"The good God be merciful to you," he added under his breath when
Desiree had gone.

She laughed as she mounted the stairs, a slim white figure amid the
heavy woodwork long since blackened by time. The stairs made no
sound beneath her light step. How many weary feet had climbed them
since they were built! For the Dantzigers have been a people of
sorrow, torn by wars, starved by siege, tossed from one conqueror to
another from the beginning until now.

Desiree excused herself for her absence and frankly gave the cause.
She was disposed to make light of the incident. It was natural to
her to be optimistic. Both she and Mathilde made a practice of
withholding from their father's knowledge the smaller worries of
daily life which sour so many women and make them whine on platforms
to be given the larger woes.

She was glad to note that her father did not attach much importance
to the arrival of Papa Barlasch; though Mathilde found opportunity
to convey her displeasure at the news by a movement of the eyebrows.

Antoine Sebastian had applied himself seriously now to his role of
host, so rarely played in the Frauengasse. He was courteous and
quick to see a want or a possible desire of any one of his guests.
It was part of his sense of hospitality to dismiss all personal
matters, and especially a personal trouble, from public attention.

"They will attend to him in the kitchen, no doubt," he said with
that grand air which the dancing academy tried to imitate.