"Pray don't mention it to Herbert, I beg of you," Adelheid said,
hastily. "I will tell you myself. Eugen has been carried away by his
temper; he has taken the affair too much to heart from the beginning.
There was nothing dishonorable in it."
"I supposed that when Wallmoden had to do with it," the colonel
interrupted with marked emphasis.
Adelheid lowered her voice, but she avoided the colonel's eye as she
continued:
"You know that I was not engaged to Herbert until after our year's
residence in Florence. My father was very ill and his physicians ordered
him to Italy for the winter. We went to Florence for a couple of months;
our farther movements were to depend upon my father's condition. My
brother accompanied, us and when the winter set in he was to return
home. After a few weeks we took a villa just outside the city, and
lived, of course, a very retired life. Eugen saw Italy for the first
time under very sad and depressing circumstances; it was very trying for
him, a mere boy, to sit day after day in a sick room, so I seconded his
request to be allowed to go to Rome for a few weeks, and obtained the
desired permission for him. I ought never to have done so. But I did
not know how great was his inexperience or into what it would lead him."
"Which means that he plunged into frivolous pleasure or dissipation
while his father lay on his death-bed," the Colonel interposed harshly.
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