'That only makes it easier, then. Greif will be warned, and need never
come into contact with him. Hilda would not understand, even if she
were told. What can she know about revolutions and those wild times? I
am sure he will never attempt to come here.'

'He shall not sleep under my roof, not if he is starving!' exclaimed
Greifenstein fiercely. 'If he had not been the dog he is, he would have
made an end of himself long ago.'

'Do not say that, cousin. It was better that he should live out his
life in a foreign country than do such a bad thing.'

'I do not agree with you. When a man has taken Judas Iscariot for his
model I think he ought to follow so eminent an example to the end.'

Frau von Sigmundskron did not wish to argue the point. Far down in her
heart there existed an aristocratic and highly irreligious prejudice
about such matters, and though her convictions told her that suicide
was a crime, her personal sentiment of honour required that a man who
had disgraced himself should put an end to his existence forthwith.

'He will write, if he means to come,' she observed, by way of changing
the current of the conversation.

'It would be more like him to force himself upon me without warning,'
said Greifenstein, folding the paper with his lean strong hands and
drawing his thumb-nail sharply along the doubled edges. The action was
unconscious, but was mechanically and neatly performed, like most
things the man did. Then he opened it, spread it out and looked again
at the passage that contained the news. Suddenly his expression