Brand told me that he met Elsa's father and brother on the third evening that he slept in the Kreuzenachs' house. When he arrived that evening, at about five o'clock, the maidservant Truda, who "did" his bedroom and dusted his sitting-room with a German passion for cleanliness and with many conversational advances, informed him with a look of mysterious importance that the Old Man wanted to see him in the drawing-room.
"What old man?" asked Brand, at which Truda giggled and said, "the old Herr Baron."
"He hates the English like ten thousand devils," added Truda, confidentially.
"Perhaps I had better not go, then," was Brand's answer.
Truda told him that he would have to go. When the Old Herr Baron asked for a thing it had to be given him. The only person who dared to disobey him was Fräulein Elsa, who was very brave, and a "hübsches Mädchen."
Brand braced himself for the interview, but felt extremely nervous when Truda rapped at the drawing-room door, opened it and announced, in German,
"The English officer!"
The family von Kreuzenach was in full strength, obviously waiting for his arrival. The Baroness was in an evening gown of black silk showing her bare neck and arms. She was sitting stiffly in a high-backed chair by the piano, and was very handsome in her cold way.
Her husband, General von Kreuzenach, was pretending to read a book by the fireside. He was a tall, bald-headed, heavy-jowled man with a short white moustache. The ribbon of the Iron Cross was fastened to the top buttonhole of his frock-coat.
Elsa was sitting on a stool by his side, and on a low seat, with his back to the fire, was a tall young man with
