'Ja!' said Gela again, rolling the pretty blue and pink and amber balls about in the white fur of the bearskin.
Gela's views of life were simplified by the disciple's law of imitation; they were restricted to doing whatever Bela did, when that was possible, when it was not possible he remained still adoring Bela, with his little serious face as calm as a god's.
She used to think that when they should grow up Bela would be a great soldier like Wallenstein or Condé, and Gela would stay at home and take care of his people here in the green, lone, happy Iselthal.
Time ran on and the later summer made the blooming hay grow brown on all the alpine meadows, and made the garden of Hohenszalras blossom with a million autumnal glories; it brought also the season of the first house-party. Egon Vàsàrhely was to arrive one day before the Lilienhöhe and the other guests.
'I want Egon so much to see Bela!' she said, with the thoughtless cruelty of a happy mother forgetful of the pain of a rejected lover.
'I fear Bela will find little favor in your cousin's eyes, since he is mine too,' said Sabran.
'Oh, Egon is content to be only our cousin by this----'
'You think so? You do not know yourself if you imagine that.'
'Egon is very loyal. He would not come here if he could not greet you honestly.'
Sabran's face flushed a little, and he turned away. He vaguely dreaded the advent of Egon Vàsàrhely, and there were so many innocent words uttered in the carelessness of intimate intercourse which stabbed him to the quick; she had so wounded him all unconscious of her act.
'Shall we have a game of billiards?' he asked her as they stood in the Rittersaal, whilst the rain fell fast without. She played billiards well, and could hold her own against him, though his game was one that had often been watched by a crowded _galerie_ in Paris with eager speculation and heavy wager. An hour afterwards they were still playing when the clang of a great bell announced the approach of the carriage which had been sent to Windisch-Matrey.
'Come!' she said joyously, as she put back her cue in its rest; but Sabran drew back.
'Receive your cousin first alone,' he said. 'He must resent my presence here. I will not force it on him on the threshold of your house.'