Page:H.M. The Patrioteer.djvu/274

266 of all that is inhuman and sub-human—!" Diederich turned as pale as a sheet as he sidled from his chair and slowly drew back, step by step. "It's the cognac!" Diederich shouted to her. &hellip; But Buck's glance, filled with dreadful malice, in spired real terror, as it wavered between them. He blinked, and then his eyes shone clearer.

"Unfortunately I am accustomed to this mixture," he explained. "It was only to show you what I could do."

Diederich sat down again noisily. "After all, you are nothing but a play-actor," he said with an air of disappointment.

"Do you really think so?" Buck asked and his glance became even brighter. Guste turned up her nose. "Well, I hope you'll continue to enjoy yourselves," she said, preparing to leave them. But Judge Fritzsche had come along, and he bowed to her and also to Buck, and asked if he would allow him to have the pleasure of dancing the cotillion with his fiancee. He was exceedingly polite, almost entreating. Buck frowned and did not answer, but in the meantime Guste had taken Fritzsche's arm.

Buck looked after them, a heavy furrow between his eyebrows, and oblivious of everything. "Yes, indeed," thought Diederich, "it is not pleasant, my friend, to meet a man who has been off on a pleasure trip with your sister, and then he takes your fiancee away from the table, and you can do nothing, for that would only increase the scandal, because your engagement in itself is a scandal.&hellip;"

Rousing himself with a start, Buck said: "Do you know it is only now that I really feel as if I'd like to marry Fräulein Daimchen. I regarded the affair as &hellip; rather tame, but the inhabitants of Netzig have given it a really piquant flavour."

This effect left Diederich thunderstruck. "If you think so," he managed to ejaculate.

"Why not? You and I, though at opposite poles, are introducing here the advanced tendencies of an epoch of moral