The Opposite House: A Novel — page 96: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Opposite Flouse. | gI could not submit an escutcheon and coronet to the scrutiny of those cold gray eyes. Albertine von Rotterswyl had two stepbrothers. ‘The elder, Verja’s husband, sometimes called as he drove by in a light carriage. The younger be- longed to a regiment of the Guards in Berlin, and had been her favorite from childhood. Franz von Kartege was a strikingly handsome man, daring and chivalrous, with velvety dark eyes, about which “whole books might be written,’ as a young lady had enthusiastically exclaimed. He had gone to the war in 1866, full of life and vigor, to return en- feebled and crippled by wounds. He was obliged to spend the greater portion of the year in Wies- baden, and it was a heart-rending spectacle to see him, helpless as a child, in his rolling-chair. Albertine had often cherished the desire to meet him again, but lacked the strength bestowed by the sudden power of “‘ must,” to rouse her from the fet- ters of her monotonous life. Now he was near her at Wiesbaden, and the baroness seemed to be plan- ning a visit in earnest. She was slowly turning the pages of a railway-guide, estimating, and at times casting a searching glance into the street. Just at that moment the fortztre was drawn aside, and the servant put his gray head into the room. “Frau von Kartegg and Doctor Brand!” he an- nounced, and, at a gesture of assent from his mistress, CoOMmicbooOoks.c© S|