Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/673

Rh that it could not have happened otherwise, and made plans for the immediate and distant future. How long will she remain on the stage?" he thought. "Perhaps four or five years. Then, but not sooner, I will marry her. We will live together in the country, not far from Vienna, in St Veit, perhaps, or in Lainz. I shall buy a small house there, or else have one built according to her own ideas. We shall live pretty much in retirement, but frequently take long trips to Spain, Egypt, India " In this manner he went on dreaming to himself, letting his horse out as he crossed the meadows by the Heustadl. Then he trotted back through the Hauptallee, and at the Praterstern took his seat in his carriage. He stopped in at Fossatti's and sent Kläre a bouquet of splendid dark roses. He had breakfast alone as usual in his rooms on the Schwarzenbergplatz, and after his meal lay down on the divan. He was filled with a strong yearning for Kläre. What had all the other women meant to him? They had been a distraction, nothing more. And he foresaw the day when Kläre likewise would say to him, "What were they all to me? You are the only man, and the first man, whom I have loved." And lying on the divan, with eyes closed, he let the whole string of them glide by Certainly, she had loved no one before him, and had always loved him, perhaps, in each of the others!

The Baron dressed, and then started on the well known way to her house slowly, as though to enjoy for a few seconds longer the anticipation of their meeting. There were a good many promenaders on the Ring, but the season was noticeably nearing its close. And Leisenbohg was glad that summer was here; he would travel with Kläre, see the ocean or the mountains with her and he had to hold himself in check, to keep from shouting aloud in his enthusiasm.

He halted in front of her house and looked up at her windows. The light of the afternoon sun was reflected in them and nearly blinded him. He mounted the two flights to her apartment, and rang. No one came to let him in. He rang again. No one came. Leisenbohg now noticed that a padlock had been put on the door. What could that mean? Was he in the wrong place? She did not have a card on the door, but on the door adjoining he read as usual, "Oberstleutnant von Jeleskowits." Undeniably he was standing in front of her apartment, and it was locked up. He hurried down