With us my wife was the principal speaker: she filled up, from what Rudolf had told her, the gaps in our knowledge of how he had spent his night in Strelsau, and by the time we arrived we were fully informed in every detail.

The queen said little.

The impulse which had dictated her appeal to Rischenheim and carried her through it seemed to have died away; she had become again subject to fears and apprehension.

I saw her uneasiness when she suddenly put out her hand and touched mine, whispering: "He must be at the house by now." Our way did not lie by the house, and we came to the palace without any news of our absent chief (so I call him--as such we all, from the queen herself, then regarded him).

She did not speak of him again; but her eyes seemed to follow me about as though she were silently asking some service of me; what it was I could not understand.