But this
stiff old gentleman had a wonderful instinct for evil, thus to wind
his way into man's citadel; thus to harp by the hour on the virtues
of his hearer and not once alarm his self-respect. Otto was all
roseate, in and out, with flattery and Tokay and an approving
conscience. He saw himself in the most attractive colours. If even
Greisengesang, he thought, could thus espy the loose stitches in
Seraphina's character, and thus disloyally impart them to the
opposite camp, he, the discarded husband - the dispossessed Prince -
could scarce have erred on the side of severity.
In this excellent frame he bade adieu to the old gentleman, whose
voice had proved so musical, and set forth for the drawing-room.
Already on the stair, he was seized with some compunction; but when
he entered the great gallery and beheld his wife, the Chancellor's
abstract flatteries fell from him like rain, and he re-awoke to the
poetic facts of life. She stood a good way off below a shining
lustre, her back turned. The bend of her waist overcame him with
physical weakness. This was the girl-wife who had lain in his arms
and whom he had sworn to cherish; there was she, who was better than
success.
It was Seraphina who restored him from the blow. She swam forward
and smiled upon her husband with a sweetness that was insultingly
artificial. 'Frederic,' she lisped, 'you are late.
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