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Updated: June 12, 2025
For a moment Berbel conceived it possible that it might not, after all, contain a farewell communication, since there was nothing to show that it had really been written on the fatal night, but the idea would not bear examination, and when she laid the envelope once more in its place in her box she was firmly persuaded that it contained old Greifenstein's last words to his son.
There was nothing remarkable about the outward look of the letter except, perhaps, the superscription, in which Wastei had detected something of old Greifenstein's roughness. But Berbel thought it quite natural that he should have addressed it simply, 'To my son Greif, as he had done.
It is doubtful whether Greifenstein would have recognised his brother, if he had met him under any other circumstances. Forty years had passed since they had met, and both were old men. The difference between their ages was not great, for Greifenstein's father had died within the year of his son's birth, and his mother had married again three years later.
I am the son of Kuno von Rieseneck. I have Herr von Greifenstein's permission to pay my last duty to my dead father. Frau von Sigmundskron raised her gentle eyes in astonishment and looked from one to the other of the two men. 'Rex is my best friend, said Greif. 'He needed no permission of mine to come here. I will explain all at another time.
There was nothing improbable in the idea, and but for Greifenstein's words, she would have taken it for granted that this was the true state of the case. He, however, had emphatically denied that Clara was in the secret, and had evidently looked forward with pain to the moment when he should be obliged to communicate it to her.
Her plain grey dress, made almost as simply as a nun's, contrasted oddly with the profusion of expensive bad taste displayed in her hostess's attire, as her serious white face and quiet noble eyes were strangely unlike Frau von Greifenstein's simpering, nervous countenance.
Greifenstein, however, exacted from him an unvarying reverence and courtesy towards his mother, and never, even in moments of the greatest confidence, permitted the boy to criticise the least of her actions. To tell Greif of the suspicions which agitated his own mind was therefore contrary to Greifenstein's fixed principles, and consequently utterly impossible.
'It is the only favour I ever asked of you, and I give you my word it shall be the last. Greifenstein's piercing eyes gleamed dangerously, and for an instant the anger that burned in him glowed visibly in his face. 'Your He would have said 'your word, throwing into the two syllables all the contempt he felt, for one whose word had been so broken. But he checked himself gallantly.
The idea that two disgraced persons might come back from exile, instead of one, was extremely disquieting to Greifenstein's peace of mind. He knew well enough what to do with Rieseneck if he appeared. He would shut the gates and let him shift for himself. But the other man would be in search of Clara.
Greifenstein's face expressed unutterable contempt for this man, who in the strength and pride of youth had laid down his honour for a woman's word, not even for her love, since he had possessed that already. 'It seems to me, he said, 'that there was one very simple remedy for you. 'A little lead in the right place. I know. And yet I lived, and I live still. Why? I do not know.
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