As it was, the two steps built into the
floor of the room, and the black hood that Ursel tied over her young
mistress's head, were the only traces that such etiquette had ever
been heard of.
But when Baron Kasimir had clanked up the turret stairs, each step
bringing to her many a memory of him who should have been there, and
when he had been led to the bedside, he was completely taken by
surprise.
Instead of the great, flat-faced, coarse comeliness of a German
wench, treated as a lady in order to deceive him, he saw a delicate,
lily-like face, white as ivory, and the soft, sweet brown eyes under
their drooping lashes, so full of innocence and sad though thankful
content, that he felt as if the inquiries he came to make were almost
sacrilege.
He had seen enough of the world to know that no agent in a clumsy
imposition would look like this pure white creature, with her arm
encircling the two little swaddled babes, whose red faces and bald
heads alone were allowed to appear above their mummy-like wrappings;
and he could only make an obeisance lower and infinitely more
respectful than that with which he had favoured the Baroness nee von
Adlerstein, with a few words of inquiry and apology.
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