medium, for he had discarded the tinted spectacles he usually wore.
These were not the worn orbs of a man who had pored over crabbed
partitions for sixty years. They were eyes familiar to her.

"Major Von Sendlingen!" she exclaimed, in a kind of terror; for women,
being judges of duplicity, are alarmed by any one successful in
disguises.

"Precisely, but do not be alarmed. You struck me in warfare, and I
forgive your share in that paltry incident. I am your friend, now. By
the way, as a proof of that assertion, let me tell you that the viscount
is no more worthy of you than that ever-dreaming student. You think he
adores you? _pfui_! only so far as you will aid the realization of his
ambition. Besides, he is only an officer in our ranks; he is not
unbridled, and at any moment he may be ordered away. Renounce this kind
of love, my child, not durable and unendurable!"

Was this the major preaching? He who had held with the hare and run with
the hounds, that is, tried to win the ascending and the declining star!

"Tell me," he continued, seriously, "tell me when you can control your
heart, and it is I who will set you on that stage where you should have
figured long since."

She had turned pale and she bit her lip. Her dullness in not suspecting
the identity of this spy, her lover, pained her acutely. She had thought
to read the Sphynx, and it had its paw upon her. Her exasperation was so
keen that she determined to be revenged on both the speaker and Gratian,
whose inferiority to the major was manifest.