Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/672

572 sharpened eye the signs of approaching danger became clearer. To begin, Sigurd, like all of Kläre's previous lovers, had formed a pronounced attachment to him during supper, had invited him to his place on the fjord at Molde, and finally brought in the "I say, old fellow!" and the "Listen, old boy!" In addition, Fanny Ringeiser would tremble all over whenever Sigurd addressed a word to her, she would become alternately white and red when he looked at her with his large steel-grey eyes, and when he spoke of his imminent departure she began crying softly. But even now Kläre remained calm and serious. She scarcely returned Sigurd's singeing glances, she spoke with no more vivacity to him than to the others; and when he finally kissed her hand and looked upon her with eyes which seemed to beg, to promise, to despair, her own remained clouded and her features unmoved. Leisenbohg observed all this with distrust and anxiety. But when the evening was over and everyone was going, the Baron experienced something unexpected. He was last to reach Kläre's hand at parting; but when, like the others, he was about to go on, she held his hand tightly and whispered to him, "Come back again." He wondered if he had not heard right. But she pressed his hand again, and with her lips almost to his ear she repeated, "Come back again; I shall expect you in an hour."

Almost in a swoon, he went along with the others. With Fanny he accompanied Sigurd to the hotel, and as if from a great distance listened to his ravings about Kläre. Then he led Fanny Ringeiser through the quiet streets in the soft coolness of the night to Mariahilf, and from behind a cloud he saw the stupid tears roll down across her red, childish cheeks. Then he took a cab back to Kläre's. He saw a light glimmering through the curtains of her bedroom; he saw her shadow glide by; her head appeared at the edge of the curtain and nodded to him. He had not dreamed that she was waiting for him.

The next morning Baron von Leisenbohg went for a ride in the Prater. He felt happy and young. It seemed to him that some deeper meaning lay in this belated fulfilment of his yearning. His experiences of last night had been the most marvellous surprise, and yet they were hardly more than the heightening and necessary culmination of his previous relationship with Kläre. He felt now