as the place slowly sank back into the heavy torpor which yearly overpowered it. What a gulf between those days and these! Was there not a whole lifetime, a whole world separating now and then? Then Gretchen had felt so sure that the Hercules Waters were going to restore her father to health; and now Adalbert was as far from recovery as he had been then. Ah! must she confess it at last? – further than he had been then. Then Gretchen's path in life had lain so broad and distinct before her – now she had lost her way, and there was no sign-post to put her right again; then she had been so content with her prospects of fortune, and now –
There was the sound of a stumble behind her; and looking round, she saw the Conte Francopazzi descending from his elevation, being released from the tunic, and dismissed from the room.
"It will do now," said Belita with a sigh of relief; "in fact I don't think I should be saying too much if I called it a chef-d'œvre of drapery. I cannot tell you how useful it is to have a husband for looping up your tunics on!"
There was no echo to the sentiment; Gretchen, without a word, flung her arms on to the wide window-sill, and stared down at the street below.
Belita looked at her friend's back, raised her eyebrows, and shook her head.
"I hope she is not losing her senses," reflected the Contessa with a tinge of anxiety; "I really must speak to her."
But before Belita had time to speak, Gretchen herself turned suddenly from the window, and put a strange, abrupt question to her friend.
"Tell me, Belita, have I been mistaken all along? Are fortune and happiness after all two things and not one?"
"Fortune and happiness?" Belita staggered in her stupefaction, not so much at the words as at the tone. She fell back a step, actually forgetful of the chef-d'œvre of drapery which she still held, and stood gazing at her friend with a sort of tender fear.
But Belita's presence of mind never deserted her for long. Her first care was for her tunic, her second for her friend. Taking Gretchen by the hand, she led her to a seat, and made her sit down; and Gretchen sat down with perfect submission, only upon her face and in her widely opened eyes there was a look of hungry expectation, as though she were listening for the answer of an oracle.
"Are you quite sure you are not ill?" asked Belita, affectionately. "I always said that the air of the Hercules valley did not agree with you."
"I am quite well," said Gretchen; "but you have not answered me."
"Immediately, my dear child; what doubt can you have of my answer? Of course fortune and happiness are two names for one thing."
"But not always?"
"Of course always."
"How do you know it?"
"By personal experience. I am rich and I am happy; therefore it stands to reason that when you are rich —"
"Oh no," cried Gretchen, putting her hands to her ears – "stop! It does not stand to reason at all, – nothing stands to reason, I think."
Belita had no right to turn her own weapons against her; and for the first time it struck Gretchen that her pet phrase sounded weak and senseless.
