gone so far as to keep a sum of money about her, as though expecting to
make a sudden and unexpected journey. But five and twenty years and
more had passed, without bringing any untoward incident, and she felt
herself very secure in her position. Moreover a son had been born to
her and was growing up to be very like his father. Without Greif there
is no knowing what turn affairs might have taken, for although Clara's
husband maintained towards her the same stiffly considerate behaviour
which had always characterised him in their relations to each other, he
certainly admitted to himself that she was not growing old gracefully;
and it is even possible that, in some remote glen of the forest, his
grave features may have occasionally allowed themselves a look of
sorrowful regret, or even of actual repugnance, when he thought of his
wife's spasmodic smiles and foolish talk. Possibly, too, he may have
sometimes speculated upon her probable condition before she had married
her first husband, for he himself had found her a widow of apparently
little more than five and twenty years of age. But if any suggestion at
all derogatory to Greifenstein had presented itself to his mind, his
pride would assuredly have lost no time in smothering the thought. Was
she not the mother of Greif? And besides, if all were to be told, was
there not an unpleasantly dark spot in his own family, in the shape of
his half-brother, Kuno von Rieseneck? Indeed the existence of Kuno von
Rieseneck, concerning whom Clara knew nothing, was the reason why
Greifenstein had lived for so many years in the country, only
travelling outside of Germany when he travelled at all. He wondered
that his wife, being ignorant of the story, should be willing to share
the solitude of the Black Forest without a murmur, and her submission
in itself suggested that she, too, might have some good cause for
preferring a retired life. But if he had been satisfied with what he
knew of her five and twenty years ago, he was not the man to allow
himself any dissatisfaction now that Clara was the mother of that