She left the room with a stately inclination and an air of severe dignity.
"You will have hard work, Moritz," said Flora, pointing towards the door through which the Frau President had vanished. "Grandmamma is evidently on her mettle and armed to the teeth."
"Well, well," Flora continued, "you will see whether she will yield one inch of the authority you have allowed her to exert so absolutely. I have warned you repeatedly; now see——" She suddenly interrupted herself, and anxiously seized Bruck’s hand. "For heaven’s sake, tell me, Leo, what is the matter with you?" she cried, passionately. "You are struggling with some grief which you would conceal from me. Ah, you cannot deceive me! Here, and here"—she passed her white fingers across his forehead, that flushed to the roots of his hair—"I see lines that distress me. You are working too hard. After to-day, I shall take the liberty of sending one of the servants every day to your house in town to deny you positively to that tiresome crowd, who, after defaming you in every possible way, are killing you with their importunity."
Henriette stared at the speaker like one dismayed, and the councillor cleared his throat and stroked his delicate moustache to conceal a slight sneer, while the doctor, whose face had hitherto maintained a rigid composure, smiled a faint smile of bitter contempt. "That you will certainly not do, Flora," he said, in a peremptory tone. "I must decidedly forbid any interference with my practice, either at present or in future. Just now," and he turned to the councillor, "I have a word to say to you on behalf of a very sick man, quite broken down physically and mentally by violent business excitement; will you let me speak with you alone?"
"A very sick man?" the councillor repeated, dubiously. He knitted his brows, and the lines about his mouth grew hard and pitiless. "Oh, yes; I know whom you mean,—that hair-brained fellow Lenz. The man has been speculating in the wildest way, and wants me to save him from ruin. No, I thank you."
"Will you not wait until we are alone to discuss it?" the doctor asked, with emphasis. "At present you and I are the poor man’s only confidants with regard to his terrible situation; even his wife does not know of it——"