"To fulfil a duty is with me a point of honour," he replied, coldly.
"Yes, we Germans are fanatics for duty," Waltenberg said, negligently. "I have lost somewhat of this national characteristic in foreign countries. Oh, Fräulein von Thurgau, not that disapproving look, I entreat. My unfortunate frankness will ruin me in your estimation, but remember I come from quite another world, and am absolutely uncivilized according to European ideas."
"You certainly seem so with respect to some of your views," Erna said, lightly, but withal with a shade of severity.
He smiled, and, leaning over the back of her chair, said, in a lower tone, "Yes, I need to be harmonized with mankind, and with our worthy Germans. Perhaps some one will have pity upon me and undertake the task. Do you think it would be worth the trouble?"
"Can you really endure this close, stifling temperature, Alice?" Wolfgang asked, with ill-concealed impatience. "I fear it is worse for you than the heat of the rooms."
"But there is such a crowd of people there. Pray let us stay here, Wolfgang."
He bit his lip, but naturally yielded to a wish of his betrothed's so distinctly expressed.
"The air here is tropical," said Waltenberg.
"It is indeed. Oppressive, and debilitating for any one accustomed to breathe freely."
The words sounded almost rude, but he to whom they were addressed took no heed; he was still gazing at Erna as he went on: "These palms and orchids require it. Look, Fräulein von Thurgau, they enchant the eye even here in captivity. In the tropics, where they climb and twine in liberty, they are wonderful indeed."
"Yes, that world must be beautiful," Erna said, softly, while her eyes wandered dreamily over the foreign splendour of the blossoms gleaming among the green on every side and filling the conservatory with their sweet but enervating fragrance.
"Was your stay in the East a long one, Herr Waltenberg?" Alice asked, in her cool, uninterested way.
"I passed some years there, but I am at home all over the world, and can even boast having penetrated far into Africa."
Wolfgang's attention was roused by these last words: "Probably as a member of some scientific expedition?" he observed.
"No, that would have had no charm for me. I detest nothing so much as constraint, and it is impossible in such expeditions to preserve one's personal freedom. One is bound by the rules of the expedition, by the wishes of one's companions, by all sorts of things, and I am wont to follow my own will only."