"Pray, speak; and be assured beforehand that it will be a pleasure and
an honour to me to be of use to you in any way."
"Then have the kindness to give me your arm and to accompany me into
the garden, that I may tell you uninterruptedly what is the matter.
Well, it is briefly this: Baron Lotter--I do not know whether you have
had the doubtful pleasure of making his acquaintance--a friend of our
host's, by the way, with whom he and I have been staying here for the
past week,--thinks himself insulted by me, and, according to the usual
code and my own conviction, he has good cause for it. It is an old feud
resulting from a certain mutual rivalry as to the respective
consideration and influence which he and I claim, or think we may
claim, in this house, an old feud about to be ultimately settled. The
actual occasion of the quarrel is merely accidental, and, as such,
absolutely irrelevant. I mention this particularly to enable me to add
the request that in the subsequent negotiations, supposing that you are
willing--well, very well, then, and I am really obliged to you--that in
these negotiations you may lay absolutely no stress upon that occasion,
nay, that you may avoid touching upon it at all. You will please accept
the conditions for the hostile meeting exactly as they may be proposed
by the other side; I have my own reasons for wishing to be particularly
obliging in that respect. Only the fixing of time and place troubles
me. Here of course the duel cannot take place. I should therefore
propose some spot near town. This would suit me all the better, as I
have, anyhow, announced my intention of leaving this place to-morrow,
and could, therefore, remain in town for a short while without
attention being called to it; and as the Baron also was to leave
to-morrow too, and as he also must pass through town, the delay will be
very brief for him. The only question now is: Whether and when do you
think you can be free yourself?"
"In no case," replied Kurt, "before to-morrow afternoon, but then for
certain, because, if circumstances were less favourable, I could then
get leave of absence from the Colonel--without, of course, mentioning
the special reason why I needed it. Circumstances are, however,
favourable, and, if our suppositions are at all correct, and if the big
sham-fight is once over, the regiment will, sometime to-morrow
afternoon, be somewhere between this and town, and may even have to
bivouack there. Under any circumstances, I shall be able to attend
punctually at the time required.
"This," said Bertram, "will do excellently. So we are now free from
this trouble; and this, I think, is all that we need settle in the
meantime. Now it may be as well if I put you in communication with Herr
von Busche. I have no doubt that he is to be the Baron's second. If
required, a question from you, as to whether he chanced to have a
commission, a message, for me, would at once settle things."
They had meanwhile come again near the verandah, and just then Herr von
Busche was coming out of the card-room, looking round apparently in
search of some one. Bertram and Kurt hurried their advancing steps, and
he again turned swiftly round, to speak to Bertram, the moment he had
recognised him, saying--
"I am so glad, Herr Doctor, to have met you at last, since I was about
to do myself the honour of bringing you a message of some importance. I
have already been looking, and looking in vain for you, in all the
rooms."
"A thousand pardons," replied Bertram; "but I, myself, have not in the
meantime been idle in this affair. May I now have the pleasure of
introducing to you the Premier-Lieutenant Ringberg, who ..."
"I have already had the honour," said Herr von Busche with a bow.
"All the better. Then I will no longer disturb you, gentlemen. You will
find me in my rooms. Good-bye till then."
He shook hands with Kurt, bowed to Herr von Busche, and left them both,
as they retreated into the semi-obscurity of the shrubbery, until,
passing along the verandah and the side building, he reached a postern,
from which a stair led, straight from the garden, to his rooms.