Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas Read Online Free Page A

lieutenant, who had taken entirely too literally the invitation to stop in sometime for tea which the
ladies of the house, to whom he had been presented at a ball during last
year's Carnival, had extended to him. And the still attractive lady of the
house apparently didn't remember that only two weeks ago, while seated
on a secluded bench in the garden, she had withdrawn herself from the
lieutenant's unexpectedly bold embrace only when sounds of approaching footsteps on the adjoining gravel path became audible. The first subject of conversation at table, a suit that the lawyer was pursuing for the
head of the household in a matter related to the latter's factory, was conducted in terms sometimes barely comprehensible to the lieutenant. But
fortunately the conversation then turned to the subject of country life and
summer travel, giving Willi the opportunity to jump in. Two years ago he
had participated in the imperial maneuvers in the Dolomites, and now he
was able to tell of camping under the open sky, of the two dark-haired
daughters of a Kastelruth innkeeper who had been called the Two
Medusas because of their unapproachability, and of a certain field marshal who, almost before Willi's very eyes, had fallen into disgrace as a
result of a bungled cavalry attack. And, as always after his third or fourth
glass of wine, he became less and less awkward, more gay. almost witty.
He could feel that he was gradually winning the host's favor, that the
lawyer's tone was gradually becoming less and less ironic, and that a certain memory was beginning to surface in the lady of the house. The energetic push from Emily's knee no longer took the trouble to appear
accidental.
    For coffee, a somewhat corpulent, elderly lady appeared with her two daughters. Willi was introduced to them as "our dancer from the Industry Ball." It soon developed that the three ladies had also been in
South Tirol two years ago; and wasn't it the lieutenant whom they had
seen galloping past their hotel in Seis on a stallion one beautiful summer
day? Willi was reluctant to deny this, though he knew very well that he,
an obscure lieutenant of the 98th Infantry, could never have been seen
charging through any village, in Tirol or anywhere else, on a proud stallion.

    The two young ladies were attractively clad in white. Fraulein
Kessner, in light pink, was in the middle as all three ran mischievously
over the lawn.
    "Just like the three Graces, aren't they?" observed the lawyer.
Again it sounded like irony, and the lieutenant was tempted to challenge
him: just how do you mean that, Herr Doctor? Yet it was all the easier to
suppress this remark as Miss Emily, out on the lawn, had just turned
around and was beckoning him to join her. She was blonde, slightly taller
than he was, and it could be presumed that she had expectations of a
rather considerable dowry. But to get to that stage-if one might even
dare to dream of such a possibility-would take a long time, a very long
time, and meanwhile the thousand gulden that his unlucky comrade
needed had to be acquired by tomorrow morning at the latest.
    So there was nothing left for him to do, in the interests of former
First Lieutenant Bogner, but to make his excuses just as the party was at
its best. They acted as though they wanted to keep him, and he voiced his
regrets: unfortunately he had made an appointment; and, most especially,
he had to visit a comrade who was taking a cure in the nearby military
hospital for an old case of rheumatism. The lawyer responded to all this
with his usual ironic smile. Would this visit occupy the whole afternoon'?
Frau Kessner, with a smile full of promise, wanted to know. Willi
shrugged his shoulders uncertainly. Well, at any rate, they would all be
happy to see him again in the course of the evening if he should manage
to get free.
    Just as he was leaving the house, two elegant young men rode up in
a carriage. This did not please Willi at all.