CHAPTER II.
This man contrives a secret 'twixt us two, That he may quell me with his meeting eyes Like one who quells a lioness at bay.
This was the letter Gwendolen found on her table:-- DEAREST CHILD .-- I have been expecting to hear from you for a week.

In your last you said the Langens thought of leaving Leubronn and going to Baden.

How could you be so thoughtless as to leave me in uncertainty about your address?
I am in the greatest anxiety lest this should not reach you.

In any case, you were to come home at the end of September, and I must now entreat you to return as quickly as possible, for if you spent all your money it would be out of my power to send you any more, and you must not borrow of the Langens, for I could not repay them.

This is the sad truth, my child--I wish I could prepare you for it better--but a dreadful calamity has befallen us all.