She was
thinking of the impression Greif would make upon Hilda, and wondering
whether the girl would find him greatly changed or not. She was woman
enough to suppose that much would depend upon the first moments of the
meeting which was about to take place, and upon the look Greif should
first see in Hilda's eyes. If he found her sad, pale, ready to pity
him, his nature would be hardened, partly because he hated to be pitied
by any one, partly because that same irritation would help him to
execute his purpose. But if, on the contrary, Hilda met him with an
ill-concealed joy, if there were light in her bright eyes and colour in
her cheeks, if her voice spoke sympathy in his sorrows while her face
told him of her gladness in the meeting, then things might turn out
very differently. After all, thought Frau von Sigmundskron, Greif was
only a man, and could not be expected to act altogether wisely unless a
woman helped him.
She had certainly not always held such beliefs, but in latter years
they had grown upon her. Sigmundskron was a women's establishment and
naturally independent. The baroness had grown to think that, after all,
women, when thrown entirely upon their own resources, can manage better
than men. She was sure that no three men could have lived so decently
and fairly well upon as little as sufficed for herself, Hilda and
Berbel. It is true that the distance from such daily forethought and
hourly prudence as she needed in her life, to such wisdom as Rex, for
instance, possessed so abundantly, was considerable; but the baroness
looked upon that as an insignificant argument, if indeed it presented
itself to her mind at all.
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