During the next two days, I must admit that, in spite of myself, the name of Wilhelm Storitz kept recurring to my mind. So it was in Ragz that he usually dwelt, and, as I soon learned, with one solitary servant known as Hermann, no more sympathetic, no more approachable, no more communicativethan his master. It seemed to me, too, that the appearance and gait of this Hermann recalled the man who on the day I arrived had seemed to be following my brother and myself as we walked along the river-side.

I thought it best to say nothing to Marc about the encounter which Captain Haralan and I had had on the Boulevard Tékéli.It might have made him uneasy to know that Wilhelm Storitz had returned to Ragz.Why dim his happiness by a shadow of anxiety?But I regretted that his rejected rival was not out of the town—at least until the day when the marriage of Marc and Myra should be accomplished.

On the morning of the 16th I was just on the point of setting out for a walk when Captain Haralan appeared.This rather surprised me, for it had been agreed that I was not to see him that day.

‘You?'I exclaimed.‘Well, my dear Captain, what a pleasant surprise!'

I might have been mistaken, but it seemed to me that he was looking rather anxious.All he said was.‘My dear Vidal, Father would like a word with you.He's waiting for you at home.'

‘I'll come with you, 'I replied, very surprised and even a little uneasy without knowing why.What could have happened and what did Dr.Roderich want to talk to me about?Had it got anything to do with Marc's wedding?We walked along without exchanging a word.

The doctor was alone in his study, sitting at his table.When he looked up he seemed more anxious than his son.

‘There must be something, 'I thought, ‘and certainly Marc knew nothing about it when I saw him this morning.'

I sat down in an armchair facing Dr.Roderich, while Captain Haralan stood leaning against the mantlepiece.Then I waited, not without some anxiety, for the Doctor to speak.

‘First of all, Monsieur Vidal, 'he said, ‘thank you for coming to visit me.'

‘I'm always at your service, Dr.Roderich, 'I replied.

‘I wanted to have a word with you in Haralan's presence.'

‘Is it something to do with the wedding?'

‘Yes, it is.'

‘So what you've got to say to me is really serious?'

‘Yes and no, 'the Doctor replied, ‘whichever it is, neither my wife, nor my daughter, nor your brother know anything about it.I prefer for them not to know what I've got to tell you.Then you'll be able to judge for yourself whether I'm right or wrong.'

Instinctively, I felt in my heart that this had something to do with the encounter which Captain Haralan and I had had before the house on the Boulevard Tékéli.

‘Yesterday afternoon, 'the Doctor continued, ‘while Madame Roderich and Myra were out, and just at my hour for consultation, the servant announced a visitor whom I would rather not have received……That visitor was Wilhelm Storitz, but perhaps yon don't know that that German……?'

‘I know about him, 'I replied.

‘You know then that about six months ago, well before your brother's request had been made and welcomed, Wilhelm Storitz asked for my daughter's hand.After consulting my wife and my son, who shared my dislike for such a marriage, I told Wilhelm Storitz that I could not consider his proposal.Instead of bowing to this refusal he renewed his request in formal terms, and I repeated no less formally my reply in such terms as not to leave him any hope.'

While Dr.Roderich was talking, Captain Haralan was striding up and down the room.He stopped several times at one of the windows to look in the direction of the Boulevard Tékéli.

‘Dr.Roderich, 'I said, ‘I knew about this request and I knew that it was made before my brother's.'

‘About three months before, Monsieur Vidal.'

‘So, 'I continued, ‘it wasn't because Marc had already been accepted that Wilhelm Storitz was refused Myra's hand but simply because the marriage didn't appeal to you.'

‘Certainly not!Never should we have consented to such a union, which would have appealed to us in no way whatever, and to which Myra would have given a categorical refusal.'

‘Was it because of Wilhelm Storitz'position or was it personal?'

‘His position is probably good enough, 'Dr.Roderich replied, ‘we can well believe that his father left him a considerable fortune, the result of his fruitful discoveries.But as to his person……'

‘I know him, Dr.Roderich.'

‘You know him?'

I explained the conditions in which I had met Wilhelm Storitz on the Dorothy without guessing who he was.For three or four days that German had been my travelling Companion, and as he was no longer on board when we reached Ragz, I had thought that he had landed at Vukovar.

‘Yet now, 'I added, while we were out walking, Captain Haralan and I went past his house and I recognised this Wilhelm Storitz the moment he came out.'

‘Yet they said he had been out of town for several weeks, 'said Dr.Roderich.

‘They thought so and he certainly had been away, as Vidal saw him at Budapest, 'put in Captain Haralan.whose voice showed a certain irritation, ‘but it's quite certain that he's come back.'

The Doctor continued in these words, ‘I told you, Mr.Vidal, about his position.As to his mode of life, who could boast of knowing it?It is completely enigmatical.That man seems to live outside all humanity.'

‘Aren't you rather exaggerating'?'I asked.

‘A little exaggeration, no doubt.Still, he belongs to rather a suspicious family, and before him, his father Otto Storitz was the subject of the strangest legends.'

‘Which have survived him, Doctor, to judge by what I read in a newspaper at Budapest.It was about the anniversary which is celebrated every year at Spremberg, in—the town cemetery.To judge by that paper, time had not weakened the superstitious legends you spoke of.The dead savant still keeps his reputation.He's a sorcerer, they say, who owns the secrets of the Next World and uses supernatural power.Every year, it seems, they expect to see some remarkable phenomenon happening round his tomb.'

‘Then, Monsieur Vidal, 'the Doctor ended, ‘it won't surprise you, after what they say at Spremberg, if at Ragz this Wilhelm Storitz is looked upon as a strange sort of person……That's the man who asked for my daughter's hand, and who, yesterday, had the audacity to repeat his demands.'

‘Yesterday?'I exclaimed.

‘Yesterday, when he called here.'

‘And, if there wasn't anything else, 'Captain Haralan declared, ‘he'd still be a Prussian and that would have been quite enough to make us refuse such an alliance.'

All the antipathy which, by tradition and by instinct, the Magyar race feels for the Germanic race flared out in those words.

This is what happened, 'Dr.Roderich continued, ‘it's as well for you to know.When Wilhelm Storitz was announced, I hesitated……Should I have him shown in or simply replied that I could not receive him?'

‘Perhaps that might have been better, father, 'said Captain Haralan, ‘for after the failure of his first attempt, that man would have realised that he was forbidden to set foot in this house on any pretext whatever.'

‘Yes, perhaps, 'said the Doctor, ‘but I feared to go to extremes and that it might lead to some scandal.'

‘Which I should soon have brought to an end, father!'

‘And it's just because I know you, 'the Doctor grasped the captain's hand, ‘that's just why I preferred to act prudently……Whatever may happen, I appeal to your affection for your mother, for me, for your sister, whose position would become very painful if her name were brought into it, should this Wilhelm Storitz cause any trouble.'

Although I had known Captain Haralan only for a few days, I regarded him as somewhat quick-tempered and very jealous of the honour of his family.So I thought it deplorable that Marc's rival should have returned to Ragz and especially that he should have renewed his request.

The Doctor described that visit in detail.It was in the very room where we ourselves were.Wilhelm Storitz had first used tones which showed that he had an.extraordinary tenacity.According to him, Dr.Roderich could not be surprised that he wanted to see him and that he wanted to make a second attempt as soon as he got back to Ragz.

In vain the Doctor had given a very formal reply.Wilhelm Storitz had not wanted to admit defeat and, his voice gradually getting angry, he had declared that the engagement of my brother and of Mademoiselle Myra would have to be given up before his claim, that he loved the young lady and that if she were not for him at least she would not be for anybody else.

‘The insolent……the wretch!'exclaimed Captain Haralan, ‘he dare talk like that, and I wasn't there to throw him out!'

‘Certainly, 'I thought, ‘if these two men should ever come face to face it would be difficult to stop the clash which the Doctor fears.'

‘These last words said, 'the latter continued, ‘I got up and indicated that I would not listen to any more.The wedding was decided on and it would be celebrated in a few days.

“‘Neither in a few days, nor later'Wilhelm Storitz replied, ‘Sir, 'I told him, showing him the door‘be so good as to go!Anybody else would have understood that his visit could not continue.'‘Well, he waited, he lowered his tone, he tried to gain by mildness what he could not obtain by violence, at least a promise that the marriage should be cancelled.So I went to the door to ring for the servant.He grasped my arm, his anger returned, his voice rang out until it must have been heard outside.Fortunately my wife and daughter had not yet come home.‘Wilhelm Storitz at last consented to go, but not without uttering a number of wild threats.Myra should not marry Marc.Such obstacles would arise that the wedding would be impossible.The Storitz had methods which could defy all human power, and he would not hesitate to make use of them against the rash family which had rejected him……Then he opened the study door and went out furiously, leaving me greatly perturbed by his enigmatic words.'

As the Doctor reminded us again, not a word of all this was to be repeated to Madame Roderich, or to her daughter, or to my brother.It would be better to spare them that anxiety.What was more, I knew Marc well enough to fear that he would want to bring this business to an end, as did Captain Haralan—who however, gave way to his father's insistence.

‘Very well, 'he said, ‘I shan't go and punish that rascal.But suppose it's he who comes to me……Suppose it's he who attacks Marc……suppose it's he who provokes us?’

Dr.Roderich did not know what to reply.

There our conversation ended.Whatever happened, we should have to wait.The episode would indeed have no aftermath, and could remain unknown to all, unless Wilhelm Storitz were to pass from words to deeds.Well, what could he do?How could he prevent the marriage?Would it be by forcing Marc, by publicly insulting him, to fight a duel with him?Might it not rather be by using some violence against Myra Roderich?But how would he succeed in getting into a house where he was no longer received?It was not in his power, I suppose, to break down the door!What was more, Dr.Roderich would not hesitate, if he had to, to warn the authorities, who would know well enough how to bring that German to reason.

Before we parted, the doctor again adjured his son to take no action against that insolent fellow, and it was obviously against his will that Captain Haralan agreed.

That afternoon I went for a walk with the ladies and Marc.But my mind was elsewhere.Marc commented on this and I had to reply evasively.

Was it that I feared meeting Wilhelm Storitz on our way?No, I was rather thinking about what he had told Dr.Roderich:‘Such obstacles would arise that the wedding would be impossible.The Storitz had methods which could defy all human power!'What did these words mean?Were they to be taken seriously?I promised myself to discuss this with the doctor when we were alone.'

That day and the next flowed on.I began to feel reassured.Nothing more had been seen of Wilhelm Storitz.Yet he had not left town.The house on the Boulevard Tékéli was still occupied.As I passed it, I saw his servant.Her-mann coming out.Once, Wilhelm Storitz himself had appeared at one of the belvedere windows, his gaze turned towards the end of the boulevard, in the direction of Dr.Roderich’s home.

Then on the night of the 17th May, this is what happened:

Although the Cathedral door was bolted and nobody could enter it by night without being seen, the notice of the marriage of Marc Vidal to Myra Roderich had been torn down from its place among the others.In the morning it was found in torn crumpled fragments.

The damage was repaired at once.But an hour later—this time in broad daylight-the new notice had the fate of its predecessor.This happened three times during the 18th May without its being possible to lay hands on the culprit.Tired of the struggle, it was at last decided to protect by a strong grille the frame reserved for these notices.

This stupid attempt set the tongues wagging for a short time, then nobody thought any more about it.But Dr.Roderich, Captain Haralan and I gave it more serious attention.Not for an instant did we doubt that this was the first act of the proclaimed hostilities, like a sort of preliminary skirmish in the war which Wilhelm Storitz had declared upon us.