Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/239

 down by her side on the sopha, not at all displeased with the issue of the matter.

It was however every different in the heart of the count, whose eyes sparkled with rage. I consoled him laughing, when he answered doubly irritated: "For shame, Don Carlos, how can you be so insensible?" At these words he cast a significant look upon Baron Hompesch, a German officer in the Spanish service, who was playing at another table, and still continued to make merry on our little disaster. "Don't you plainly see," added my friend, "that the whole is a premeditated scheme?"

He probably was not mistaken, and the Baron behaved rather with unbecoming petulance. The count was not the man to brook any insult with impunity; he had known the baron ever since the siege of Gibraltar, and both of them had then been the rival suitors of a Spanish lady. To this may be added the following story, which served still farther to augment the count's resentment.