With the arrival of his cousin, the baron’s nephew, already timid, was thrown into a state of such stiffness and awkwardness that the servants, when they discussed the day’s events, were unanimous in their verdict: he loved her or desired her or yearned for her or was pining away for her, opinions that the young Hans Reiter listened to, sitting cross-legged and eating bread and butter, without saying a word or adding any commentary of his own, although the truth is he knew the baron’s nephew, whose name was Hugo Halder, much better than the other servants, who seemed blind to reality and saw
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