led to the slaughter? I suppose Fräulein von Thurgau is there too?"
"And has she grown to be a grand lady too?"
These answers were not very reassuring to the poor doctor, who looked forward to this visit with positive dread. He did not rebel, however, for he was accustomed to yield to his friend. So he took from the table his hat, which, in spite of its late ironing, did not belie its years, and prepared to draw on the yellow gloves, saying, submissively, "Well, then, what must be, must."
Beyond the line of railway, about half a mile from the future station, lay the president's new villa. The house, built after the fashion common in the mountains, with an overhanging roof and graceful galleries, accorded well with its surroundings, while everything within was arranged to suit the grand scale upon which Nordheim's mode of life was conducted. The views of the finest portions of the mountain-range were magnificent, the meadows about the villa had been laid out in gardens, and the adjoining forest so cleared as to form a natural park. There had been an immense outlay of money that the place might serve for a six-weeks' residence in the summer, but Nordheim never took the expense into account when he laid his plans, and had given his architect _carte blanche_. Elmhorst had, in fact, created a masterpiece of beauty in this mountain-retreat, and it was to be his wife's property.