She agrees with me that
I have a right to be happy. I ask no exemption from the common law. What
I claim is simply freedom to try to be!"
Of course I was puzzled; it was not in that fashion that I had expected
Madame Blumenthal to make use of my information. But the matter now was
quite out of my hands, and all I could do was to bid my companion not
work himself into a fever over either fortune.
The next day I had a visit from Niedermeyer, on whom, after our talk at
the opera, I had left a card. We gossiped a while, and at last he said
suddenly, "By the way, I have a sequel to the history of Clorinda. The
major is at Homburg!"
"Indeed!" said I. "Since when?"
"These three days."
"And what is he doing?"
"He seems," said Niedermeyer, with a laugh, "to be chiefly occupied in
sending flowers to Madame Blumenthal. That is, I went with him the
morning of his arrival to choose a nosegay, and nothing would suit him
but a small haystack of white roses. I hope it was received."
"I can assure you it was," I cried. "I saw the lady fairly nestling her
head in it. But I advise the major not to build upon that. He has a
rival."
"Do you mean the soft young man of the other night?"
"Pickering is soft, if you will, but his softness seems to have served
him.
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