"It is some one who knows you, mother?" Natalie said, breathlessly.
"Oh, I hope so!" the other answered. She was a little pale, and her
fingers were tightly clasped.
Then a heavier step was heard in the empty corridors outside. The door
was opened; there appeared a tall and soldierly-looking man, about six
feet three in height and perfectly erect, with closely-cropped white
hair, a long white mustache, a reddish face, and clear, piercing,
light-blue eyes. The moment the elder woman saw him she uttered a slight
cry--of joy, it seemed, and surprise--and sprung to her feet.
"Stefan!"
"Natalie!" he exclaimed, in turn with an almost boyish laugh of
pleasure, and he came forward to her with both hands outstretched, and
took hers. "Why, what good wind has brought you to this country? But I
beg a thousand pardons--"
He turned and glanced at Natalie.
"My child," she said, "let me present you to my old friend, General--"
"Von Zoesch," he interrupted, and he took Natalie's hand at the same
time. "What, you are the young lady, then, who bearded the lion in his
den this morning?--and you were not afraid? No, I can see you are a
Berezolyi; if you were a man you would be forever getting yourself and
your friends into scrapes, and risking your neck to get them out again.
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