The title story of this collection is one of the best I have ever read. When a young German baron spies a beautiful (married) woman, while he is visiting a mountain resort, he finds that his best approach is via her young son. He quickly establishes a relationship with the son leading him closer to his mother, but the son begins to sense a change. The adults have a 'secret' that he must unravel for it is beginning to stand in the way of his relationship with the Baron. Full of the deep psychological insight you would expect from Stefan Zweig this story builds inexorably to its end. A compelling collection as a whole. ( )