Forty years had passed since they had met, and both were old
men. The difference between their ages was not great, for
Greifenstein 's father had died within the year of his son's birth,
and his mother had married again three years later. In her
turn she had died when both were young men, and from that
time Greifenstein had seen little of his half-brother, who had
been brought up by his own father in a different part of the
country. Then young Rieseneck had entered the Prussian ser-
vice, and a few years later had been ruined by the consequences
of his evil deeds.
Greifenstein saw before him a tall man, with abundant white
hair and a snowy beard, of bronzed complexion, evidently strong
in spite of his years, chiefly remarkable for the heavy black eye-
brows that shaded his small grey eyes. The latter were placed
too near together, and the eyelids slanted downwards at the
outer side, which gave the face an expression of intelligence and
great cunning. Deep lines furrowed the high forehead, and
descended in broad curves from beneath the eyes tiU they lost
themselves in the beard. Kuno von Rieseneck was evidently a
man of strong feelings and passions, of energetic temperament,
clever, unscrupulous, but liable to go astray after strange ideas,
and possibly capable of something very like fanaticism. It was
indeed not credible that he should have done the deeds which
had wrecked his life, out of cold calculation, and yet it was
impossible to believe that he could be wholly disinterested in
anything he did. The whole effect of his personality was dis-
quieting.
