Oh, please don't go away, I am so curious to know you."
Wilhelm was dumfounded. Such calm insolence he had never yet
encountered. Pilar shot a glance of fury at the countess, to which
she did not pay the slightest attention, but examined Wilhelm
insolently through her gold eyeglasses, and went on with a vulgar
laugh:
"General Varon told me about you, and described you to me. He thinks
you very nice, and I must say I think he is right."
Pilar's patience gave out.
"Madame," she said very dryly, "if Monsieur le Docteur Eynhardt
feels himself honored by your astounding familiarities that is his
affair. I do not disguise from you that I think them in very bad
taste."
"Oh, my dear countess," replied the lady, in no way discomposed by
this snub, "don't be so severe upon me. I have no designs upon your
friend, and you need not be prudish with me. Surely ladies of our
rank have no need to be particular like any little grocer's wife."
That was Pilar's own creed, and before any other audience she would
smilingly have agreed with the Countess Cuerbo. But she pictured to
herself what an effect this tone would have upon Wilhelm's German,
middle-class sense of propriety, which she knew so well, and was
indignant at her visitor's cool cynicism.
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