' She is pretending to be an important person, ' said the Baroness; ' she knows she will soon be past work and she wants to appeal to our sympathies. Her grandfather, indeed! '
'I dare say her grandfather was a footman or something of the sort in the castle, ' suggested the Baron; ' that part of the story may be true. '
' I shall give her notice as soon as the New year festivities are over, ' said the Baroness; ' till then I shall be too busy to manage without her. '
But she had to manage without her all the same for in the cold weather after Christmas the old governes fell ill and stayed in her room.
It is most annoying,' said the Baroness, as her guests sat round the fire on one of the last evenings of the year;'all the times that she has been with us i can't remember that she was ever seriously ill, too ill to go about and do her work, I mean. And now when I have the house full, and she could be useful in so many ways, she breaks down. One is sorry for her, of course: she looks so old and frail, but it is extremely annoying all the same,'
'Most annoying,'agreed the banker's wife, sympathetically; 'it is intense cold, I expect. It has been unusually cold this year.'
'The frost is the sharpest that has been known in December for many years' said Baron.
And of course, she is quite old, said Baroness; I wish i had given her notice some weeks ago then she would have left before this happen to her. Why, Wappi, what is the matter with you?'
The small, woolly lapdog had leapt suddenly down from its cushion and crept shivering under the sofa. At the same moment an outburst of angry barking came from the dogs in the castle yard, and other dogs could be heard barking in the distance.
'What is disturbing the animals?' ask Baron.
Amd then the humans, listening intently, heard the sound that had roused the dogs to their demonstration of fear and anger; heard a long-drawn whining howl, rising and falling, seeming at one moment miles away , at others sweeping across the snow until it apeared to come from the foot of the castle walls.
Wolves! Crired thw Baron
'hundereds of wolves,' said the Humberg merchant, who was a man of strong imagination.
Moved by some impluse which ahe could not have explained, the Baroness left her guests and made her way to narrow cheerless room where the old governess lay watching the hours of the dyingyear slip by. In spitw of the severe cold of winter night, the window stood open. With an exclamation of disapproval the Baroness rushed forward to close it.
I think she is dying ,said the Borones when she had rejoined her guests. I suppose we must sent for a doctor.And that terrible howling! Not for a lot of money would I have such death-music.
That music can not be bought for any amount of money said Conrad.
Listen! What is that other sound? Asked Baron as a noise of splitting and crashing was heared.
It was tree falling in the park.
There was a moment of silence and then the bankers wife spoke.
It is the intense cold that is splitting the trees. It is also the cold that has brought out the wolves in such number.
The Baroness eagerly agreed that the cold was responsie for these things. It was the cold of the open window too that made the doctor attention unnecessary for the all Fraulein. But the notice in the newspaper looked very well.
'On 29 December at Castle Cernogratz, Amile von Cernogratz, for many years the valued friend of Baron and Baroness Gruebel.'