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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign of Flame, by E. Werner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sign of Flame
+
+Author: E. Werner
+
+Translator: Eva Freeman Hart
+            E. Van Gerpen
+
+Release Date: January 25, 2011 [EBook #35069]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIGN OF FLAME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+   Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/signofflame00werniala
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "My son'. My only child! Do you not know your mother?"
+Hartmut retreated, startled. "My mother is dead," he said in a low
+tone. Page 26. _The Sign of Flame_.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE SIGN OF FLAME.
+
+
+
+                      FROM THE GERMAN OF E. WERNER
+
+
+
+                             TRANSLATED BY
+
+                   EVA FREEMAN HART AND E. VAN GERPEN
+
+
+
+
+           "Give me a nook and a book,
+            And let the proud world spin round."
+
+
+
+                    A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,
+                      52-58 DUANE STREET, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                Copyright, 1902. BY A. L. BURT COMPANY.
+
+                           THE SIGN OF FLAME.
+
+           Translated by Eva Freeman Hart and E. Van Gerpen.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE SIGN OF FLAME
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Through the gray fog of an autumn morning a flock of birds took flight;
+sweeping now, as if in farewell, close to the firs, so recently their
+home--rising now to a goodly height, directing their flight toward the
+south, and disappearing slowly in the veiled distance.
+
+The gloomy eyes of a man standing at a window of the large castle-like
+mansion situated at the edge of the forest, followed this flight.
+
+He was of tall stature and powerful in physique; the erect bearing
+would have betrayed the soldier even without the uniform which he wore:
+his features not handsome but strong; hair light, and eyes blue; in
+short, a typical German in appearance; but something like a shadow
+rested on those features, and the high brow bore deeper furrows than
+the years seemed to warrant.
+
+"There, the birds are already leaving," he said, pointing to the flock
+which fluttered in the distance until lost entirely in the mass of fog.
+"The autumn is here in nature and also in our lives."
+
+"Not yet in yours," interrupted his companion. "You are standing in
+full strength at the height of your life."
+
+"Perhaps so considering years; but I feel as if old age would approach
+me sooner than any one else. I feel much like the autumn of the year."
+
+The other gentleman, who was in civilian dress, was probably older than
+his companion. His stature was of medium height and frail. At first
+sight he appeared almost insignificant beside the powerful form of the
+officer, but the pale, sharply outlined face bore an expression of
+cold, superior calm; and the sarcastic line around the thin lips proved
+that behind the cold composure expressed in his whole manner something
+deeper lay concealed.
+
+He now shook his head with displeasure.
+
+"You take life too hard, Falkenried," he said reproachfully; "you have
+changed remarkably in these last years. He who has seen you as a young
+officer, merry as the day, would not recognize you now. And why all
+this? The shadow which once clouded your life has long ago vanished;
+you are heart and soul a soldier; you receive distinction at every
+opportunity; an important position is assured you in the near future;
+and, what is best--you have kept your son."
+
+Falkenried did not reply; he folded his arms and again looked out into
+the gray distance. The other continued:
+
+"The boy has grown as handsome as a picture in these last few years. I
+was quite surprised when I saw him, and even you confess that he is
+extraordinarily gifted, and, moreover, in several respects is endowed
+with absolute genius."
+
+"I wish Hartmut were less gifted and had more character instead,"
+Falkenried said in almost harsh tones. "He can make poetry and learn
+languages as if it were play, but as soon as he begins earnest study he
+remains far behind the others; while as to military strategy, nothing
+whatever can be done with him. You have no idea, Wallmoden, what iron
+severity I have to bring to bear on that."
+
+"I only fear that you do not accomplish much with this severity,"
+interrupted Wallmoden. "You should have followed my advice and sent
+your son to the University. That he is not cut out for a soldier you
+ought now finally to see."
+
+"He must and shall be fit for it; it is the only thing possible for his
+unruly disposition, which chafes under every curb and feels every duty
+a burden. The University--the life of a student--would give him fullest
+liberty. Nothing but the iron discipline to which he has to bow keeps
+him in check."
+
+"Yes, for a while; but can it force him in the future? You should not
+deceive yourself. His are, unfortunately, inherited faults, which may
+possibly be suppressed, but never uprooted. Hartmut is in appearance
+the image of his mother; he has her features--her eyes."
+
+"Yes, I know," Falkenried said, gloomily, "her dark, demoniacal,
+glowing eyes, which knew how to charm everything----"
+
+"And which became your ruin," completed Wallmoden. "How did I not warn
+and implore against them, but you would not listen to anything. Passion
+had taken hold of you like a fever and held you in bonds altogether. I
+have never been able to understand it."
+
+A bitter smile flitted around Falkenried's mouth.
+
+"I believe that. You, the cool, calculating diplomat who carefully
+measure every step, are safe from such charms."
+
+"I should at least be more careful in my choice. Your marriage brought
+misfortune with it from the beginning. A wife of foreign race and
+blood--of wild Slavian nature, without character, without any
+understanding for that which is custom and duty to us, and you with
+your strict principles--your irritable sense of honor--it had finally
+to come to such an end. And I believe you loved her up to the
+separation in spite of everything!"
+
+"No," said Falkenried harshly. "The illusion vanished in the first
+year. I saw only too clearly--but I shuddered at the idea of laying my
+domestic miseries open to the world by a divorce. I bore it until no
+choice was left me--until I finally--but enough of it!"
+
+He turned quickly, and again looked out of the window. There was
+suppressed torture in the sudden breaking off.
+
+"Yes, it needed much to tear a nature like yours from the roots,"
+Wallmoden said seriously; "but nevertheless the separation left you
+free from the unfortunate claim, and with that you should have also
+buried the reminiscences."
+
+"One cannot bury such reminiscences; they always rise up again from the
+supposed grave, and just now----" Falkenried broke off suddenly.
+
+"Just now--what do you mean?"
+
+"Nothing; let us speak of other things. You have been at Burgsdorf
+since the day before yesterday. How long do you intend to stay?"
+
+"Perhaps two weeks. I have not much time at my disposal, and am
+Willibald's guardian really only in name, since the diplomatic service
+keeps me mostly in foreign countries. In fact, the guardianship rests
+in the hands of my sister, who rules everything, anyhow."
+
+"Yes, Regine is well up to her position," assented Falkenried. "She
+rules the large estates and numerous people like a man."
+
+"And issues commands from morning to night like a sergeant," completed
+Wallmoden. "With all due appreciation for her excellent qualities, I
+always feel a slight rising of the hair at the prospect of a visit to
+Burgsdorf, and I return from there regularly with shattered nerves.
+Real primitive conditions rule in that place. Willibald is actually a
+young bear, but the ideal of his mother for all that. She does her best
+to raise him an ignorant young country squire. All interposition is of
+no use, for he has every inclination for it, anyway."
+
+The entrance of a servant interrupted them. He handed a card to
+Falkenried, which the latter glanced at hastily.
+
+"Herr Egern, Solicitor. Very well, show the gentleman in."
+
+"Have you a business engagement?" asked Wallmoden, rising. "I will not
+disturb you."
+
+"On the contrary, I beg you to remain. I have been advised of this
+visit, and know what will be discussed. It concerns----"
+
+He did not conclude, for the door opened and the one announced entered.
+
+He seemed surprised not to find the officer alone, as he had expected,
+but the latter took no notice of the surprise.
+
+"Herr Egern, Solicitor--Herr von Wallmoden, Secretary of the
+Ambassador."
+
+The barrister bowed with cool courtesy, and accepted the offered chair.
+
+"I probably have the honor of being familiar to you, Herr Major," he
+began. "As counsel for your wife, I had occasional cause to meet you
+personally in that suit for divorce."
+
+He stopped, and seemed to expect an answer, but Major Falkenried only
+bowed in mute assent. Wallmoden now began to be attentive. He could now
+understand the strangely irritable mood in which he had found his
+friend upon his arrival.
+
+"I come to-day also in the name of my former client," continued the
+lawyer. "She has asked me--may I speak freely?"
+
+He cast a glance at the Secretary, but Falkenried said shortly:
+
+"Herr von Wallmoden is my friend, and as such is familiar with the
+case. I beg you to speak without restraint."
+
+"Very well, then--the lady has returned to Germany after long years of
+absence, and naturally wishes to see her son. She has already written
+to you on that behalf, but has not received an answer."
+
+"I should consider that a sufficient answer. I do not desire this
+meeting, and therefore shall not permit it."
+
+"That sounds very harsh, Herr Major. Frau von Falkenried has
+surely----"
+
+"Frau Zalika Rojanow, you mean to say," interrupted the Major. "She
+resumed her maiden name, so far as I know, when she returned to her
+country."
+
+"The name is of no consequence," replied the lawyer calmly. "The sole
+consideration here is the perfectly justifiable wish of a mother, which
+the father cannot and must not deny, even when, as in this case, the
+son is given to him unconditionally."
+
+"Must not! And if he should do it, notwithstanding?"
+
+"Then he oversteps the borders of his rights. I would like to ask you,
+Herr Major, to consider the matter calmly before speaking such a
+decided 'No.' The rights of a mother cannot be so completely cancelled
+by a decision of the court that one may even deny her a meeting with
+her only child. The law is upon the side of my client in this case, and
+she will enforce it, if my personal appeal is ignored as was her
+written request."
+
+"She may try it then. I will let it come to the test. My son does not
+know that his mother is alive, and shall not learn it just yet. I do
+not wish that he should see and speak to her, and I shall know how to
+prevent it. My 'No' remains unchanged."
+
+These remarks were given quietly, but upon Falkenried's features there
+lay an ashy paleness, and his voice sounded hollow and threatening. The
+awful excitement under which he labored was apparent; only with supreme
+effort could he force himself to outward calm. The lawyer seemed to
+understand the fruitlessness of further effort. He only shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"If this be your final decision, then my errand is, of course,
+finished, and we must decide later upon further moves. I am sorry to
+have disturbed you, Herr Major."
+
+He took his leave with the same cool politeness with which he had
+entered.
+
+Falkenried sprang up and paced the room stormily after the door had
+closed upon the lawyer. A depressing silence reigned for a few moments,
+after which Wallmoden spoke half audibly.
+
+"You ought not to have done that. Zalika will hardly submit to your
+'No.' If you remember, she carried on a life-and-death struggle for her
+child at that time."
+
+"But I remained victor. I hope she has not forgotten that."
+
+"At that time it concerned the possession of the boy," interrupted the
+friend. "The mother now only requests to see him again, and you will
+not be able to deny her that when she demands it with decision."
+
+The Major came to a sudden standstill, but there was a scarcely veiled
+contempt in his voice as he said:
+
+"She dares not do that after all that happened. Zalika learned to know
+me in our parting hour. She will take care not to force me to extremes
+a second time."
+
+"But she will perhaps try to obtain secretly what you refuse her
+openly."
+
+"That will be impossible; the discipline of our school is too strict.
+No relations could be started there of which I would not be notified
+immediately."
+
+Wallmoden did not seem to share this confidence; he shook his head
+doubtingly.
+
+"I confess that I consider your keeping, with such persistence, the
+knowledge of his mother's existence from your son a mistake. If he
+should hear it now from another source--what then? And you will have to
+tell him finally."
+
+"Perhaps after two years, when he enters life independently. He is
+still but a scholar--a mere boy. I cannot yet draw the veil from the
+tragedy which was once enacted in the home of his parents--I cannot."
+
+"Then at least be upon your guard. You know your former wife--know what
+can be expected from her. I fear there are no impossibilities for that
+woman."
+
+"Yes, I know her," said Falkenried with boundless bitterness, "and just
+for that reason I will protect my son from her at any cost. He shall
+not breathe the poison of her presence for even an hour. Rest assured,
+I do not underrate the danger of Zalika's return, but as long as
+Hartmut remains at my side he will be safe from her, for she will not
+approach me again. I pledge you my word for that."
+
+"We will hope so," returned Wallmoden, rising and giving his hand, "but
+do not forget that the greatest danger lies in Hartmut himself. He is
+in every respect the son of his mother. I hear you will come with him
+to Burgsdorf the day after tomorrow?"
+
+"Yes; he always spends the short autumn vacation with Willibald. I
+myself can probably stay only for the day, but I shall surely come with
+him. Au revoir!"
+
+The Ambassador's Secretary departed, and Falkenried again approached
+the window, glancing only hastily after the friend, who bowed once
+more. His glance was again lost with the former gloom, in the gray
+masses of fog.
+
+"The son of his mother!"
+
+The words rang in his ears, but there was no need for another to tell
+him that. He had long known it, and it was this knowledge that furrowed
+his brow so deeply and caused those heavy sighs.
+
+He was a man to offer himself to every open danger, but he had
+struggled in vain, with all his energy for years, against this
+unfortunate inheritance of the blood in his only son.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"Now I request that this utter foolishness shall end, for my patience
+is exhausted. There has been an awful turmoil in all Burgsdorf for
+three days, as if the place were conjured. Hartmut is full of
+foolishness from head to toe. When once he gets free from the rein
+which his father draws so tight there is no getting on with him. And
+you, of course, go with him through thick and thin, following
+obediently everything that your lord and master starts. You are a fine
+team!"
+
+This lecture, delivered in very loud tones, came from the lips of Frau
+von Eschenhagen of Burgsdorf, who sat at breakfast with her son and
+brother.
+
+The large dining-room was in the lower story of the old mansion, and
+was a rather bare room, the glass doors of which led to a broad
+terrace, and from there into the garden. Some antlers hung upon the
+whitewashed walls, giving evidence of the Nimrod proclivities of former
+owners. They were also the only ornament of the room.
+
+A dozen straightback chairs standing in stiff rows like grenadiers, a
+heavy dining table, and two old-fashioned sideboards constituted all of
+the furniture, which, as one could see, had already served several
+generations.
+
+Articles of luxury, such as carpets, wallpaper or paintings, were not
+there. The inmates were apparently satisfied with the old, inherited
+things, although Burgsdorf was one of the richest estates in the
+vicinity.
+
+The appearance of the lady of the house corresponded fully with the
+surroundings. She was about forty years old; of tall, powerful figure,
+blooming complexion, and strong, heavy features, which were very
+energetic, but which could never have been beautiful. Nothing escaped
+easily the glance of those sharp, gray eyes; the dark hair was combed
+back plainly; the dress was simple and serviceable, and one could see
+that her hands knew how to work.
+
+This robust person lacked gracefulness, certainly, but possessed
+something decidedly masculine in carriage and appearance.
+
+The heir and future lord of Burgsdorf, who was scolded in this way, sat
+opposite his mother, listening, as in duty bound, while he helped
+himself bountifully to ham and eggs. He was a handsome, ruddy-faced boy
+of about seventeen years, with features which might portray great good
+nature, but no surplus of intellect. His sunburned face was full of
+glowing health, but otherwise bore little resemblance to his mother's.
+It lacked her energetic expression. The blue eyes and light hair must
+have been an inheritance from the father. With his powerful but awkward
+limbs he looked like a young giant, and offered the completest contrast
+to his Uncle Wallmoden, who sat at his side, and who now said with a
+tinge of sarcasm:
+
+"You really ought not to make Willibald responsible for the pranks and
+tricks. He is certainly the ideal of a well-raised son."
+
+"I should advise him not to be anything else. Obeying of orders is what
+I insist upon," exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen, slapping the table with
+such force as to cause her brother to start nervously.
+
+"Yes, one learns that under your regime," he replied, "but I would like
+to advise you, dear Regine, to do a little more for the mental training
+of your son. I do not doubt that he will grow up a splendid farmer
+under your leadership, but something more is required in the education
+of a future lord, and as Willibald has outgrown tutors, it may be time
+to send him off."
+
+"Send him----" Frau Regine laid down knife and fork in boundless
+amazement. "Send him off!" she repeated indignantly. "In gracious name,
+where to?"
+
+"Well, to the University, and later on let him travel, that he may see
+something of the world and its people."
+
+"And that he may be totally ruined in this world and among these
+people! No, Herbert, that will not do. I tell you right now. I have
+raised my boy in honesty and the fear of God, and have no idea of
+letting him go into that Sodom and Gomorrah from which our dear Lord
+keeps the rain of fire and brimstone by His long-suffering alone."
+
+"But you know this Sodom and Gomorrah only by hearsay, Regine,"
+interrupted Herbert sarcastically. "You have lived in Burgsdorf ever
+since your marriage, but your son must one day enter life as a man--you
+must acknowledge that."
+
+"I do not acknowledge anything," declared Frau von Eschenhagen
+stubbornly. "Willy shall be a thoroughly capable farmer. He is fitted
+for that and does not need your learned trash for it. Or do you,
+perhaps, wish to take him in training for a diplomat. That would be
+capital fun!"
+
+She laughed loudly, and Willy, to whom this proposition seemed as
+ridiculous, joined in in the same key.
+
+Herr von Wallmoden did not indulge in this hilarity, which seemed to
+jar upon his nerves. He only shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I do not intend that, indeed; it would probably be lost pains; but I
+and Willibald are now the only representatives of the family, and if I
+should remain unmarried----"
+
+"_If?_ Are you contemplating marriage in your old age?" interrupted his
+sister in her inconsiderate manner.
+
+"I am forty-five years old, dear Regine. That is not usually considered
+old in a man," said Wallmoden, somewhat offended. "At any rate, I
+consider a late contracted marriage the best, because then one is not
+influenced by passion as was Falkenried to his great misfortune, but
+one allows reason to guide the decision."
+
+"May God help me! Must Willy wait until he has fifty years upon his
+back and gray hairs upon his head before he marries!" exclaimed Frau
+von Eschenhagen, horrified.
+
+"No; for he must consider the fact that he is an only son and future
+lord of the estates; besides, it will depend upon an individual
+attachment. What do you say, Willibald?"
+
+The young future lord, who had just finished his ham and eggs, and was
+now turning with unappeased appetite to the _wurst_, was apparently
+greatly surprised at having his opinion asked. Such a thing happened so
+seldom that he was now thrown into a spell of deep musing, declaring as
+the result of it:
+
+"Yes; I shall probably have to marry some time, but mamma will find me
+a wife when the time comes."
+
+"That she will, my boy," affirmed Frau von Eschenhagen. "That is my
+affair; you do not need to worry about it at all. You will remain here
+in Burgsdorf, where I shall have you under my eyes. Universities and
+travels are not to be considered--that is decided."
+
+She threw a challenging glance at her brother, but he was regarding
+with a kind of horror the enormous amount of eatables which his nephew
+was piling upon his plate for the second time.
+
+"Do you always have such a healthy appetite, Willy?" he asked.
+
+"Always," assured Willy with satisfaction, taking another huge piece of
+bread and butter.
+
+"Yes; God be thanked, we do not suffer from indigestion here," said
+Frau Regine, somewhat pointedly. "We deserve our meals honestly. First
+play and work, then eat and drink, and heartily--that keeps soul and
+body together. Just look at Willy, how he has prospered with that
+treatment. He need never be ashamed to be seen."
+
+She slapped her brother upon the shoulder in a friendly manner at these
+words, but so heartily that Wallmoden hastily pushed his chair out of
+her reach. His face betrayed plainly that his hair was "standing on
+end" again; but he gave up the enforcing of his rights as guardian in
+the face of these primitive conditions.
+
+Willy, on the contrary, apparently discovered that he had turned out
+extraordinarily well, and looked very pleased at this praise of his
+mother, who continued now rather vexedly:
+
+"And Hartmut has not come to breakfast again! He seems to allow himself
+all sorts of irregularities here at Burgsdorf, but I shall lecture the
+young man when he comes, and make him----"
+
+"Here he is already!" cried a voice from the garden.
+
+A shadow fell athwart the bright sunshine that poured in through the
+open window, in which there suddenly appeared a youthful form, which
+swung itself through from the outside.
+
+"Boy, are you out of your senses that you enter through the window?"
+exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen indignantly. "What are the doors for?"
+
+"For Willy and other well-raised people," laughed the intruder
+mirthfully. "I always take the shortest route, and this time it led
+through this window."
+
+With one jump he landed in the middle of the room from the high sill.
+
+Hartmut Falkenried, like the future lord of Burgsdorf, stood at the
+border between boyhood and manhood, but beyond that likeness it
+required but a glance to see the superiority of Hartmut in every
+respect.
+
+He wore the cadet uniform, which became him wonderfully, but there was
+something in his whole appearance indicative of a revolt against the
+strict military cut.
+
+The tall, slender boy was a true picture of youth and beauty, but this
+beauty had something strange and foreign about it; the movement and
+whole appearance had a wild, unruled element; and not a feature
+reminded one of the powerful, soldierly figure and grave composure of
+the father. The thick, curly hair of a blue-black color, falling over
+the high brow, denoted a son of the South, rather than a German; the
+eyes also, which glowed in the youthful face, did not belong to the
+cold, calm North; they were mysterious eyes, dark as night, yet full of
+hot, passionate fire. Beautiful as they were, there was something
+uncanny about them.
+
+And now the laugh, with which Hartmut looked from one to another of the
+assembly, had more of the supercilious about it than of a boy's hearty
+mirth.
+
+"You introduce yourself in a very unconventional manner," said
+Wallmoden sharply; "you seem to think that no etiquette is to be
+observed at Burgsdorf. I hardly think your father would have permitted
+such an entrance into a dining-room."
+
+"He does not take such liberties with his father," said Frau von
+Eschenhagen, who fortunately did not feel the stab which lay for her
+also in her brother's words. "So you finally come now, Hartmut, when
+we have finished breakfast? But late people do not get anything to
+eat--you know that."
+
+"Yes, I know it," returned Hartmut, quite unconcerned; "therefore I got
+the housekeeper to give me some breakfast. You can't starve me out,
+Aunt Regine. I am on too good terms with all your people."
+
+"So you think you will be able to take all sorts of liberties
+unpunished," cried the lady of the house angrily. "You break all the
+rules of the house; you leave no person nor thing in peace; you stand
+all Burgsdorf upon its head! We shall know how to stop all that, my
+boy. I shall send a messenger over to your father to-morrow, to ask him
+to kindly come for his son, who can be taught no punctuality or
+obedience."
+
+This threat was effective; the boy grew serious and found it best to
+yield.
+
+"Oh, all that is only jesting," he said. "Am I not to utilize the short
+vacation----"
+
+"For all sorts of foolishness?" interrupted Frau von Eschenhagen.
+"Willy in all his life has not done so many pranks as you in these last
+three days. You will ruin him for me by your bad example and make him
+also disobedient."
+
+"Oh, Willy can't be ruined; all pains are thrown away with him,"
+confessed Hartmut frankly.
+
+The young lord did not look, indeed, as if he had any inclination to
+disobedience. Quite unconcerned by all this conversation, he calmly
+finished his breakfast by still another piece of bread and butter; but
+his mother was highly incensed over this remark.
+
+"You are doubtless extremely sorry for that," she exclaimed. "You
+have taken pains enough to ruin him. Very well, it remains as I
+said--to-morrow I write to your father."
+
+"To come for me? You will not do that, Aunt Regine. You are too good to
+do that. You know very well how strict papa is--how harshly he can
+punish. You surely will not accuse me to him--you have never done so
+before."
+
+"Leave me alone, boy, with your flatteries." Frau Regine's face was
+still very grim, but her voice already betrayed a perceptible wavering,
+and Hartmut knew how to take the advantage offered. With the artless
+frankness of a boy, he laid his arm around her shoulders.
+
+"I thought you loved me a little bit, Aunt Regine. I--I have
+anticipated this trip to Burgsdorf so joyously for weeks. I have longed
+until I was sick, for forest and lake, for the green meadows and the
+wide, blue sky; I have been so happy here--but, of course, if you do
+not want me, I shall leave immediately; you do not need to send me
+away."
+
+His voice sank to a soft, coaxing whisper, while the large, dark eyes
+helped with the pleading only too effectively. They could speak more
+fervently than the lips; they seemed, indeed, to have peculiar power.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen, who to Willy and all Burgsdorf, was the stern,
+absolute ruler, now allowed herself to be moved to compliance.
+
+"Well, then, behave yourself, you Eulenspiegel," she said, running her
+fingers through his thick curls. "As to sending you away, you know only
+too well that Willy and all my people are perfectly foolish about
+you--and so am I."
+
+Hartmut shouted in his happiness at these last words, and kissed her
+hand in fervent gratitude. Then he turned to his friend, who had now
+happily mastered his last sandwich, and was regarding the scene before
+him in quiet amazement.
+
+"Are you through with your breakfast at last, Willy? Come on; we wished
+to go to the Burgsdorf pond--now don't be so slow and deliberate.
+Good-by, Aunt Regine. I see that Uncle Wallmoden is not pleased in the
+least that you have pardoned me. Hurrah! Now we are off for the woods."
+
+And away he dashed over the terraces and down to the garden. There was
+in this unruliness an overflowing youthful happiness and strength that
+were enchanting; the lad was all life and fire. Willy trotted behind
+him like a young bear, and they disappeared in a few seconds behind the
+trees and shrubberies.
+
+"He comes and goes like a whirlwind," said Frau von Eschenhagen,
+looking after them. "That boy cannot be restrained when once the reins
+are slackened."
+
+"A dangerous lad!" declared Wallmoden. "He understands how to rule even
+you, who otherwise rule supreme. It is the first time in my knowledge
+that you pardon disobedience and unpunctuality."
+
+"Yes, Hartmut has something about him that really bewitches a body,"
+exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen, half vexed over her yielding. "When he
+looks at one with those glowing, black eyes, and begs and pleads
+besides, I would like to see the one who could say no. You are right;
+he is a dangerous lad."
+
+"Yes, very true; but let us leave Hartmut alone now and consider the
+education of your own son. You have really decided----"
+
+"To keep him at home. Do not trouble yourself, Herbert. You may be an
+important diplomat and carry the whole political business in your
+pockets, but nevertheless I do not surrender my boy to you. He belongs
+to me alone, and I keep him--settled!"
+
+A hearty slap upon the table accompanied this "settled," with which the
+reigning mistress of Burgsdorf arose and walked out of doors; but her
+brother shrugged his shoulders, and muttered half audibly: "Let him
+become a country squire, for all I care--it may be best, anyhow."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+In the meantime, Hartmut and Willibald had reached the forest belonging
+to the estate. The Burgsdorf pond, a lonely water bordered by rushes in
+the midst of the forest, lay motionless, shining in the sunlight of the
+quiet morning hour.
+
+The young lord found for himself a shady place upon the bank, and
+devoted himself comfortably and persistently to the interesting
+occupation of fishing, while the impatient Hartmut roamed around,
+starting a bird here, plucking rushes and flowers there, and finally
+indulging in gymnastics upon the trunk of a tree which lay half in the
+water.
+
+"Can you never be quiet in one place? You scare off all the fishes,"
+said Willy, displeased. "I have not caught a thing to-day."
+
+"How can you sit for hours in one spot waiting for the stupid
+fishes--but, of course, you can roam through field and forest all the
+year round whenever you like. You are free--free!"
+
+"Are you imprisoned?" asked Willy. "Are not you and your companions out
+of doors every day?"
+
+"But never alone--never without restraint and supervision. We are
+eternally on duty, even in the hours of recreation. Oh, how I hate
+it--this duty and life of slavery!"
+
+"But, Hartmut, what if your father should hear that?"
+
+"He would punish me again, then, as usual. He has nothing for me but
+severity and punishment. I don't care--it's all the same to me."
+
+He threw himself upon the grass, but harsh and disagreeable as his
+words sounded, there was in them something like a pained, passionate
+complaint.
+
+Willy only shook his head deliberately fastening a new bait to his hook
+meanwhile, and deep silence reigned for a few moments.
+
+Suddenly something dashed down from on high, lightning-like; the water,
+just now so motionless, splashed and foamed, and in the next moment a
+heron rose high in the air, carrying the struggling, silver-shining
+prey in his bill.
+
+"Bravo! that was a splendid shot," cried Hartmut, starting up, but
+Willy scolded vexedly. "The con---- robber strips our whole pond. I
+shall tell the forester to keep an eye on him."
+
+"A robber!" repeated Hartmut, as his eyes followed the heron, which now
+disappeared behind the tree-tops. "Yes, surely; but it must be
+beautiful--such a free robber's life high up in the air. To dash down
+from the heights like a flash of lightning--to grab the booty, then
+soar high with it again where no one can follow--that is worthy of the
+chase."
+
+"Hartmut, I actually believe you have a good notion to lead such a
+robber's life," said Willy, with the deep horror of a well-raised boy
+for such inclinations.
+
+His companion laughed, but it was again that harsh, strange laugh which
+had in it nothing youthful.
+
+"And if I should have it, they would know how to get it out of me at
+the cadets' school. There is obedience--discipline--the Alpha and Omega
+of all things, and one finally learns it, too. Willy, have you never
+longed for wings?"
+
+"I? Wings?" ejaculated Willy, whose full attention was again directed
+to hook and line. "Nonsense! who could wish for impossibilities?"
+
+"I wish I had some," cried Hartmut, flaming up. "I wish I were one of
+the falcons of which we hear. Then I would soar high up into the blue
+air--always higher and higher toward the sun, and would never, never
+come back."
+
+"I think you are crazy," said the young lord calmly; "but I have not
+caught anything yet; the fish will not bite at all to-day. I must try
+another spot."
+
+He gathered up his fishing paraphernalia and went to the other side of
+the pond.
+
+Hartmut threw himself upon the ground again.
+
+How could he expect that the stolid, matter-of-fact Willibald should
+harbor thoughts of flying!
+
+It was one of those autumn days which seem to charm back the summer for
+a few short hours--the sunshine was so golden, the air so mild, the
+woods so fresh and fragrant. Thousands of brilliant sparkles danced
+upon the water; the rushes whispered low and mysteriously as the air
+breathed through them.
+
+Hartmut lay quite motionless, listening to this mystery of whispering
+and fluttering. The wild, passionate flame, which had flared up almost
+uncannily when he spoke of the bird of prey, had disappeared from his
+eyes. Now they were riveted dreamily upon the shining blue of the sky,
+with a consuming longing in their depths.
+
+Light footsteps drew near, almost inaudible on the soft forest soil;
+the bushes rustled as if brushed by a silken garment, and parted; a
+female figure emerged noiselessly and stopped short, fixing an intent
+look upon the young dreamer.
+
+"Hartmut!"
+
+He started and sprang up quickly. He did not know the voice, nor the
+stranger, but it was a lady, and he bowed chivalrously.
+
+"Gracious lady----"
+
+A slender and trembling hand was laid hastily and warningly upon his
+arm.
+
+"Hush--not so loud--your companion might hear us, and I must speak with
+you, Hartmut--with you alone."
+
+She stepped back again and motioned him to follow. Hartmut hesitated a
+moment. How came this stranger, whose face was closely veiled, but who,
+to judge by her dress, belonged to the highest class, at this lonely
+forest pond? And what was the meaning of the familiar "thou" from her
+to him, whom she saw now for the first time? But the mystery of the
+encounter began to interest him, and he followed her.
+
+They stopped under the protection of the bushes where they could not be
+seen from the other side, and the stranger slowly raised her veil.
+
+She was no longer in her youth--a woman still in her thirties--but the
+face with the dark, flashing eyes possessed a strange fascination, and
+the same charm was in the voice, which, even in the whisper, was soft
+and deep, with a foreign accent, as if the German which she spoke so
+fluently was not her native tongue.
+
+"Hartmut, look at me. Do you really not remember me? Have you not kept
+some recollection from your childhood that tells you who I am?"
+
+The young man shook his head slowly, and yet there arose in his mind a
+remembrance, misty and dreamlike, that told him he did not now hear
+this voice for the first time--that he had seen this face before in
+times long, long past. Half timidly, half transfixed, he stood there
+gazing upon the stranger, who suddenly stretched out both arms toward
+him.
+
+"My son! my only child! do you not know your mother?"
+
+Hartmut retreated, startled.
+
+"My mother is dead," he said in a low tone.
+
+The stranger laughed bitterly; it sounded exactly like that harsh,
+unchildlike laugh which had come from the lips of the lad only a short
+while ago.
+
+"So that is it; they have called me dead. They would not leave you even
+the memory of your mother. But it is not true, Hartmut. I live--I stand
+before you. Look at me! look at my features, which are yours also. They
+could not take those from you. Child of my heart, do you not feel that
+you belong to me?"
+
+Still Hartmut stood motionless, looking into the face in which he saw
+his own reflected as in a mirror. There were the same features,
+the same abundant, blue-black hair; the same large, deep black
+eyes--yes--even the strange demoniac expression which glowed like a
+flame in the mother's eyes, glimmered as a spark in the eyes of the
+son. The natural resemblance showed that they were of the same blood,
+and now the voice of that blood woke up in the young man.
+
+He did not ask for explanations--for proofs; the confused, dream-like
+recollections suddenly became clear. Only one more second of
+hesitation, then he threw himself into the arms which were open for
+him.
+
+"Mother!"
+
+In the exclamation lay the glowing devotion of the lad, who had never
+known what it was to possess a mother, and who had longed for it with
+all his passionate nature.
+
+His mother! As he lay in her arms while she overwhelmed him with
+passionate caresses--with tender, fond names such as he had never
+heard, all else disappeared in the flood of overwhelming delight.
+
+Several minutes passed thus, then Hartmut disengaged himself from the
+embrace which would have detained him.
+
+"Why have you never been with me, mamma?" he asked vehemently. "Why did
+they tell me that you were dead?"
+
+Zalika drew back. In a moment all the tenderness vanished from her
+face; a light kindled there of wild, deadly hatred, and the answer came
+hissing from her lips:
+
+"Because your father hates me, my son, and because he did not wish to
+leave me even the love of my only child when he thrust me from him."
+
+Hartmut was silent with consternation. He knew well that no one dared
+mention his mother's name in his father's presence--that his father had
+once silenced him with the greatest harshness when he had ventured to
+ask for her, but he had been too young to muse over the why.
+
+Zalika did not give him time for it now. She stroked the dark, curly
+hair back from the high forehead, and a shadow rested on her face.
+
+"You have his brow," she said slowly, "but that is the only thing to
+remind of him; everything else belongs to me--to me alone. Every
+feature tells that you are wholly mine. I knew it would be so."
+
+Again she embraced him, overwhelming him with caresses, which Hartmut
+returned as passionately. It was an intoxication of happiness to
+him--like one of the fairy tales of which he had so often dreamed, and
+he gave himself up to the charm unquestioningly and unreservedly.
+
+But now Willy made himself heard on the opposite bank, calling loudly
+for his friend, and reminding him that it was time to return home.
+
+Zalika started.
+
+"We must part. Nobody must know that I have seen you and spoken with
+you, particularly your father. When do you return to him?"
+
+"In eight days."
+
+"Not until then?" The tone was triumphant. "I shall see you every day
+until then. Be here at the pond to-morrow at the same hour. Dispense
+with your companion under some pretext, so that we may be undisturbed.
+You will come, Hartmut?"
+
+"Certainly mother, but----"
+
+She did not give him time for an excuse, but continued in the same
+passionate whisper:
+
+"Above all, be silent to everybody; do not forget that. Farewell, my
+child, my beloved only son. Au revoir!"
+
+One more fervent kiss upon Hartmut's brow, then she vanished in the
+bushes as mysteriously as she had appeared. It was quite time, for
+Willy appeared on the scene, his approach being heralded by his heavy
+stamping upon the forest ground.
+
+"Why do you not answer?" he demanded. "I have called three times. Did
+you fall asleep? You look as if you had been startled from a dream."
+
+Hartmut stood as if stunned, gazing upon the bushes in which his mother
+had disappeared. At his cousin's words he straightened himself and drew
+his hand across his brow.
+
+"Yes, I have been dreaming," he said, slowly; "quite a wonderful,
+strange dream."
+
+"You might rather have been fishing," said Willy; "just see what a
+splendid catch I got over on the other bank. A person ought not to
+dream in broad daylight. He ought to be properly occupied, my mother
+says--and my mother is always right."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The families of Falkenried and Wallmoden had been friendly for years.
+As owners of adjoining estates they visited each other frequently; the
+children grew up together, and many mutual interests drew the bonds of
+friendship still closer.
+
+As both families were only comfortably well off, the sons had their own
+way to make, which, after completing their education, Major Hartmut von
+Falkenried and Herbert Wallmoden had done. They had been playmates as
+children, and had remained true to that friendship when grown to
+manhood.
+
+At one time the parents thought to cement this friendship by a marriage
+between the--at that time--Lieutenant Falkenried and Regine Wallmoden.
+The young couple seemed in perfect accord with it, and all looked
+propitious for the match, when something took place which brought the
+plan to a sudden end.
+
+A cousin of the Wallmoden family--an incorrigible fellow who, through
+divers bad capers, had made it impossible to remain at home, had, long
+ago, gone out into the wide world. After much travel and a rather
+adventurous life, he had landed in Roumania, where he acted as
+inspector upon the estates of a rich Bojar. The rich man died, and the
+inspector thought best to retrieve his lost fortunes and position in
+life by marriage with the widow.
+
+It was consummated, and he returned to his old home, accompanied by his
+wife, for a visit to his relatives, after an absence of more than ten
+years.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden's bloom of youth had long passed, but she brought
+with her her daughter by her first marriage--Zalika Rojanow.
+
+The young girl, hardly seventeen years old, with her foreign beauty and
+charm of her glowing temperament, burst like a meteor upon the horizon
+of this German country nobility, whose life flowed in such calm, even
+channels.
+
+And she was a strange object in this circle, whose forms and manners
+she disregarded with sovereign indifference, and who stared at her as
+at a being from another world. There was many a serious shaking of
+heads and much condemnation, which was not uttered aloud, because they
+saw in the girl only a temporary visitor, who would disappear as
+suddenly as she had come into view.
+
+Just about this time Hartmut Falkenried came from his garrison to the
+paternal estates, and became acquainted with the new relatives of his
+friends. He saw Zalika and recognized in her his fate. It was one of
+those passions which spring up lightning-like--which resemble the
+intoxication of a dream, and are paid for only too frequently with the
+penance of the whole life.
+
+Forgotten were the wishes of the parents, his own plans for the
+future--forgotten the quiet affection which had drawn him to his
+playmate Regine. He no longer had eyes for the domestic flower which
+bloomed young and fresh for him; he breathed only the intoxicating
+perfume of the foreign wonder-plant. All else disappeared before her,
+and in a quiet hour with her he threw himself at her feet, confessing
+his love.
+
+Strangely enough, his feelings were returned. Perhaps it was the truth
+of extremes meeting which drew Zalika to a man who was her opposite in
+every respect; perhaps she was flattered by the fact that a glance, a
+word from her could change the grave, calm and almost gloomy nature of
+the young officer to enthusiasm.
+
+Enough, she accepted his proposal and he was permitted to embrace her
+as his betrothed.
+
+The news of this engagement created a storm in the whole family circle;
+entreaties and warnings came from all sides; even Zalika's mother and
+stepfather opposed it, but the universal disapproval only increased the
+determination of the young couple, and six months later Falkenried led
+his young wife into his home.
+
+But the voices who prophesied misfortune to this marriage were in the
+right. The bitterest disappointment followed the short term of
+happiness. It had been a dangerous mistake to believe that a woman like
+Zalika Rojanow, grown up in boundless freedom and accustomed to the
+uncontrolled, extravagant life of the families of the Bojars of her
+country, could ever submit herself to German views and conditions.
+
+To gallop about on fiery horses; to associate freely with men who spent
+their time in hunting and gambling, and who surrounded themselves in
+their homes with a splendor which went hand in hand with the most
+corrupted indebtedness of estates--such was life as she had known it so
+far, and the only life which suited her.
+
+A conception of duty was as foreign to her as the knowledge of her new
+position in life. And this woman was to accommodate herself now to the
+household of a young officer of but limited means, and to the
+conditions of a small German garrison!
+
+That this was impossible was proved in the first weeks. Zalika began by
+throwing aside every consideration, and furnishing her house in her
+usual style, squandering heedlessly her by no means insignificant
+dowry.
+
+In vain her husband entreated, remonstrated; he found no hearing. She
+had only sarcasm for forms and rules which were holy to him; only a
+shrug of the shoulder for his strict sense of honor and ideas of
+decorum.
+
+Very soon they had the most vehement controversies, and Falkenried
+recognized too late the serious error which he had committed. He had
+counted upon the all-powerful efficacy of love to battle against those
+warning voices which had pointed out the difference of descent,
+education and character, but he was forced now to recognize that Zalika
+had never loved him; that caprice alone, or a sudden outburst of
+passion, which died as suddenly, had brought her to his arms.
+
+She saw in him now only the uncomfortable companion who begrudged her
+every pleasure of life; who, with his foolish--his ridiculous ideas of
+honor, fettered and bound her on every side. Still, she feared this
+man, whose dominant will succeeded always in bowing her characterless
+nature under his rod.
+
+Even the birth of little Hartmut was not sufficient to reconcile this
+unhappy marriage; it only held it, apparently, together. Zalika loved
+her child passionately; she knew her husband would never permit her to
+keep it if they separated. This alone retained her at his side, while
+Falkenried bore his domestic misery with concealed pain, putting forth
+every effort to hide it at least from the world.
+
+Nevertheless, the world knew the truth; it knew things of which the
+husband did not even dream and which were kept concealed from him
+through sheer compassion.
+
+But finally the day came when the deceived husband was told what was no
+secret to others.
+
+The immediate result following was a duel in which Falkenried's
+opponent fell. Falkenried himself was imprisoned, but was soon
+pardoned.
+
+Every one knew that the offended husband had only vindicated his honor.
+
+In the meantime, steps were taken for a divorce, which was granted in
+due time. Zalika made no opposition. She dared not approach her
+husband; she trembled before him since that hour of separation, when he
+had called her to account; but she made desperate efforts to secure the
+possession of her child, fighting as for life.
+
+It was in vain. Hartmut was given unconditionally to his father, who
+knew how to prevent every approach of the mother with iron
+inflexibility.
+
+Zalika was not even allowed to see her son again, and it was only after
+convincing herself entirely on that point that she left--returning to
+the home of her mother.
+
+She had seemed lost to and forgotten by her former husband until she
+suddenly reappeared in Germany, where Major Falkenried now held an
+important position in the large military school at the Residenz.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+It was about a week after the arrival of Hartmut at Burgsdorf. Frau von
+Eschenhagen was in her sitting-room with Major Falkenried, who had but
+just arrived.
+
+The topic of their conversation seemed to be very serious and of a
+rather disagreeable nature, for Falkenried listened with a gloomy face
+to his friend, who was speaking.
+
+"I noticed Hartmut's changed demeanor the third or fourth day. The boy,
+whose mirth at first knew no bounds, so that I even threatened to send
+him back home, suddenly became subdued. He committed no more foolish
+pranks, but roamed for hours through the woods alone, and when he
+returned was always dreaming with his eyes open, to such an extent that
+one had almost to awake him. 'He is beginning to get sensible,' said
+Herbert; but I said, 'Things are not going right; there is something
+behind all this,' and I questioned my Willy, who also appeared quite
+peculiar. He was actually in the plot. He had surprised the two one
+day. Hartmut had made him promise to keep silent, and my boy positively
+hid something from _me, his mother!_ He confessed only when I got after
+him seriously. Well, he will not do it a second time. I have taken care
+of that."
+
+"And Hartmut? What did he say?" interrupted the Major hastily.
+
+"Nothing at all, for I have not spoken a syllable to him about it. He
+would probably have asked me why he should not see and speak to his own
+mother, and only--his father can give him the answer to that question."
+
+"He has probably heard it already from the other side," said Falkenried
+bitterly; "but he has hardly learned the truth."
+
+"I fear so, too, and therefore I did not lose a minute in notifying you
+after discovering the affair. But what next?"
+
+"I shall have to interfere now," replied the Major with forced
+composure. "I thank you, Regine. I apprehended trouble when your letter
+called me so imperatively. Herbert was right. I ought not to have
+allowed my son to leave my side for an hour under the circumstances.
+But I believed him safe from every approach here at Burgsdorf. And he
+anticipated the trip with such pleasure--he longed for it almost
+passionately. I did not have the heart to refuse him. He is happy,
+anyway, only when absent from me."
+
+There was deep pain in the last words, but Frau von Eschenhagen only
+shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"That is not the fault of the boy alone," she said straightforwardly.
+"I also keep my Willy under good control, but nevertheless he knows
+that he has a mother whose heart is full of him. Hartmut does not know
+that of his father. He knows him only from a grave, unapproachable
+side. If he had an idea that you idolize him secretly----"
+
+"He would abuse the knowledge and disarm me with his caressing
+tenderness. Shall I allow myself to be ruled by him as every one else
+is who comes into his presence? His comrades follow him blindly
+although he brings punishment upon them by his pranks. He has your
+Willibald completely under control--yes, even his teachers treat him
+with particular indulgence. I am the only one he fears, and
+consequently the only one he respects."
+
+"And you think by fear alone to succeed with the boy, who is doubtless
+now being overwhelmed with the most senseless caresses! Do not turn
+away, Falkenried; you know I have never mentioned that name to you, but
+now that it is brought forward so prominently, one may speak it. And
+since we happen to be upon the subject, I tell you frankly that nothing
+else could be expected since Frau Zalika's appearance. It would have
+done no good to have kept Hartmut from Burgsdorf, for one cannot treat
+a seventeen-year-old lad like a little child. The mother would have
+found her way to him in spite of all--and it was her right. I would
+have done just so, too."
+
+"Her right!" cried the Major angrily. "And you tell me that, Regine?"
+
+"I say it because I know what it is to have an only child. That you
+should take the child from its mother was right--such a mother was not
+fit for the raising of a boy--but that you now refuse to let her see
+her son again after twelve years is harshness and cruelty, which hatred
+alone can teach you. However great her faults may be, that punishment
+is too severe."
+
+Falkenried stared gloomily before him--he might have felt the truth of
+the words. Finally he said, slowly:
+
+"I would never have thought that you would take Zalika's part. I
+offended you bitterly once for her sake--I broke a bond----"
+
+"Which had not even been tied," interrupted Frau von Eschenhagen. "It
+was a plan of our parents--nothing more."
+
+"But the idea was dear and familiar to us from childhood. Do not
+attempt to excuse me, Regine; I only know too well what I did at that
+time to you and--to myself."
+
+Regine fixed her clear, gray eyes upon him, but there was a moist gleam
+in them as she replied:
+
+"Well, yes, Hartmut; now since we are both long past our youth, I may,
+perhaps, confess that I liked you then. You might have been able to
+make something better of me than I am now. I was always a self-willed
+child--not easy to rule; but I would have followed you--perhaps you
+alone of all the world. When I went to the altar with Eschenhagen three
+months after your marriage, matters were reversed.
+
+"I took the reins into my own hands and began to command, and since then
+I have learned it thoroughly---- But now, away with that old story,
+long since past. I have not thought hard of you because of it--you know
+that.
+
+"We have remained friends in spite of it, and if you need me now, in
+advice as well as deed, I am ready to help you."
+
+She offered her hand, which he grasped.
+
+"I know it, Regine, but I alone can advise here. Please send Hartmut to
+me. I must speak to him."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen arose and left the room, murmuring as she went:
+"If only it is not too late already! She blinded and enraptured the
+father once. She has probably secured her son now."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Hartmut entered the room and closed the door behind him, but remained
+standing near it. Falkenried turned toward him.
+
+"Come nearer, Hartmut; I must speak with you."
+
+The youth obeyed, drawing near slowly.
+
+He already knew that Willibald had had to confess; that his rendezvous
+with his mother had been betrayed; but the awe with which he always
+approached his father was mingled to-day with defiance, which was not
+unnoticed by the Major.
+
+He scanned the youthful, handsome person of his son with a long, gloomy
+glance.
+
+"My sudden arrival does not seem to surprise you," he began; "you
+probably know what brought me here."
+
+"Yes, father, I surmise it."
+
+"Very well, we do not need then to continue with preliminaries. You
+have learned that your mother is still living. She has approached you
+and you are in communication with her. I know it already. When did you
+see her for the first time?"
+
+"Five days ago."
+
+"And since then you have spoken with her daily?"
+
+"Yes, near the Burgsdorf pond."
+
+Question and reply alike sounded curt and calm.
+
+Hartmut was accustomed to this strict, military manner, even in his
+private intercourse with his father, who never allowed a superfluous
+word, a hesitation or evasion in the answers. This tone was kept up
+even to-day to veil his painful excitement from the eyes of his son.
+Hartmut saw only the grave, unmoved face; heard only the sound of cold
+severity as the Major continued:
+
+"I will not make it a reproach to you, as I have never forbidden you
+anything regarding it; the subject has never been mentioned between us.
+But since matters have gone so far, I will have to break the silence.
+You thought your mother dead, and I have silently allowed you to think
+so, for I wished to save you from reminiscences which have poisoned my
+life. I meant that your youth, at least, should be free from it. It
+seems that it cannot be, so you may hear the truth."
+
+He paused for a moment. It was torture to the man, with his delicate
+sense of honor, to talk on this subject before his son, but there was
+no longer a choice--he must speak on.
+
+"I loved your mother passionately when a young officer, and married her
+against the wish of my parents, who saw no good to result from a
+marriage with a woman of foreign race. They were right, the marriage
+was deeply unfortunate, and we finally separated at my desire. I had an
+undeniable right to demand the separation, and also the possession of
+my son, which was granted me unconditionally. I cannot tell you any
+more, for I will not accuse the mother to the son; therefore let this
+suffice you."
+
+Short and harsh as this explanation sounded, it yet made a strange
+impression upon Hartmut. The father would not accuse the mother to him,
+who had been hearing daily the most bitter accusation, abuse and
+slander against the father.
+
+Zalika had put the whole blame of the separation upon her husband, upon
+his unheard-of tyranny, and she found only too willing a listener in
+the youth whose unruly nature suffered so intensely under that
+severity. And yet those short, earnest words now weighed more than all
+the passionate outbursts of the mother. Hartmut felt instinctively upon
+which side the truth stood.
+
+"But now to the most important point," resumed Falkenried. "What has
+been the subject of your conversation?"
+
+Hartmut had not expected this question, and a burning blush suffused
+his face. He was silent and looked to the ground.
+
+"Ah, so! you do not dare to repeat it to me; but I request to know it.
+Answer, I command you!"
+
+But Hartmut remained silent; he only closed his lips more firmly, and
+his eyes met his father's with dark defiance.
+
+Falkenried now drew nearer.
+
+"You will not speak? Has a command from that side, perhaps, made you
+silent? Never mind, your silence says more than words. I see how much
+estranged from me you have become, and you would become lost entirely
+to me if I should leave you longer under that influence. These meetings
+with your mother must be ended. I forbid them. You will accompany me
+home to-day and remain under my supervision. Whether it seems cruel to
+you or not, it must be so, and you will obey."
+
+But the Major was mistaken when he thought to bow his son to his will
+by a simple command.
+
+Hartmut had been in a school during these last days where defiance
+against the father had been taught him in the most effectual manner.
+
+"Father, you will not--you cannot command that," he burst forth now
+with overpowering vehemence. "It is my mother who is found again; the
+only one in the whole world who loves me. I shall not let her be taken
+from me again as she has already been taken. I shall not allow myself
+to be forced to hate her because you hate her. Threaten--punish me do
+whatever you will with me, but I do not obey this time. I will not
+obey."
+
+The whole unruly, passionate nature of the young man was in these
+words; the uncanny fire flamed again in his eyes; the hands were
+clenched; every fibre throbbed in wild rebellion. He was apparently
+decided to do battle against the long-feared father.
+
+But the burst of anger which he so confidently expected did not come.
+Falkenried only looked at him silently, but with a glance of grave,
+deep reproach.
+
+"The only one in the whole world who loves you!" he repeated slowly.
+"You have, perhaps, forgotten that you still have a father."
+
+"Who does not love me, though," cried Hartmut in overwhelming
+bitterness. "Only since I have found my mother have I known what love
+is."
+
+"Hartmut!"
+
+The youth looked up, startled by the strange, pained tone which he
+heard for the first time, and the defiance which was about to break
+forth again died on his lips.
+
+"Because I have no pet names and caresses for you; because I have
+raised you with seriousness and firmness, do you doubt my love?" said
+Falkenried, still in the same voice. "Do you know what this severity
+toward my only, my beloved child has cost me?"
+
+"Father!"
+
+The word sounded still timid and hesitating, but no longer with the old
+fear and awe; it now contained something like budding faith and trust;
+like a happy but half-comprehended surprise, and with it Hartmut's eyes
+hung as if riveted upon his father's features. Falkenried now put his
+hand upon his son's arm, drawing him nearer, while he continued:
+
+"I once had high ambitions, proud hopes of life, great plans and
+aspirations, which came to an end when a blow fell upon me from which I
+shall never be able to rally. If I still aspire and struggle, it is
+from a sense of duty and because of you, Hartmut. In you centers all my
+ambition; to make your future great and happy is the only thing which I
+yet desire of life; and your future can be made great, my son, for your
+gifts are extraordinary ones; your will is strong in good as well as
+evil. But there is yet something dangerous in your nature, which is
+less your fault than your doom, and which must be taken in hand in
+time, if it is not to develop and dash you into destruction. I had to
+be severe to banish this unfortunate tendency; it has not been easy for
+me."
+
+The face of the youth was covered by a deep blush. With panting breath
+he seemed to read every word from his father's lips, and now he said in
+a whisper, in which the suppressed joy could scarcely be hidden:
+
+"I have not dared to love you so far. You have always been so cold--so
+unapproachable, and I----"
+
+He broke off and glanced up at his father, who now put his arm around
+Hartmut's shoulders, drawing him still closer to him. Then eyes looked
+deep into eyes, and the voice of the iron man broke as he said, lowly:
+
+"You are my only child, Hartmut, the only thing which has remained to
+me from a dream of happiness that dispersed in bitterness and
+disappointment. I lost much at that time and have borne it; but if I
+should lose you--you--I could not bear it."
+
+His arms closed around his son tightly, as if they could never be
+detached. Hartmut had thrown himself sobbing upon his father's breast,
+and father and son held each other in a long, passionate embrace.
+
+Both had forgotten that a shadow from the past still stood
+threateningly and separatingly between them.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+In the meantime, Frau von Eschenhagen, in her dining-room, was giving
+Willy a curtain lecture. She had done so, in fact, this morning, but
+was of the opinion that a double portion would not come amiss in this
+case. The young heir looked completely crushed. He felt himself in the
+wrong, as well toward his mother as toward his friend, and yet he was
+quite blameless. He allowed himself to be lectured patiently, like an
+obedient son, only throwing an occasional sad look over at the supper
+which already stood upon the table, although his mother did not take
+any notice of it at all.
+
+"This is what comes of having secrets behind the backs of parents," she
+said severely, concluding her lecture.
+
+"Hartmut is getting what he deserves in yonder; the Major will not
+treat him very mildly. I think you will let playing helpmate in such, a
+plot alone in the future."
+
+"But I have not helped in it," Willy defended himself. "I had only
+promised to be silent and I had to keep my word."
+
+"You ought not dare to keep silence to your mother; she is always an
+exception," Frau Regine said decidedly.
+
+"Yes, mamma, Hartmut probably thought so, too, when it concerned his
+mother," remarked Willibald, and the remark was so correct that she
+could not well say anything against it; but that angered her the more.
+
+"That is different--entirely different," she said curtly; but the young
+lord asked persistently:
+
+"Why is it entirely different?"
+
+"Boy, you will kill me yet with your questions and talking," cried his
+mother angrily. "That is an affair which you do not and shall not
+understand. It is bad enough that Hartmut has brought you in connection
+with it at all. Now do you keep quiet, and do not concern yourself
+further about it. Do you hear?"
+
+Willy was dutifully silent. It was perhaps the first time in his life
+that he had been reproved for too much talking; besides, his Uncle
+Wallmoden, who had just returned from a drive, entered now.
+
+"Falkenried has already arrived, I hear," he said, approaching his
+sister.
+
+"Yes," she replied. "He came immediately upon receiving my letter."
+
+"And how has he borne the news?"
+
+"Outwardly very calm, but I saw only too well how it rent his
+heartstrings. He is alone now with Hartmut, and the storm will probably
+burst."
+
+"I am sorry; but I prophesied this turn of affairs when I learned of
+Zalika's return. He ought to have spoken then to Hartmut. Now I fear he
+will but add a second mistake to the first one by trying to accomplish
+a separation by force and dictating. This unfortunate obstinacy which
+knows only 'either--or'! It is least of all in the right place here."
+
+"Yes, the meeting yonder lasts too long for me," said Frau von
+Eschenhagen with concern. "I shall go and see how far the two have
+gotten, whether it offends the Major or not. Remain here, Herbert; I
+shall return directly."
+
+She left the room, which Wallmoden paced disconsolately. His nephew sat
+alone at the supper table, about which nobody seemed to think. He did
+not dare to begin eating by himself, for a regular turmoil reigned
+to-day in Burgsdorf, and the Frau Mamma was in a very ungracious mood.
+But fortunately she returned after a few minutes, and her face was
+beaming with satisfaction.
+
+"The affair is settled in the best way," she said in her short and
+decided tone. "He has the boy in his embrace. Hartmut is hanging upon
+his father's neck, and the rest will arrange itself easily now. God be
+praised! And now you may eat your supper, Willy. The confusion which
+has disturbed our whole household has come to an end."
+
+Willy did not allow himself to be told twice, but made brisk use of the
+coveted permission. But Wallmoden shook his head and muttered: "If it
+were only truly at an end!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Neither Falkenried nor his son had noticed that the door had been
+quietly opened and closed again. Hartmut still clung to his father's
+neck. He seemed to have lost in a moment all awe and reserve, and was
+overwhelmingly lovable in his new-found, stormy caresses, the charm of
+which the Major had rightly feared would disarm him. He spoke but
+little, but again and again he pressed his lips upon the brow of his
+son, looking steadily into the beautiful face, full of life, which
+pressed so close to his own.
+
+Finally Hartmut asked in a low voice: "And--my mother?"
+
+A shadow passed again over Falkenried's brow, but he did not release
+his son from his arms.
+
+"Your mother will leave Germany as soon as she is convinced that she
+must in the future, as in the past, stay away from you," he said, this
+time without harshness, but with decision. "You may write to her. I
+will allow a correspondence with certain restrictions, but I cannot--I
+dare not permit a personal intercourse."
+
+"Father, think----"
+
+"I cannot, Hartmut; it is impossible."
+
+"Do you hate her, then, so very much?" asked the youth reproachfully.
+"You wished the separation--not my mother--I know it from herself."
+
+Falkenried's lips quivered. He was about to speak the bitter words and
+tell his son that the separation had been at the command of honor; but
+he looked again in those dark, inquiring eyes, and the words died
+unspoken. He could not accuse the mother to the son.
+
+"Let that question rest," he replied gloomily; "I cannot answer it to
+you. Perhaps you will learn my reasons later and will understand them.
+I cannot spare you the hard choice now. You can belong only to one--the
+other you must shun. Accept it as a doom."
+
+Hartmut bowed his head; he might have felt that nothing further could
+be gained. That the meetings with his mother had to end when he
+returned to the strict discipline of the school, he knew; but now a
+correspondence was permitted, which was more than he had dared to hope
+for.
+
+"Then I will tell mamma so," he said in a crestfallen way. "Now, since
+you know everything, I may see her openly, may I not?"
+
+The Major started; he had not considered this possibility.
+
+"When were you to see her again?" he asked.
+
+"To-day, at this hour, at the Burgsdorf pond. She is surely awaiting me
+there now."
+
+Falkenried seemed to battle with himself. A warning voice arose in him
+not to allow this leave-taking, yet he felt that to refuse would be
+cruel.
+
+"Will you be back in two hours?" he asked finally.
+
+"Certainly, father; even earlier if you desire it."
+
+"Go, then," said the Major, with a deep breath. One could hear how
+reluctant was the permission which his sense of duty forced from him.
+"We shall drive home as soon as you return. Your vacation ends shortly,
+anyway."
+
+Hartmut, who was just about to leave, came to a standstill. The words
+recalled to him what he had entirely forgotten in the last half hour:
+the discipline and severity of the service which was awaiting him.
+Heretofore he had not dared to betray his aversion to it openly, but
+this hour which banished the awe of his father broke also the seal from
+his lips. Obeying a sudden impulse, he turned and put his arms again
+around the neck of his father.
+
+"I have a request," he whispered, "a great, great request which you
+must grant me; and I know you will do it as a proof that you love me."
+
+A furrow appeared between the Major's eyebrows as he asked with slight
+reproach: "Do you require proofs of it? Well, let's hear it."
+
+Hartmut nestled still more closely to him; his voice had again that
+sweet, coaxing sound which made his prayers so irresistible, and the
+dark eyes implored intensely, beseechingly.
+
+"Do not let me become a soldier, father. I do not love the calling for
+which you have decided me. I shall never learn to love it. If I have
+bowed until now to your will, it has been with aversion, with secret
+grumbling, and I have been unbearably unhappy, only I did not dare to
+confess it to you."
+
+The furrow on Falkenried's brow sank deeper, and he released his son
+slowly from his embrace.
+
+"That means, in other words, that you do not like to obey," he said
+harshly, "and just that is more important to you than to any one else."
+
+"But I cannot bear any compulsion," Hartmut burst forth passionately,
+"and the military service is nothing but duty and fetters. To obey
+always and eternally--never to have a will of your own--to bow day
+after day to an iron discipline and strict, cold forms by which every
+individual movement is suppressed. I cannot bear it any longer.
+Everything in me demands freedom for light and life. Let me go, father;
+do not keep me any longer in these bonds. I die--I suffocate under
+them."
+
+To a man, who was heart and soul a soldier, he could not have done his
+cause greater harm than by these imprudent words. It sounded like a
+stormy, glowing prayer. His arm yet lay around his father's neck, but
+Falkenried now straightened himself suddenly and pushed him back.
+
+"I should consider the service an honor and no fetter," he said
+cuttingly. "It is sad that I should have to recall that to my son's
+mind. Freedom--light--life! You think perhaps that one can throw
+himself at seventeen years into life and grasp all its treasures. The
+longed-for freedom for you would be only recklessness, ruin,
+destruction."
+
+"And what if it should be so!" cried Hartmut, totally beside himself.
+"Better go to ruin in freedom than to live in this depression. To me it
+is a chain--a fetter--slavery----"
+
+"Be silent! not a word further," commanded Falkenried so threateningly
+that the youth grew silent despite his awful excitement. "You have no
+choice, and take care that you do not forget your duty. You must become
+an officer and fulfill your duty completely as does every one of your
+comrades. When you are of age, I no longer have any power to hinder
+you. You may then resign, even if it give me my deathblow to see my
+only son flee the service."
+
+"Father, do you consider me a coward?" Hartmut burst forth. "I could
+stand a war--I could fight----"
+
+"You would fight foolhardily and rush blindly into every danger; and
+with this obstinacy which knows no discipline you would destroy
+yourself and your men. I know this wild, boundless desire for freedom
+and life to which no barrier, no duty is sacred. I know from whom you
+have inherited it and where it will finally lead; therefore I keep you
+securely in the 'fetters,' no matter whether you hate it or not. You
+shall learn to obey and to bow your will while yet there is time; and
+you shall learn it. I pledge my word to that."
+
+Again the old, inflexible harshness sounded in his voice; every line of
+tenderness, of softness, had disappeared, and Hartmut knew his father
+too well to continue supplication or defiance. He did not answer a
+syllable, but his eyes glowed again with that demoniac spark which
+robbed him of all his beauty; and around his lips, which were pressed
+closely together, there settled a strange, bad expression as he now
+turned to go.
+
+The Major's eyes followed him. Again the warning voice came to him like
+a presentiment of evil, and he called his son back.
+
+"Hartmut, you are sure to be back in time? You give me your word?"
+
+"Yes, father." The answer sounded grim, but firm.
+
+"Very well. I shall trust you as a man. I let you go in peace with this
+promise which you have given me. Be punctual."
+
+Hartmut had been gone but a few moments when Wallmoden entered.
+
+"Are you alone?" he asked, somewhat surprised. "I did not wish to
+disturb you, but I saw Hartmut hasten through the garden just now.
+Where was he going so late?"
+
+"To his mother, to take leave of her."
+
+The Secretary started at this news. "With your consent?" he asked
+quickly.
+
+"Certainly, I have permitted him to go."
+
+"How imprudent! I should think that you knew now how Zalika manages to
+get her own way, and yet you leave your son to her mercy."
+
+"For only half an hour to say farewell. I could not refuse that. What
+do you fear? Surely no force. Hartmut is no longer a child to be borne
+into a carriage and carried off in spite of his resistance."
+
+"But if he should not refuse a flight?"
+
+"I have his word that he will return in two hours," said the Major with
+emphasis.
+
+"The word of a seventeen-year-old lad!"
+
+"Who has been raised a soldier and who knows the importance of a word
+of honor. That gives me no care; my fear lies in another direction."
+
+"Regine told me that you were reconciled," remarked Wallmoden, with a
+glance upon the still clouded brow of his friend.
+
+"For a few moments only; after that I had to become again the firm,
+severe father. This hour has showed me how hard the task is to bend, to
+educate this roving nature. Nevertheless I shall conquer him."
+
+The Secretary approached the window and looked out in the garden.
+
+"It is twilight already, and the Burgsdorf pond is half an hour's
+distance," he said, half aloud. "You ought to have allowed the
+rendezvous only in your presence, if it had to take place."
+
+"And see Zalika again? Impossible! I could not and would not do that."
+
+"But if the leave-taking end differently from what you expect--if
+Hartmut does not return?"
+
+"Then he would be a scoundrel to break his word!" burst out Falkenried;
+"a deserter, for he carries the sword already at his side. Do not
+offend me with such thoughts, Herbert; it is my son of whom you speak."
+
+"He is also Zalika's son; but do not let us quarrel about that now.
+They await you in the dining room. And you will really leave us
+to-day?"
+
+"Yes, in two hours," the Major said, calmly and firmly. "Hartmut will
+have returned by that time. My word stands for that."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The gray shadows of twilight were gathering in forest and field,
+becoming closer and denser with every moment. The short, foggy autumn
+day drew near its close. Through the heavy-clouded sky the night
+lowered sooner than usual.
+
+A female figure paced impatiently and restlessly up and down the bank
+of the Burgsdorf pond. She had drawn the dark cloak tightly around her
+shoulders, but was unmindful of her shivering, caused by the cold
+evening air. Her whole manner was feverish expectation and intense
+listening for the sound of a step which could not as yet be heard.
+
+Zalika had arranged the meetings with her son for a later hour, when it
+was desolate and dim in the forest, since the day Willibald had
+surprised them and had to be admitted into the secret. They had parted,
+however, before dark, so that Hartmut's late return should not cause
+suspicion at Burgsdorf. He had always been punctual, but now his mother
+had waited in vain for an hour.
+
+Did a trifle detain him, or was the secret betrayed? One had to expect
+that, since a third party knew it.
+
+Deathlike silence reigned in the forest; the dry leaves alone rustled
+beneath the hem of the gown of the restlessly moving woman.
+
+Night shades already lingered under the tree-tops; a cloud of mist
+floated over the pond where it was lighter and more open; and over
+there where the water was bordered by a marsh, whitish-gray veils of
+mist arose yet more thickly. The wind blew damp and cold from over
+there, like the air of a vault. A light footstep finally sounded at a
+distance, coming nearer in the direction of the pond with flying haste.
+Now a slender figure appeared, scarcely recognizable in the gathering
+dusk. Zalika flew toward him, and in the next moment her son was in her
+arms.
+
+"What has happened?" she demanded, amidst the usual stormy caresses.
+"Why do you come so late? I had given up in despair seeing you to-day.
+What kept you back?"
+
+"I could not come any sooner," panted Hartmut, still breathless from
+his rapid run. "I come from my father."
+
+Zalika started.
+
+"From your father? Then he knows----"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"So he is at Burgsdorf? Since when? Who notified him?"
+
+The young man, with fluttering breath, reported what had happened, but
+he had not finished when the bitter laugh of his mother interrupted
+him.
+
+"Naturally they are all in the plot when it concerns the tearing of my
+child from me. And your father, he has probably threatened and punished
+and made you suffer for the heavy crime of having been in the arms of
+your mother?"
+
+Hartmut shook his head.
+
+The remembrance of that moment when his father drew him to his breast
+stood firm, in spite of the bitterness with which that scene had ended.
+
+"No," he said in a low voice; "but he commanded me not to see you
+again, and requested irrevocable separation from you."
+
+"And yet you are here? Oh, I knew it!"
+
+The exclamation was full of joyous victory.
+
+"Do not triumph too soon, mamma," said the youth bitterly. "I came only
+to say farewell."
+
+"Hartmut!"
+
+"Father knows it. He allowed me this meeting, and then----"
+
+"Then he will grasp you again, and you will be lost to me forever, is
+it not so?"
+
+Hartmut did not answer; he folded his mother in his arms, and a wild,
+passionate sob, which had in it as much of anger as pain, escaped his
+breast.
+
+It had now grown quite dark; the night had commenced; a cold, gloomy
+autumn night, without moon or star shining, but over there upon the
+marsh where lately the veils of mist floated, something now shot up
+with a bluish light, glimmering dimly in the fog, but growing brighter
+and clearer like a flame; now appearing, now disappearing, and with it
+a second and a third. The will-o'-the-wisp had commenced its ghostly,
+uncanny play.
+
+"You weep," cried Zalika, pressing her son closely to her; "but I have
+seen it coming long ago, and if your Eschenhagen had not betrayed us,
+the day you had to return to your father would have brought your forced
+choice between separation or--decision."
+
+"What decision? What do you mean?" asked Hartmut, perplexed.
+
+Zalika bent over him, and, although they were alone, her voice sank to
+a whisper.
+
+"Will you bow feebly and defenselessly to a tyranny which tears asunder
+the sacred bond between mother and child, and which stamps under foot
+our rights as well as our love? If you can do that, you are not my son;
+you have inherited nothing of the blood that flows in my veins. He sent
+you to bid me farewell, and you accept it patiently as a last favor.
+Have you really come to take leave of me, perhaps for years? Actually,
+have you?"
+
+"I have to," interrupted the youth despairingly. "You know father and
+his iron will. Is there any possibility of anything else?"
+
+"If you return to him, no. But who forces you?"
+
+"Mamma, for God's sake!" shrieked Hartmut, terrified. But the
+encircling arms did not release him, and the hot, passionate whisper
+again reached his ear:
+
+"What frightens you so at the thought? You will only go with your
+mother, who loves you devotedly, and who will henceforth live for you
+alone. You have told me repeatedly that you hate the vocation which is
+forced upon you, that you languish with longing for freedom. There is
+no choice there for you; when you return your father will keep you
+irrevocably in the fetters. If he knew that you would die of them, he
+would not let you free."
+
+She had no need to tell that to her son; he knew it better than she
+did. Only an hour ago he had seen the full inflexibility of his father,
+his hard "You shall learn to obey and bow your will."
+
+His voice was almost smothered in bitterness as he answered:
+"Nevertheless, I must return. I have given my word to be back at
+Burgsdorf in two hours."
+
+"Really," said Zalika, sharply and sarcastically; "I thought so.
+Usually you are nothing but a boy, whose every step is prescribed;
+whose every moment counted out; who ought not even to have his own
+thoughts; but as soon as the retaining of you is concerned, you are
+given the independence of a man. Very well; now show that you are not
+only grown in words, but that you can also act like a man. A forced
+promise has no value. Tear asunder this invincible chain with which
+they want to bind you and make yourself free."
+
+"No--no," murmured Hartmut, with a renewed attempt to free himself. But
+he did not succeed. He only turned his face and looked with fixed eyes
+out into the night, into the desolate, silent forest darkness and over
+yonder where the will-o'-the-wisp still carried on its ghostly dance.
+
+Those quivering, tremulous flames appeared now everywhere; seeming
+to seek and flee from each other, they floated over the ground,
+disappearing or dissolving in the ocean of fog, only to reappear
+again and again. There was something ghastly yet fascinating in this
+spectre-like play; the demoniac charm of the depths which that
+treacherous mire concealed.
+
+"Come with me, my Hartmut," implored Zalika, now in those sweet,
+coaxing tones which were so effectively at hers as well as at her son's
+command. "I have foreseen everything and prepared for it. I knew that a
+day like this had to come. My carriage awaits me half an hour's
+distance from here. It will take us to the next station, and before
+anybody at Burgsdorf thinks you will not return, the train will have
+carried us into the far country. There are freedom, light and
+happiness. I will lead you out into the great distant world, and after
+you know that, you will breathe with relief and shout like a redeemed
+man. I myself know how one released feels. I too have borne that chain
+which I riveted myself in foolish error, but I would have broken it in
+the first year but for you. Oh, it is sweet, this freedom. You will
+feel it, too."
+
+She knew only too well how to succeed. Freedom, life, light! These
+words found a thousand-fold echo in the heart of the young man, whose
+passionate thirst for freedom had been so far suppressed. This promised
+life shone with a magic splendor like a beacon before him. He needed
+only to stretch forth his hand and it was his.
+
+"My promise," he murmured with a last attempt to gather strength.
+"Father will look at me with contempt if----"
+
+"If you have reached a great, proud future?" Zalika interrupted him
+passionately. "Then you can go before him and ask if he dares consider
+you with contempt. He would keep you upon the ground while you have
+wings which will carry you high up. He does not understand a nature
+like yours; he will never learn to understand it. Will you languish and
+go to ruin for only a word's sake? Go with me, my Hartmut--with me, to
+whom you are all in all--out into freedom."
+
+She drew him along, slowly but irresistibly. He still resisted, but did
+not tear himself away; and amidst the prayers and caresses of his
+mother this resistance slowly gave way--he followed.
+
+A few moments later the pond lay wholly deserted; mother and son had
+disappeared; the sound of their steps died away. Night and silence
+brooded alone. Only over yonder in the fog of the marsh fluttered that
+noiseless spectral life. It floated and vanished, rose and sank again
+in restless play--the mysterious sign of flame.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+The warm, golden light of a clear September day lay over the green
+ocean of forest, which stretched as far as the eye could reach. These
+immense forests had covered this part of Southern Germany for countless
+years; trees one hundred years old were no rarity among them. The whole
+bore the character of a mountainous forest, for hills and dales
+succeeded one another.
+
+While the railroads spun their web all around the country, drawing one
+place after another within their grasp, this "Wald," as these miles and
+miles of wooded land were briefly called by the people, lay still and
+deserted, like a green island, almost untouched by the life and strife
+around.
+
+Here and there a village rose from the forest green, or an old castle,
+almost in ruins, gray and dilapidated. There was one exception to it,
+in a powerful, old, gray edifice which stood upon a height and
+overlooked the whole vicinity. This was "Furstenstein," once the
+hunting lodge of the sovereign, but at present the habitation of the
+Chief of all the foresters.
+
+The castle dated from the beginning of the last century and had been
+built with all the waste of space of that epoch when the hunting lodge
+of the Prince had to accommodate for weeks the whole court suite.
+
+Furstenstein was only partly visible at a distance, for the forest
+covered all the castle mount, the gray walls, the steeples and bow
+windows lifting themselves from among the crown of green firs. The size
+of the old structure was only apparent when one stood before the
+entrance portal, for many additions belonging to later times were
+attached to it. It was to be understood that decay here was carefully
+kept back, for the numerous rooms of the upper floors were kept in
+readiness for the commands of the Prince, who came here occasionally in
+the fall.
+
+The similarly extensive lower floor was given to the chief of the
+forest department, Herr von Schonan, who had lived here for years, and
+who knew how to make the loneliness agreeable by keeping a very
+hospitable house and by frequent sociable visitings in the
+neighborhood.
+
+He was entertaining guests at present. His sister-in-law, Frau Regine
+von Eschenhagen, had arrived yesterday, and her son was also expected.
+
+The two daughters of the house of Wallmoden had made very desirable
+matches, the elder one marrying the lord of the Burgsdorf estates and
+the younger one Herr von Schonan, who belonged to a wealthy South
+German family. In spite of the distance separating them, the sisters
+and their families had remained in intimate association, and even after
+the death of the younger one, which had occurred several years
+previously, these family connections were continued.
+
+This friendship, however, had a quality of its own, for Herr von
+Schonan was always on the war-path with his sister-in-law. As both
+natures were terse and inconsiderate they came to a tussle at every
+opportunity, made up regularly, deciding to keep the peace in future,
+but the promise was broken just as regularly. A new difference of
+opinion would come up in the next hour, the dispute would be carried on
+with fullest passion, until it again raged with undiminished power.
+
+Just at present a very unusual harmony seemed to prevail between the
+two, who sat upon the terrace before the entrance room.
+
+The Chief Forester, who in spite of his advanced years, was still a
+very stately man, with strong, sunburned features and slightly gray but
+thick hair and beard, was leaning comfortably back in his chair,
+listening to his sister-in-law, who, as usual, was monopolizing the
+conversation.
+
+Frau Regine was now near her fiftieth year, but had scarcely changed in
+the last decade. The years could not make much impression upon her
+strong physique; a little wrinkle perhaps here and there in the face, a
+few silver threads mingled with the dark hair; but the gray eyes had
+lost none of their keen clearness; the voice was as full and steady,
+the carriage just as energetic as formerly. It was very evident that
+the lady bore the sceptre in her domain now as before.
+
+"As I said, Willy will be here in a week," she was saying. "He had not
+quite finished with his harvest work, but it will soon end, and then he
+will be ready for the betrothal. The affair has long been settled
+between us, but I decidedly advocated the delay, for a young girl of
+sixteen or seventeen years has all sorts of childish tricks still in
+her head, and cannot preside well over an orderly household. But
+Antonie is now twenty years old and Willy twenty-seven; this suits
+exactly. You are satisfied, are you not, brother, that we now arrange
+the betrothal of our children?"
+
+"Quite satisfied," affirmed the Chief Forester; "and we are of the same
+opinion in all else concerning it. Half of my money will fall to my son
+after my death, the other half to my daughter, and you can also be at
+rest about the dower which I have set apart for the wedding."
+
+"Yes, you have not been stingy about it. As to Willy, you know he has
+had possession of the Burgsdorf estates for three years. The money,
+according to the will, remains in my hands. After my death it will, of
+course, fall to him. The young couple will not be in need. Sufficient
+care has been taken for that; therefore all is decided."
+
+"Yes, decided. We will celebrate the betrothal now and the wedding in
+the spring."
+
+The thus far clear sky was darkened now by the first cloud. Frau von
+Eschenhagen shook her head and said dictatorially:
+
+"That will not do, the wedding must occur in the winter, for Willy will
+not have time to marry in the spring."
+
+"Nonsense! One always has time to marry," declared Schonan, just as
+dictatorially.
+
+"Not in the country," persisted Frau Regine; "there the motto is, first
+work and then pleasure. It has always been so with us, and Willy has
+learned it, too."
+
+"But I emphatically beg that he will make an exception in the case of
+his young wife, otherwise the deuce may take him!" cried the Chief
+angrily. "Besides, you know my conditions, Regine. My girl has not seen
+your son for two years; if he does not please her, she shall have a
+free choice."
+
+He had attacked his sister-in-law in a most sensitive spot. She
+straightened herself to her fullest height in her offended motherly
+pride.
+
+"My dear Moritz, I credit your daughter with some taste at least.
+Besides, I believe in the old custom of parents choosing for their
+children. It was so in our time and we have fared well with it. What do
+young people know of such important things? But you have always allowed
+your children their own way too much. One can see there is no mother in
+the house."
+
+"Is that my fault?" demanded Schonan, angrily. "Should I have given
+them a stepmother? In fact, I wished to once, but you would not consent
+to it, Regine."
+
+"No, I had enough of marriage with one trial," was the dry answer,
+which roused the Forester still more. He shrugged his shoulders
+sarcastically.
+
+"Why, I shouldn't think that you could possibly complain of the late
+Eschenhagen. He and all his Burgsdorf danced entirely after your
+piping. Of course, you would not have gotten the upper hand of me so
+easily."
+
+"But I should have had it in a month," remarked Frau Regine with
+perfect composure, "and I should have taken you under my command first
+of all, Moritz."
+
+"What! you tell me this to my face? Shall we try it, then?" shouted
+Schonan in a passion.
+
+"Thank you, I shall not marry a second time. Do not trouble yourself."
+
+"I have not the slightest idea of it. I had enough of it with that one
+jilting; you do not need to do it a second time"; with which the Chief
+Forester pushed back his chair angrily and left.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen remained quietly seated. After awhile she called
+in a quite friendly manner: "Moritz!"
+
+"What is it?" sounded crossly from the other side of the terrace.
+
+"When is Herbert to come with his young wife?"
+
+"At twelve o'clock," came the curt reply.
+
+"I am glad of that. I have not seen him since he was sent to your
+capitol, but I have always said that Herbert was the pride of our
+family, whom one could parade anywhere. He is now Prussian Ambassador
+to His Excellency at your court."
+
+"And a young husband of fifty-six years, besides," said Herr von
+Schonan scornfully.
+
+"Yes, he took his time to marry, but then he has made a splendid match
+for all that. It was surely no little thing for a man of his years to
+win a wife like Adelaide, young, beautiful, rich----"
+
+"And of burgher descent," interrupted Schonan.
+
+"Nonsense! Who asks nowadays after a pedigree when a million is
+involved. Herbert can make use of it. He has had to get along with
+small means all of his life, and the position of ambassador will
+require more display than the salary will admit of. And my brother does
+not need to be ashamed of his father-in-law, for Stahlberg is one of
+our first industry men and a man of honor from tip to toe, besides. It
+was a pity that he died after the marriage of his daughter, for she has
+surely made a sensible choice."
+
+"Pouf! You call it a sensible choice when a girl of eighteen takes a
+husband who could be her father?" cried the Chief, drawing near in the
+heat of the controversy. "Of course when one becomes a baroness and the
+wife of the Prussian Ambassador, one plays a big rôle in society. This
+beautiful, cool Adelaide, with her 'sensible' ideas which would do
+credit to a grandmother, is not congenial to me at all. A sensible girl
+who falls heels over head in love and declares to her parents, 'This
+one or none at all,' is much more to my taste."
+
+"Well, these are beautiful ideas for a father!" cried Frau von
+Eschenhagen indignantly. "It is exceedingly fortunate that Toni has
+taken after my sister and not after you, for otherwise you might live
+to see the like in her. Stahlberg raised his daughter better. I know
+from himself that she obeyed his wish when she gave her hand to
+Herbert, and so, of course, it is all right and as it should be. But
+you do not understand anything about educating children."
+
+"What! I, a man and a father, not understand the bringing up of
+children?" shouted Schonan, cherry-red with vexation.
+
+The two were in the best possible condition to fly at each other again,
+but fortunately they were interrupted this time, for a young girl, the
+daughter of the house, stepped out on the terrace.
+
+Antonie von Schonan could not be called exactly pretty, but she had a
+stately figure like her father and a fresh, blooming face, with light
+brown eyes. Her brown hair was folded in simple plaits around her head
+and her dress, although suitable to her position, was also plain. But
+Antonie was in those years when youth displaced every other charm, and
+as she drew near, fresh, healthy, stately in her whole appearance, she
+was exactly the daughter-in-law after Frau von Eschenhagen's own heart,
+and she nodded in a friendly way to her.
+
+"Father, the carriage is returning from the station," said the young
+lady in a very deliberate, somewhat drawling tone. "It is already at
+the foot of the castle mount. Uncle Wallmoden will be here in fifteen
+minutes."
+
+"What, tausend! They have driven like lightning!" exclaimed the Chief
+Forester, whose face brightened at the news. "Are the rooms all in
+order?"
+
+Toni nodded as calmly as if that were a self-evident fact. As her
+father started off to look for the carriage which was to bring his
+guests, Frau von Eschenhagen said with a glance at the little basket
+which the young girl carried: "Well Toni, you have been busy again?"
+
+"I have been in the kitchen garden, dear aunt. The gardener insisted
+that there were no pears ripe as yet, but I looked for myself and
+gathered a basketful."
+
+"That is right, my child," said her future mother-in-law, highly
+satisfied. "One must have her eyes and hands everywhere, and never rely
+upon servants. You will some day be a splendid housekeeper. But now let
+us go. We will also meet the uncle."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Herr von Schonan was already in advance and just descending the wide
+stone steps which led to the castle court, when a man emerged from one
+of the side buildings and came to a standstill, bowing his greeting
+respectfully.
+
+"Hallo, Stadinger; what are you doing at Furstenstein?" cried the Chief
+Forester. "Come up here."
+
+The man obeyed the command. He walked actively with firm, erect
+carriage, in spite of his snow-white hair, and a pair of keen, dark
+eyes shone from his tanned face.
+
+"I have been with the Herr Steward, Herr Oberforstmeister," he replied,
+"to ask if he could not let me have a few of his people to help me, for
+everything is topsy-turvy with us at Rodeck just now. We have not hands
+enough for the work."
+
+"Ah, yes; Prince Egon has returned from his travels in the Orient; I
+heard of it," said Schonan. "But how does it happen that he comes to
+Rodeck this time, this small forest nook which offers neither room nor
+comforts?"
+
+"Heaven alone knows that; one never dares ask why with our young
+Highness. The news came one morning, and the castle had to be put in
+order, good or bad. I have had pains and worry enough to get ready in
+two days."
+
+"I believe that. Rodeck has not been inhabited for years, but now there
+will be life once more in the old walls."
+
+"But the old walls will be stood on their head with it all," grumbled
+the castle keeper. "If you only knew how it looks there, Herr
+Oberforstmeister. The whole hunting hall is packed full of lion and
+tiger skins and all manner of mounted animals, and the live parrots and
+monkeys sit about in every room. There is such a noise and making of
+faces that one cannot hear a word at times; and now His Highness has
+announced to me, besides, that a whole herd of elephants and a large
+sea serpent are on their way here. I think apoplexy will overtake me."
+
+"What is on the way here?" demanded Schonan, who could not believe his
+ears.
+
+"A sea serpent and a dozen elephants. I have remonstrated with might
+and main. 'Your Highness,' I have said, 'we cannot house any more of
+the beasts, particularly not the sea serpent, for such a beast needs
+water, and we have no pond at Rodeck. As to the elephants--well, we
+will just have to tie them to the trees in the forest. If we cannot do
+that, I do not know what to do.' 'Good,' says His Highness, 'we will tie
+them to the trees, it will be a picturesque sight; and we will send the
+sea serpent to board at Furstenstein. That pond is large enough.' I beg
+of you, Herr Oberforstmeister, he will populate the whole neighborhood
+with those awful beasts."
+
+The Chief Forester laughed aloud and patted the shoulder of the old
+man, who seemed to enjoy his special favor.
+
+"But, Stadinger, did you really take that in earnest? Don't you know
+your Prince? It seems that he has not become more settled by his
+absence."
+
+"No, really not," sighed Stadinger, "and what His Highness does not
+know, Herr Rojanow will surely find out. He makes it ten times worse.
+Oh, dreadful that such a madcap should fall to our lot!"
+
+"Rojanow? Who is that?" asked Schonan, becoming attentive.
+
+"Yes, that is what nobody knows exactly, but he is everything with us
+since His Highness cannot live without him. He found this friend
+somewhere back there in the heathen lands. The friend himself may be
+half a heathen or a Turk; he looks just like it, with his dark hair and
+his fiery eyes, and he knows how to command from the very bottom. He
+sometimes drives all the servants helter-skelter with his orders and
+actions, as if he was lord and master of Rodeck. But he is handsome as
+a picture--almost more so than our Prince, who has given strict orders
+that his friend has to be obeyed like himself."
+
+"Probably some adventurer who takes advantage of the Prince. I can
+imagine that," muttered Schonan, continuing aloud: "Well, may God help
+you, Stadinger! I must go now to meet my brother-in-law. Do not let any
+gray hairs grow on account of the sea-serpent. If His Highness
+threatens you with it again, just tell him I would offer the
+Furstenstein pond with pleasure, but I must see it alive before me
+first."
+
+He nodded laughingly at the old man, who looked much comforted, and
+walked toward the entrance portal.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen and her niece had also appeared, and the carriage
+now came in sight upon the broad forest road of the castle mount,
+rolling, a few minutes later, into the castle court.
+
+Regine was the first to greet them. She shook her brother's hand so
+heartily that he drew back with a slight shudder. The Chief Forester
+remained in the background; he stood somewhat in awe of his diplomatic
+brother-in-law, whose sarcasm he secretly feared; while Toni allowed
+neither her uncle, His Excellency, nor his beautiful wife to rouse her
+from her composed deliberation.
+
+The years had not passed Herbert von Wallmoden by as lightly as
+they had his sister; he had aged considerably; his hair had turned
+quite gray, and the sarcastic lines around his mouth had become
+more pronounced; otherwise he was still the cool, aristocratic
+diplomat--perhaps a few degrees cooler and more reticent than formerly.
+The superiority which he had borne to his surroundings seemed to have
+grown with the high position which he filled at present.
+
+The young wife at his side would probably have been taken by every
+stranger for his daughter. He had truly shown good taste in his choice.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden was, indeed, beautiful, although of that
+composed, serious beauty which usually aroused only calm admiration,
+but she seemed equal in every respect to the high position in life
+brought her by this marriage.
+
+The young wife, scarcely nineteen years old, and who had been married
+but six months, showed perfect ease of manner--an unexceptional mastery
+of all forms, as if she had lived for years beside her elderly husband.
+
+To his wife Wallmoden was politeness and attention personified. He now
+offered his arm to lead her to her room, returning in a few minutes to
+join his sister, who awaited him on the terrace.
+
+The attitude of these two to each other was in many respects a strange
+one. The brother and sister were of the most pronounced opposites in
+appearance as well as character, and usually of opinion as well; but
+the blood relationship gave them, in spite of this difference, a
+feeling of closest union. This was evident as they sat together now
+after the long separation.
+
+Although Herbert was somewhat nervous during the conversation, for
+Regine did not find it necessary to subdue her peculiar manner, causing
+him embarrassment more than once with her inconsiderate questions and
+remarks, he had long ago learned to consider that as unavoidable, and
+surrendered himself to it now with a sigh.
+
+At first they spoke of the coming betrothal of Willibald and Toni,
+which had Wallmoden's full approval. He thought the match very
+suitable, and besides, every one in the family had been long acquainted
+with it.
+
+But now Frau von Eschenhagen began an entirely different subject.
+"Well, and how do you feel as a husband, Herbert?" she asked. "You have
+certainly taken your time for it, but better late than never, and to
+speak the truth, you have had extraordinarily good luck in spite of
+your gray hair."
+
+The Ambassador did not seem very well pleased at this allusion to his
+age. He pressed his thin lips together for a moment, and then replied
+with some sharpness: "You should really be a little more careful in
+your expressions, dear Regine. I know my age very well, but the
+position in life which I brought my wife as a wedding gift should
+counteract the difference of the years somewhat."
+
+"Well, I should think the dowry she brought you was not to be
+slighted," remarked Regine, quite unconcerned as to the rebuke. "Have
+you already presented her at court?"
+
+"Yes, two weeks ago, at the Summer Residenz. Mourning for my
+father-in-law prevented it before. We shall have open house in the
+winter as my position requires. I was most pleasantly surprised at
+Adelaide's manner at court. She moved upon the strange ground with an
+ease and composure which were truly admirable. I saw there again how
+happy my choice was in every respect. But I wish to inquire after
+several things at home. First of all, how is Falkenried?"
+
+"Surely you do not need to ask me that? Are you not in regular
+correspondence with him?"
+
+"Yes, but his letters grow shorter and more monosyllabic. I wrote him
+at length about my marriage, but received only a very laconic reply.
+But you must see him frequently, since he has been called to the
+position of Secretary of War. The city is near."
+
+"You are mistaken there. The Colonel shows himself very rarely at
+Burgsdorf, and he is becoming more and more reticent and
+unapproachable."
+
+"I am sorry to hear that; but he used always to make an exception of
+you, and I hoped much from your influence since he is back in your
+vicinity. Have you not tried, then, to renew the old intimacy?"
+
+"I did at first, but finally had to give it up, for I saw that it was
+painful to him. Nothing can be done there, Herbert. Since that
+unfortunate catastrophe which both of us lived through with him he has
+changed into stone. You have seen him several times since then and know
+the ruin that has worked there."
+
+Wallmoden's brow clouded and his voice was harsh as he returned: "Yes,
+that scoundrel--that Hartmut lies heavy upon his heart, but more than
+ten years have passed since then, and I hoped that Falkenried would
+return to sociable life in time."
+
+"I have never had that hope; that blow went to the root of life. I
+shall never forget that evening at Burgsdorf while I live. How we
+waited and waited--first with restlessness and anxiety, then with
+deadly fear. You guessed the truth directly, but I would not permit
+myself to believe it--and Falkenried! I can see him yet as he stood at
+the window, looking fixedly out into the night pale as a corpse, with
+teeth tightly clenched, having for every fear expressed the one reply,
+'He will come--he must come. I have his word for it.' And when, in
+spite of all, Hartmut did not come--when the night wore on and we
+finally learned upon inquiry at the railroad station that the two had
+arrived there in a carriage and taken the express train--God in heaven!
+How the man looked when he turned to leave, so mute and stiff! I made
+you promise not to leave his side, for I believed that he would blow
+his brains out."
+
+"You judged him wrongly," said Wallmoden decisively. "A man like
+Falkenried considers it cowardice to lay hands on his life, even if
+that life has become torture to him. He stands up even to a lost post.
+Although what would have happened if they had let him go that time--I
+do not dare to surmise."
+
+"Yes, I knew that he had asked for his dismissal, because to serve
+after his son had become a deserter did not accord with his ideas of
+honor. It was the step of despair."
+
+"Yes, truly; and it was fortunate that his chiefs would not dispense
+with his military genius and force. The chief of the general's staff
+took the affair in his own hands and brought it before the king. They
+concluded finally to treat the whole unfortunate occurrence--at least
+as far as it could concern the father--as the act of a heedless boy,
+for which a highly deserving officer could not be held accountable.
+Falkenried had to take back his request for resignation, was
+transferred into a far-away garrison, and the affair silenced as much
+as was possible. It is, indeed, buried and forgotten now after ten
+years by all the world."
+
+"It is not forgotten by one," finished Regine. "My heart burns
+sometimes when I think of what Falkenried was once, and what he is now.
+The bitter experience of his marriage had made him rather serious and
+unsocial, but occasionally the full charming amiability of his manner
+would break through, warm and hearty, from his inmost heart--all that
+is over. He knows now only the iron severity of duty--all else is dead.
+Even the old friendly relations have become painful to him. One has to
+let him go his own way."
+
+She broke off with a sigh, which betrayed how near to her heart was the
+friend of her youth, and laying her hand upon the arm of her brother,
+she continued: "Perhaps you are right, Herbert, in that one chooses
+best and most sensibly in late years. You do not need to fear the fate
+of Falkenried. Your wife comes from a good race. I knew Stahlberg well.
+He had worked up to the heights of life with firmness and ability, and
+even as a millionaire he remained the upright man of honor he had ever
+been. Adelaide is the daughter of her father in every respect. You have
+chosen well and you my heartfelt wishes for your happiness."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Rodeck, the hunting lodge belonging to the possessions of the Prince of
+Adelsberg, was about two hours' distance from Furstenstein, in the
+midst of deepest forest loneliness. The small building, erected
+without much taste, contained at the most about a dozen rooms, whose
+old-fashioned and shabby furniture had been put in as good order as the
+short notice of the coming of the Prince permitted.
+
+The little castle had not been inhabited for years and looked somewhat
+dilapidated, but when one emerged from the deep, dark forest into the
+opening, and beheld at the end of the wide green sward the old gray
+edifice with its tall, spiked roof and four steeples at the corners, it
+had truly something of the forest idyl about it.
+
+The Adelsbergs had once been a reigning family, but a family that had
+long since lost its sovereignty. They had retained, however, the
+princely title, an enormous fortune, and a very extensive property. The
+once numerous family counted at present but few representatives; the
+main branch only a single one--the Prince Egon, who, as lord of all the
+family estates, besides being closely related to the reigning house
+through his late mother, played an important rôle among the nobility of
+the land.
+
+The young Prince had always been considered a rover, who at times
+followed very eccentric notions and bothered himself very little about
+princely etiquette when he wished to follow some momentary whim. The
+old Prince had been very strict with his son, but his death made Egon
+von Adelsberg the sole master of his own will very early in life.
+
+He had now returned from a tour in the Orient which had kept him in
+foreign lands two years, but instead of occupying the princely palace
+in town, or one of his other castles which were furnished with every
+conceivable splendor for a summer or fall visit, he took a notion to go
+to the old forest nook--the little half-forgotten Rodeck--which was not
+prepared for the honor of receiving its master, and could offer but
+scant accommodation.
+
+Old Stadinger was right: one must never ask Prince Egon why. Everything
+depended entirely upon his momentary caprice.
+
+In the morning of a sunny autumn day, two gentlemen in hunting costume
+stood upon the lawn at Rodeck talking with the castle-keeper, while a
+light open carriage stood upon the gravel road, ready for departure. At
+a casual glance the two young men bore a certain resemblance to each
+other. They had tall, slender figures, deeply tanned faces, and eyes in
+which glowed the whole fiery gayety and courage of youth, but upon
+closer examination the wide difference between them was apparent.
+
+The Southern coloring of the younger one, who might, perhaps, be about
+twenty-four years old, was caused, apparently, by a prolonged stay
+under a hot sun, for the light, curly hair and blue eyes did not match
+it--they betrayed the German. A light beard, curly like the hair,
+framed a handsome, open face, which, however, did not follow any strict
+line of beauty. The forehead was rather too low, but there was
+something like bright sunshine in this face which charmed and won
+everybody.
+
+His companion, several years his senior, had nothing of this sunny
+quality, although his appearance was more imposing. Slender like the
+younger one, he towered above him in height, and his dark complexion
+was not caused by the sun alone. It was of that olive tint which allows
+a pale face to still look fresh, and the blue-black hair which fell in
+thick waves over the high brow made the apparent paleness more
+noticeable. The face was beautiful, with its noble, proud lines so
+firmly and energetically pronounced, but upon it appeared also deep
+shadows lying over brow and eyes; such shadows as one seldom finds on
+youthful features.
+
+The large, dark eyes, which had in their depths something gloomy, told
+of hot, unruled passions. In their flashing there was something uncanny
+but mysteriously attractive. One felt that they could charm with
+demoniac power; in fact, the whole personality of the man possessed
+this uncanny, entrancing charm.
+
+"But I cannot help you, Stadinger," said the younger of the two
+gentlemen. "The newly arrived lot has to be unpacked and a place found
+for them. Where? that is your affair."
+
+"But, Your Highness, if that is absolutely impossible?" argued the
+castle-keeper, in a tone indicating that he stood in rather familiar
+relations to his young master. "Not a nook is free any more in Rodeck.
+I have had trouble enough already to house the servants which Your
+Highness brought along, and now every day boxes large as houses arrive,
+and always it is 'Unpack, Stadinger,' 'Find room, Stadinger,' and in
+the meantime the rooms stand empty by the dozen in the other castles."
+
+"Do not grumble, old forest spirit, but find room," interrupted the
+Prince. "The arrivals have to be put up here at Rodeck, at least for
+the present, and if the worst comes you will have to give up your own
+lodgings."
+
+"Yes, certainly; Stadinger has room enough in his lodgings," joined in
+the second gentleman. "I shall arrange it myself and measure it all."
+
+"And Lena can help you with it," added the Prince, supporting the
+proposal of his friend. "She is at home, is she not?"
+
+Stadinger measured the gentlemen from head to foot, then answered
+drily:
+
+"No, Your Highness, Lena is away."
+
+"Where?" cried the Prince, starting up. "Where has she gone?"
+
+"To town," was the laconic reply.
+
+"What! I thought you intended keeping your grandchild at home all
+winter."
+
+"That has been changed," replied the castle-keeper with imperturbable
+composure. "My old sister Rosa only is at home now. If you wish to
+measure my dwelling with her help, Herr Rojanow, she would consider it
+a high honor."
+
+Rojanow glanced at the old man in no very friendly way, and the young
+prince said reproachfully:
+
+"Now listen, Stadinger, you treat us in quite an unaccountable manner.
+You even take Lena away from us, the only one who was worth looking at.
+All else here in the female line have the sixties behind them, and
+their heads positively shake from old age; and the kitchen women you
+got from Furstenstein to help actually offend our sense of beauty."
+
+"Your Highnesses do not need to look at them," suggested Stadinger. "I
+look out that the servants do not come into the castle, but if Your
+Highness goes into the kitchen like the day before yesterday----"
+
+"Well, must I not inspect my servants at times? But I shall not go into
+the kitchen a second time--you have taken care of that. I have my
+suspicions that you have gathered here all the very ugliest of the Wald
+to celebrate my arrival. You ought to be ashamed, Stadinger."
+
+The old man looked sharply and fixedly into his master's eyes, and his
+voice sounded very impressive as he answered:
+
+"I am not ashamed a bit, Your Highness. When the late Prince, Your
+Highness' father, gave me this post of rest he said to me, 'Keep order
+at Rodeck, Stadinger--I rely upon you.' Well, I have kept order for
+twelve years in the castle, and in my house particularly, and I shall
+do that in future. Has Your Highness any orders for me?"
+
+"No, you old, rude thing," cried the Prince, half laughing, half angry.
+"Make haste and get away. We do not need any curtain lectures."
+
+Stadinger obeyed. He saluted and marched off.
+
+Rojanow looked after him and shrugged his shoulders sarcastically.
+
+"I admire your patience, Egon. You allow your servants very
+far-reaching liberty."
+
+"Stadinger is an exception," replied Egon. "He allows himself
+everything; but he was not so much in the wrong when he sent Lena away.
+I believe I should have done the same in his place."
+
+"But it is not the first time that this old castle-keeper has taken it
+upon himself to call you and me to order. If I were his master he would
+have his dismissal in the next hour."
+
+"If I tried that it would turn out badly for me," laughed the Prince.
+"Such old family heirlooms, who have served for three generations, and
+have carried the children in their arms, will be treated with respect.
+I cannot gain anything there with orders and prohibitions. Peter
+Stadinger does what he will, and occasionally lectures me just as he
+sees fit."
+
+"If you suffer it--such a thing is incomprehensible to me."
+
+"Yes, it is a thing you do not comprehend, Hartmut," said Egon more
+seriously. "You know only the slavish submission of the servants in
+your country and the Orient. They kneel and bow at every opportunity,
+yet steal and betray their masters whenever they can and know how.
+Stadinger is of an enviable simplicity. My 'Highness' does not
+intimidate him in the least. He often tells me the hardest things to my
+face; but I could put hundreds of thousands in his hands--he would not
+defraud me of one iota of it. If Rodeck were in flames and I in the
+midst of it, the old man, with all his sixty years, would stand by me
+without a second thought. All this is different with us in Germany."
+
+"Yes; with you in Germany," repeated Hartmut slowly, and his glance was
+lost dreamily in the dusk of the forest.
+
+"Are you still so prejudiced against it?" asked Egon. "It cost me
+persuasion and prayers enough to get you to accompany me here--you
+fought so against entering German territory."
+
+"I wish I had not entered it," said Rojanow, gloomily. "You know----"
+
+"That all sorts of bitter remembrances have their origin here for
+you--yes, you have told me that; but you must have been a boy then.
+Have you not yet overcome the grudge against it? You have the most
+obstinate reticence, anyway, upon this point. I have not yet heard what
+it really was that----"
+
+"Egon, I beg of you, leave the subject," interrupted Hartmut, harshly.
+"I have told you once for all that I cannot and will not speak of it.
+If you mistrust me, let me go. I have not forced myself upon you, you
+know that; but I cannot bear these inquiries and questions."
+
+The proud, inconsiderate tone which he used toward his friend did not
+seem to be anything new to the Prince. He merely shrugged his shoulders
+and said pacifyingly:
+
+"How irritable you are again to-day! I believe you are right when you
+insist that German air makes you nervous. You are entirely changed
+since you put foot on this soil."
+
+"It is possible. I feel that I torture you and myself with these whims;
+therefore let me go, Egon."
+
+"I know better! Have I taken so much pains to catch you, just to let
+you fly off again now? No, no, Hartmut, I shall not let you go by any
+means."
+
+The words sounded playful, but Rojanow seemed to take them wrongly. His
+eyes lighted up almost threateningly as he returned:
+
+"And what if I _will_ leave?"
+
+"Then I shall hold you like this."
+
+With an indescribably charming expression, Egon threw his arm around
+his friend's shoulder. "And I shall ask if this bad, obstinate Hartmut
+can bring his conscience to desert me. We have lived together almost
+two years, and have shared danger and joy like two brothers, and now
+you would storm out into the world again without asking about me. Am I,
+then, so little to you?"
+
+Such warm, heartfelt beseeching was in the words that Rojanow's
+irritation could not live. His eyes lit up with an expression which
+showed that he returned just as intensely the passionate, enthusiastic
+affection which the young Prince bore him, even if he was, in their
+mutual relationship, the domineering one.
+
+"Do you believe that for the sake of any one else I would have come to
+Germany?" he asked in a low voice. "Forgive me, Egon. I am an unstable
+nature. I have never been able to stay long in any place since--since
+my boyhood."
+
+"Then learn it now here at my home," cried Egon. "I came to Rodeck
+especially to show you my country in its entire beauty. This old
+edifice, which nestles in the midst of the deep forest like a fairy
+castle, is a piece of forest poetry such as you could not find in any
+of my other possessions. I know your taste--but I must really leave you
+now. You will not drive with me over to Furstenstein?"
+
+"No; I will enjoy your much-praised forest poetry, which, it appears,
+is already tiresome to you, as you wish to make calls."
+
+"Yes; I am no poet like you, who can dream and be enthused all day,"
+said Egon, laughing. "We have led the life of hermits for a full week,
+and I cannot live on sunshine and forest perfume and the curtain
+lectures of Stadinger alone. I need people, and the Chief Forester is
+about the only person in the neighborhood. Besides, this Herr von
+Schonan is a splendid, jolly man. You will yet meet and know him, too."
+
+He motioned to the waiting carriage, gave his hand to his friend,
+sprang to his seat and rolled away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Rojanow looked after him until the vehicle had disappeared behind the
+trees, then he turned and took one of the paths which led into the
+forest. He carried his gun over his shoulder, but evidently did not
+think of hunting. Lost in thought, he walked further and further
+aimlessly, without noticing the road or direction, until deepest forest
+loneliness surrounded him.
+
+Prince Adelsberg was right; he knew his friend's taste. This forest
+poetry took full possession of him. He finally came to a standstill and
+drew a deep breath, but the cloud upon his brow would not dispel; it
+grew darker and darker as he leaned against the trunk of a tree and
+allowed his eyes to roam about. Something not of peace or joy was
+depicted in those beautiful features, which all the sunny beauty around
+could not erase.
+
+He saw this country for the first time; his former home was far removed
+in the northern part of Germany; nothing here reminded him directly of
+the past, and yet just here something awoke in him which seemed to have
+long been dead--something which had not made itself felt in all those
+years when he crossed oceans and countries, when intoxicating waves of
+life surrounded him and he drank with full thirsty draughts the freedom
+for which he had sacrificed so much--everything.
+
+The old German woods! They rustled here in the south as up there in the
+familiar north; the same breath floated through the firs and oaks here
+which whispered there in the crowns of the pines; the same voice which
+had once been so familiar to the boy when he lay upon the mossy forest
+soil. He had heard many other voices since, some coaxing and
+flattering, some intoxicating and enthusiastic, but this voice sounded
+so grave and yet so sweet in the rustling of the forest trees--the
+fatherland spoke to the lost son!
+
+Something moved yonder in the bushes. Hartmut looked up indifferently,
+thinking that some game was passing through, but instead of that he saw
+the glimmer of a light dress. A lady emerged from a narrow side path
+which wound through the forest, and stood still, apparently undecided
+as to the direction she ought to take.
+
+Rojanow had started at the unexpected sight. It awoke him suddenly from
+his dream and called him back to reality. The stranger had also noticed
+him. She, too, seemed surprised, but only for a moment; then she drew
+near and said with a slight bow: "May I ask you, sir, to show me the
+road to Furstenstein? I am a stranger here and have lost my way in my
+walk. I fear I have wandered considerably from my path."
+
+Hartmut had scanned the appearance of the young lady with a quick
+glance, and immediately decided to act as guide. Although he did not
+know the road about which she had asked--knew only the direction in
+which it lay--it troubled him but little. He made a deeply polite bow.
+
+"I place myself entirely at your service, gracious Fraulein.
+Furstenstein is, indeed, rather far from here, and you cannot possibly
+find the road by yourself, so I must beg you to accept my escort."
+
+The lady seemed to have expected the right direction to be pointed out,
+and the proffered escort was evidently not especially welcome, but she
+may have been afraid of losing her way a second time, and the perfect
+politeness with which the offer was made scarcely left her any choice.
+She bowed after a moment's hesitation and replied: "I shall be very
+much obliged to you. Please let us go."
+
+Rojanow pointed out a narrow, half-covered path which led in the
+direction of Furstenstein, and entered it without further ado. He
+decided to retain his rôle as guide, for the little adventure began to
+interest him.
+
+His protégé was, indeed, beautiful enough to make the encounter
+interesting. The pure, delicate oval of her face; the high, clear brow
+surrounded by shining blonde hair; the lines of the features--all was
+perfect symmetry, but there was something chilling in the strong
+regularity of these lines, which was rather increased by a mark of
+energetic will power most plainly pronounced. The young lady could not
+be more than eighteen or nineteen years old at the utmost, but she had
+nothing of the charm of mirth and gayety belonging to that age. The
+large blue eyes looked as calm and grave as if a girlish dream had
+never brightened them, and the same cold, proud composure was visible
+in the carriage and whole appearance.
+
+This tall, slender figure affected one like a chilling breath. Her
+plain but elegant apparel showed that she belonged to the high classes.
+
+Rojanow had time enough to observe her as he walked now behind her and
+now before, bending back the low-hanging bows, or warning of the
+unevenness of the ground. This narrow forest path was truly not
+comfortable, and proved itself not very appropriate for the toilet of a
+lady. More than once her dress was caught by the bushes; the veil of
+her hat was entangled in the boughs at every opportunity, while the
+mossy soil proved at times very damp and foggy.
+
+All of this, however, was borne with perfect indifference, but Hartmut
+felt that he was not doing himself much credit with his post as guide.
+
+"I am sorry to have to lead you over such a rough path, Fraulein," he
+said courteously. "I am really afraid of fatiguing you, but we are in
+the densest forest and there is no choice whatever."
+
+"I am not easily fatigued," was the calm rejoinder. "I care little for
+the roughness of the road if it only leads to the desired end."
+
+The remark sounded somewhat unusual from the lips of a young girl.
+Rojanow seemed to think so, and smiled rather sarcastically as he
+repeated:
+
+"If it only leads to the desired end? Quite so--that is my opinion, but
+ladies are usually of a different mind; they wish to be borne softly
+over every inconvenience."
+
+"All of them? There are also women who prefer to go alone, without
+being led like a child."
+
+"Perhaps, as an exception. I prize the chance which gives me the good
+fortune of meeting such a charming exception----"
+
+Hartmut was about to utter a bold compliment, but suddenly grew silent,
+for the blue eyes looked at him with an expression that made the words
+die upon his lips.
+
+At this moment the lady's veil was caught again by a thorny bush, which
+held it fast relentlessly. She stood still, but hardly had her
+companion stretched forth his hand to disengage the delicate fabric,
+when she tore herself free with a quick motion of the head. The veil
+remained hanging in shreds on the bough, but his help had become
+totally superfluous.
+
+Rojanow bit his lip. This adventure was developing quite differently
+from what he had expected. He had thought to play the agreeable in that
+bold, vainglorious manner which had become his second nature toward
+ladies, to a timid young being who trusted herself entirely to his
+protection, but he was being shown back to his proper place by a mere
+glance at his first attempt. It was made very clear to him that he was
+to be guide here and nothing else.
+
+Who, then, in truth, was this girl who, with her eighteen or nineteen
+years, already showed the perfect ease of a great lady and who knew so
+well how to make herself unapproachable? He concluded to have light
+about it at any cost.
+
+The narrow path now ended; they emerged into an opening, the forest
+continuing on the other side.
+
+It was not easy to be a guide here, where one was as little acquainted
+with the country as Hartmut, but he would never confess his ignorance
+now.
+
+Apparently quite certain, he kept in the same direction, choosing one
+of the wood roads which crossed through the forest. There must surely
+be a spot somewhere which would offer a free outlook and make it
+possible to find the right road.
+
+The wider path now permitted them to walk side by side, and Hartmut
+took immediate advantage of it to start a conversation, which thus far
+had been impossible, since they had had to struggle with so many
+obstacles.
+
+"I have neglected so far to introduce myself, gracious Fraulein," he
+commenced. "My name is Rojanow. I am at present at Rodeck, a guest of
+Prince Adelsberg, who enjoys the privilege of being your neighbor,
+since you live at Furstenstein."
+
+"No; I am likewise only a guest there," replied the lady.
+
+The princely neighbor seemed to be as indifferent to her as the name of
+her companion; at all events, she did not seem to consider it necessary
+to give her name in return, but accepted the introduction with that
+proud, aristocratic movement of the head which seemed to be peculiar to
+her.
+
+"Ah, you live, then, at the Residenz, and have taken advantage of the
+beautiful fall weather for an excursion here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+It sounded as monosyllabic and rebuking as possible, but Rojanow was
+not the man to be rebuked. He was accustomed to have his personality
+felt everywhere--to meet with consideration and importance,
+particularly among the ladies, and he felt it almost an insult that
+this oft-tested success was denied him here. But it excited him to
+enforce a conversation which apparently was not desired.
+
+"Are you satisfied with your stay at Furstenstein?" he began anew. "I
+have not yet been there, and have only seen the castle from afar, but
+it seems to overlook the whole vicinity. A peculiar taste is needed,
+however, to find the country beautiful."
+
+"And this taste does not seem to be yours."
+
+"At any rate, I do not love the monotony, and here one has the same
+view everywhere. Forest and forest and nothing but forest! It is enough
+sometimes to create despair."
+
+It sounded like suppressed resentment. The poor German forests had to
+atone for torturing the returned prodigal to such an extent that he had
+been upon the point several times of fleeing from their whispering and
+rustling. He could not bear it--this grave, monotonous tune of old
+times which the leaves whispered to him.
+
+His companion heard, of course, only the sarcasm in the remark.
+
+"You are a foreigner, Herr Rojanow?" she asked calmly.
+
+A dark shadow passed again over Hartmut's brow. He hesitated for a
+moment, then replied coldly: "Yes, gracious Fraulein."
+
+"I thought so; your name, as well as appearance, betrays it, and
+therefore your opinion is conceivable."
+
+"It is certainly an unbiased opinion," said Hartmut, irritated by the
+reproach contained in the last words. "I have seen a great deal of the
+world, and have but now returned from the Orient. Whoever has known the
+ocean in its brilliant, transparent blue, or its majestic, stormy
+uproar; whoever has enjoyed the charm of the tropics, and been
+intoxicated with their splendor and coloring--to him these evergreen
+forest depths appear but cold and colorless, like all of these German
+landscapes, anyhow."
+
+The contemptuous shrug of the shoulders with which he concluded seemed
+to finally arouse his companion from her cool indifference. An
+expression of displeasure flitted across her features, and her voice
+betrayed a certain excitement as she answered: "That is probably solely
+and entirely a matter of taste. I know, if not the Orient, at least the
+south of Europe. Those sun-glaring, color-shining landscapes intoxicate
+for the moment, certainly, and then they weary one. They lack freshness
+and strength. One can dream and enjoy there, but not live and work. But
+why argue about it? You do not understand our German forests."
+
+Hartmut smiled with undeniable satisfaction. He had succeeded in
+breaking the icy reticence of his companion. All of his charming
+politeness had been without effect, but he saw now that there was
+something which could call life into those cold features, and he found
+it attractive to draw it out. If he offended by it, it did not matter;
+it gave him pleasure.
+
+"That sounds like a reproof which, alas! I have to accept," he said,
+with an undisguised sneer. "It is possible that this understanding is
+wanting in me. I am accustomed to measure nature differently from most
+people. Live and work! It depends greatly upon what one calls living
+and working. I have lived for years in Paris, that mighty centre of
+civilization, where life throbs and flows in a thousand streams.
+Whoever is used to being borne on those sparkling waves cannot bring
+himself again into narrow, _petit_ views--into all those prejudices and
+pedantries which in this good Germany are called 'life.'"
+
+The contemptuous stress which he put upon the last words had something
+of a challenge in it, and reached its aim.
+
+His companion came to a sudden standstill and measured him from head to
+foot, while from the formerly cold, blue eyes there flashed a spark of
+burning anger. She seemed to have an angry reply upon her lips, but
+suppressed it. She only straightened herself to her fullest height, and
+her words were few and of icy, haughty reprimand.
+
+"You forget, mein Herr, that you speak to a German. I remind you of
+it."
+
+Hartmut's brow glowed dark-red under this stern reproof, and yet it was
+directed only to the stranger--the foreigner--who forgot the
+consideration of a guest.
+
+If this girl had an idea who spoke so to her--if she knew! Hot, burning
+shame rose suddenly within him, but he was man of the world enough to
+control himself immediately.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said with a slight, half-sarcastic bow. "I was
+under the impression that we were exchanging only general views, which
+have the right of unbiased opinions. I am sorry to have offended you,
+gracious Fraulein."
+
+An inimitable, proud and disdainful motion of the head assured him that
+he did not even possess the power to offend her. She shrugged her
+shoulders in a barely perceptible manner.
+
+"I do not wish to bias your opinions in the least, but as our views are
+so widely different on this matter, we will do better to discontinue
+our conversation."
+
+Rojanow was not inclined to continue it. He knew now that those cold,
+blue eyes could flash. He had wished to see it--had caused it to
+happen, and yet the matter had ended differently from what he had
+anticipated. He glanced with a half hostile look at the slender figure
+at his side, and then his eyes roamed resentfully again in the bitterly
+abused green depths of the forest.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+This forest loneliness had, however, something fascinating in it. It
+was touched by the first slight breath of autumn; that touch which has
+not yet brought withering and death, but has only steeped the landscape
+in richer coloring. Here and there brilliant red and gold flashed
+through the bushes, but the forest itself still rested fresh and
+aromatic in its green dusk.
+
+Beneath the crowns of the century-old trees bending gracefully toward
+each other, deep, cool shadows glided, and in the openings golden
+sunshine lay glistening on the flowers which bloomed here in the light.
+Occasionally in the distance the bright mirror of a small pond
+glittered, resting lonely, as if lost in the midst of the deep forest.
+
+Through the profound quiet all around could be heard the low rustling
+of the mighty trees and the humming and singing of thousands of insects
+that seemed to float upon the rays of the sun: all of those mysterious
+voices which are heard only in solitude--the sweet, dreamy language of
+the forest. It lured and coaxed irresistibly with its green depths,
+which stretched endlessly, always further and further, as if it wished
+to keep forever within its charm the two now walking through it.
+
+But suddenly quite an unexpected obstacle appeared before them. Dashing
+and roaring from the thickly grown heights, a broad forest brook made a
+way for itself with merry haste through bushes and rocks.
+
+Rojanow paused in his walk and took in the situation with a quick
+glance, but as nowhere could a ford or bridge be discovered, he turned
+to his companion.
+
+"I fear we are in trouble; the brook seems to put an end to our path.
+It is usually easy to cross on the moss-covered stones at the bottom,
+with some care, but yesterday's rain has covered them completely."
+
+The young lady was looking anxiously for some crossing place. "Would it
+not be possible further down?" she asked, pointing down the stream.
+
+"No, for the water is deeper and more rapid there. We must cross here
+at this place. Of course, you cannot go through the water. You will
+permit me, Fraulein, to carry you over?"
+
+The offer was made with perfect courtesy and reserve, but Rojanow's
+eyes flashed triumphantly. Chance was avenging him now on the
+unapproachable one, who would not suffer his assistance even in the
+disengaging of her veil from a thorn bush. She had now to entrust
+herself unconditionally to his help, there was no choice but to allow
+herself to be carried in his arms to the other bank.
+
+He drew near as if the permission sought had been granted, but she
+recoiled.
+
+"I thank you, Herr Rojanow."
+
+Hartmut smiled with an irony which he took no pains to conceal. He was
+master of the situation now and intended to remain so.
+
+"Do you desire to turn back?" he asked. "More than an hour would be
+lost, whereas if we cross here the other side will be reached in a few
+moments. You can trust yourself to my arms without fear--the crossing
+will be quite without danger."
+
+"I think so, too," was the calm reply, "and therefore I shall try it
+alone."
+
+"Alone? That is impossible, Fraulein!"
+
+"Impossible to walk through a forest brook? I do not consider that a
+particularly heroic deed."
+
+"But the water is deeper than you think. You will get a thorough
+wetting, and besides--it is really impossible."
+
+"I am not effeminate in the least and do not catch cold easily. Be so
+kind as to go first. I will follow."
+
+That was plain enough, and sounded so commanding that remonstrance was
+not possible. Hartmut bowed a silent assent and waded through the
+water, which could do no damage to his high hunting boots.
+
+It was indeed, rather deep and violent, so that he had to be careful in
+getting a firm foothold upon the stones. A slight smile played around
+his lips as he stood on the other bank and awaited his companion, who
+had refused his protection so haughtily. Let her try coming alone; the
+water would frighten her; she would not be able to battle with it, and
+would be compelled to call him to help her in spite of her reluctance.
+
+She had followed him without hesitation. With her delicate, thin boots
+offering no resistance whatever, she already stood in the water, which
+was cold, but she seemed scarcely to feel it. Catching up her dress
+with both hands, she advanced carefully and slowly, but quite surely,
+to the middle of the brook.
+
+But here in the midst of the dashing, foaming flood, it required the
+firm step of a man to hold its own. The slender, soft foot of the lady
+searched in vain for a hold upon the slippery stones. The high heels of
+the dainty boots were as much of a detriment as the dress, the hem of
+which was caught by the waves.
+
+The courageous pedestrian apparently lost the confidence hitherto
+displayed. She slipped several times and finally stood still. A
+questioning glance flew over to the bank where Rojanow stood, firmly
+decided not to lift his hand to help her until she asked for it.
+
+She may have read this resolution in his eyes, and it seemed to give
+her back instantly her failing strength. She stood immovable a moment,
+but the determined expression in her features was in full play.
+Suddenly she slipped from the flooded stones into water a foot deep,
+where she now, indeed, gained terra firma directly on the bottom of the
+brook, and could walk unmolested to the other bank. She grasped a
+branch of a tree, instead of Hartmut's offered hand, and by its aid
+swung herself to dry land.
+
+Naturally she was very wet. The water ran from her dress, which she had
+released from her grasp without consideration, but with perfect
+unconcern she turned to her escort and said: "Shall we continue on our
+way? It cannot be very far to Furstenstein."
+
+Hartmut did not return a syllable, but something like hatred sprang up
+within him for this woman, who would rather slip into the cold flood
+than trust herself to his arms. The proud, spoiled man whose brilliant
+traits had heretofore won all hearts, felt so much more keenly the
+humiliation which was forced upon him here. He almost cursed the whole
+encounter.
+
+They walked on. From time to time Rojanow threw a glance upon the
+heavy, wet hem of the dress which trailed on the ground beside him, but
+otherwise he bestowed his whole attention upon the surroundings, which
+seemed to get lighter. This forest thickness must end some time!
+
+His supposition was correct. He had been successful in his leadership,
+for the path taken at random proved the right one. In about ten minutes
+they stood upon a slight elevation which offered a free outlook. Over
+yonder, above an ocean of treetops, rose the towers of Furstenstein,
+while a broad road, which could be plainly seen, wound to the foot of
+the castle mount.
+
+"There is Furstenstein," said Hartmut, turning for the first time to
+his companion, "although it will be about half an hour's walk from
+here."
+
+"That is of no consequence," she interrupted him quickly. "I am very
+grateful to you for your guidance, but I cannot now miss the road, and
+I should not like to trouble you further."
+
+"As you wish, gracious Fraulein," Rojanow said, coldly. "If you desire
+to dismiss your guide here he will not force himself upon you."
+
+The reproach was understood. The young lady herself might feel that a
+man who had guided her through the forest for hours might well deserve
+a different dismissal, even if she found it necessary to keep him at a
+distance.
+
+"I have already detained you too long," she said graciously, "and since
+you have introduced yourself, Herr Rojanow, let me give you my name
+also before we part--Adelaide von Wallmoden."
+
+Hartmut started slightly and a burning blush covered his face as he
+repeated slowly, "Wallmoden!"
+
+"Is the name familiar to you?"
+
+"I believe I have heard it before, but it was in--in North Germany."
+
+"Most probably, for that is my husband's home."
+
+Unmistakable surprise was depicted in Rojanow's face as the supposed
+young girl announced herself a married woman, but he bowed politely.
+
+"Then I beg your pardon, gracious lady, for the wrong address. I could
+not anticipate that you were married. In any case, I have not the honor
+of knowing your husband even by name, for the gentleman who was then
+known to me was already advanced in years. He belonged to the
+diplomatic corps, and his name was, if I am not mistaken, Herbert von
+Wallmoden."
+
+"Quite right; my husband is at present Ambassador at the court of this
+country. But he will be anxious about my long stay. I must not tarry
+longer. Once again, my thanks, Herr Rojanow."
+
+She bowed slightly and took the descending road. Hartmut stood
+motionless, looking after her, but an ashy paleness was on his face.
+
+So--he had hardly set foot upon German soil before there met him a name
+and connection with old times which was at least painfully disagreeable
+to him.
+
+Herbert von Wallmoden, brother of Frau von Eschenhagen, guardian of
+Willibald, and friend of----
+
+Rojanow suddenly broke off in his thoughts, for a sharp, painful stab
+sank into his breast.
+
+As if to throw something from him he straightened himself, and again
+the harsh, offensive sarcasm trembled around his lips, over which he
+had such masterly command.
+
+"Uncle Wallmoden has made a fine career at least," he murmured, "and
+seems to have had good luck besides. His hair must have been gray a
+long time, and yet with it he conquers a young, beautiful girl. Of
+course an ambassador is always a good match, hence the cool,
+aristocratic manner which does not consider it worth the while to bend
+to other mortals. Probably the diplomatic school of the husband has
+educated his chosen one especially for this position. Well, he has
+succeeded admirably."
+
+His eyes still followed the young wife, who had already reached the
+foot of the hill, but now a deep furrow appeared in his brow.
+
+"If I should meet Wallmoden here--and it can scarcely be avoided--he
+will recognize me beyond a doubt. If he then tells her the truth--if
+she learns what has happened--and looks at me again with that look of
+contempt----" In wild, out-breaking wrath he stamped his foot upon the
+ground, then laughed bitterly.
+
+"Pah! what do I care? What does this blond, blue-eyed race, with their
+indolent, cold blood, know of the longing for freedom--of the storm of
+passions--of life in general? Let them pass judgment upon me! I do not
+fear the meeting. I shall know how to hold my own."
+
+Throwing back his head in proud defiance, he turned his back upon the
+slender female figure yet visible, and walked back into the forest.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+At the home of the Chief of all the foresters, the talked-of family
+fête for which Wallmoden and his young wife had expressly come, had
+taken place according to programme, and the lord of Burgsdorf and
+Antonie von Schonan were formally betrothed.
+
+The young couple had long known that they were intended for each other,
+and were perfectly contented therewith.
+
+Willibald, like a good son, was still of the opinion that the selection
+of his future wife was solely the business of his mother, and he had
+quietly waited until she found it convenient to betroth him. Still it
+was agreeable to him that it was just Cousin Toni he was to marry.
+
+He had known her since their childhood; she suited him admirably, and
+what was of some importance, she made no demands for the romantic part
+of the engagement, which, with the best will in the world, he could not
+have complied with.
+
+Toni exhibited the good taste which Frau Regine credited her with.
+Willy pleased her very much, and the prospect of becoming mistress of
+stately Burgsdorf pleased her still better. So all was in perfect
+accord.
+
+The betrothed couple were at present in the reception room where the
+piano stood and Antonie was entertaining her betrothed with music at
+the request of her father. She herself considered music a very tiresome
+and superfluous affair; but the Chief Forester had insisted that his
+daughter should demonstrate not only her ability as a housekeeper, but
+that she had also been educated in the higher arts.
+
+He was walking up and down the terrace with his sister-in-law, with the
+original intention of listening to the music, but instead of that they
+were quarreling again, although they had started out with a peaceful
+conversation about the happiness of the children. This time the quarrel
+seemed to be of a very violent nature.
+
+"I really do not know what to think of you, Moritz," said Frau von
+Eschenhagen with a very red face. "You do not seem to have any sense of
+the impropriety of this acquaintance. When I ask you who this bosom
+friend of Toni's really is--the one who is expected at Waldhofen--you
+answer me in the calmest manner possible that she is a singer, and
+recently engaged at the Court Theatre. An actress! a theatre princess!
+one of those frivolous creatures----"
+
+"But, Regine, do not get so excited," interrupted von Schonan vexedly.
+"You act as though the poor thing was already lost body and soul,
+because she has appeared on the stage."
+
+"So she is," declared Regine; "whoever once enters this Sodom and
+Gomorrah is not to be saved--they go to their ruin there."
+
+"Very flattering to our Court Theatre," said Schonan drily. "Besides,
+all of us go there."
+
+"As audience--that is quite different. But I have always been against
+it. Willy has been allowed to attend the theatre but seldom, and then
+only in my company; but while I fulfil my maternal duty,
+conscientiously protecting my son from any touch with those circles,
+you give his future wife over freely to their poisonous influences. It
+is worthy of a cry to heaven!"
+
+Her voice had grown very loud, partly through indignation and partly
+that she might be heard, for the musical performance in the room, whose
+glass doors stood wide open, was of a rather loud nature.
+
+The young lady had a somewhat hard touch and her performance reminded
+one of the working of an ax in hard wood. Although her three listeners
+had strong nerves, a low conversation had become an impossibility.
+
+"Let me explain this matter to you," said the Chief Forester
+pacifyingly. "I have already told you that this case is an exception.
+Marietta Volkmar is the granddaughter of our good old physician at
+Waldhofen. He had the misfortune to lose his son in the prime of
+life--the young widow followed her husband in the next year, and their
+child, the little orphan, came to her grandfather. That happened when I
+was promoted here to Furstenstein, ten years ago. Dr. Volkmar became my
+house physician; his granddaughter the playmate of my children, and
+because the school in Waldhofen was very poor, I offered to let the
+little one participate in the lessons of my children. The friendship
+dates from then.
+
+"Later on, when Toni was sent to boarding school for two years, and
+Marietta went to the city for her musical education, this daily
+intercourse was, of course, broken, but Marietta visits us regularly
+when she comes to her grandfather during her vacations, and I do not
+see why I should prohibit it as long as the girl remains good and
+true."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen had listened to the explanation without abating
+her severity in the least, and now she laughed ironically.
+
+"Good and true at the theatre! One knows how things go there, but you
+seem to take it just as easy as this Dr. Volkmar, who looks so
+venerable with his white hair, and yet consents to his granddaughter--a
+young soul entrusted to his care--going on the path to destruction."
+
+Herr von Schonan made an impatient gesture.
+
+"Regine, you are usually such a sensible woman, but you have never
+wished to be reasonable on this point. The theatre and everything
+connected with it has always been under a ban to you. The decision has
+not been an easy one for the doctor. I know that; and if one like me
+can sit in the warm nest and support one's children, one should not
+break the staff over other parents who struggle with bitter cares.
+Volkmar still works night and day with all his seventy years, but the
+practice brings him but little, for our vicinity is poor, and Marietta
+will be quite without means after his death."
+
+"She ought to have become a governess or companion, then; that is a
+decent vocation."
+
+"But a miserable vocation. One knows well how the poor things are
+treated and overworked. If a child of mine, whom I loved, had to decide
+her lot in life, and it was told me that she had a fortune in her
+throat and that a splendid future was assured her--well, I should let
+her go on the stage, depend upon that."
+
+This confession knocked the bottom out of the barrel. Frau Regine stood
+for a moment quite still in affright; then she said solemnly: "Moritz,
+I shudder at you."
+
+"I don't care. If it gives you any pleasure to shudder, keep at it; but
+if Marietta comes to Furstenstein as usual, I shall not repulse her,
+and I also have nothing against Toni's going to see her in Waldhofen."
+
+Herr von Schonan had also to speak very loud, for his daughter was
+pounding the keys so that the windows rattled, and the strings of the
+piano were seriously endangered. The Chief Forester, while in the heat
+of the controversy, noticed this as little as did his sister-in-law,
+who now replied with much sharpness:
+
+"Well, then, it is at least a good thing that Toni is to marry soon.
+Then the friendship with this theatre princess will come to an end,
+depend upon that. Such guests are not suffered at our respectable
+Burgsdorf, and Willy will not allow his wife the correspondence which
+seems now to be going on at a lively rate."
+
+"That means that _you_ will not allow it," shouted von Schonan,
+mockingly. "Willy has nothing to forbid or allow; he is only the
+obedient servant of his gracious Frau Mamma. It is unjustifiable how
+you keep that boy under your thumb when he is of age, betrothed, and
+soon to be a husband."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen, offended, straightened herself.
+
+"I believe I am more conscientious with my responsibilities than you
+are. Do you wish to reproach me for raising my son with filial
+reverence and love?"
+
+"Oh, well; there is a point where conscientiousness ceases and
+maltreating commences. You have already made Willy quite silly
+with your eternal supervision. He did not dare to even propose on his
+own account; when the matter began to get too long for you, you
+interfered as usual. 'Why these preliminaries, children? You shall
+have each other--you wish it, your parents consent, you have my
+blessing--therefore kiss each other and bring the thing to an end.'
+That is your standpoint. I, too, had filial reverence and affection,
+but if my parents had come into my wooing like that they would have
+heard something very different. But Willy accepted it calmly. I truly
+believe he was glad that he did not have to make a formal proposal."
+
+The excitement of the twain had again risen to the boiling point, and
+it was now well that the noise inside had so increased that they could
+not hear each other further.
+
+Fraulein Antonie had strength at least in her hands, and as she seemed
+to consider that the most important thing, her performance sounded as
+if a regiment of soldiers were storming an attack.
+
+It was too much for her father. He suddenly broke off the conversation
+and entered the room.
+
+"But, Toni, you do not need to break the new piano," he said with
+vexation. "What piece are you playing?"
+
+Toni sat at the piano, laboring in the sweat of her brow; not far
+removed sat her betrothed upon a sofa, his head supported by his arm
+and eyes shaded by his hand, apparently quite entranced with the music.
+
+The young lady turned at her father's question and said in her usual
+slow voice, "I was playing the March of the Janissaries, papa. I
+thought it would please Willy, since he, too, has been a soldier."
+
+"So? But he served as a dragoon," muttered Schonan, approaching his
+future son-in-law, who did not seem to appreciate the delicate
+attention, for he gave no sign of approval.
+
+"Willy, what do you say to it? Willy, do you not hear? I actually
+believe he has fallen asleep."
+
+Alas! the supposition proved correct. While the March of the
+Janissaries thundered over the keys, Willy had softly and sweetly
+fallen asleep, slumbering so soundly that he did not even now awake.
+This seemed too much for his mother, who had also approached. She
+grasped his arm sharply.
+
+"But, Willy, whatever does this mean? Are you not ashamed of yourself?"
+
+The young lord, shaken and scolded on all sides, finally aroused
+himself and sleepily gazed around. "What--what shall I---- Yes, it was
+beautiful, dear Toni."
+
+"I believe it," cried the Chief with an angry laugh. "Do not trouble
+yourself to play any more, my child. Come, we will let your groom-elect
+have his nap out in peace. He has good nerves; one must confess that."
+
+Saying which he took his daughter's arm and left the room, where the
+fullest maternal wrath now broke over poor Willibald. Frau von
+Eschenhagen, already provoked by the preceding conversation, did not
+spare her son, but justified only too well the reproaches of her
+brother-in-law. She scolded the engaged and soon-to-be-a-husband young
+man like a schoolboy.
+
+"This surpasses everything conceivable," she concluded in highest
+indignation. "Your father was not very much at courting, but if he,
+after two days' betrothal, had fallen asleep while I was entertaining
+him with my music, I should have aroused him very unceremoniously. Now,
+do you go immediately to your fiancée and beg her pardon. She is quite
+right to feel offended."
+
+With which she grasped him by the shoulder and pushed him very
+emphatically toward the door.
+
+Willy accepted it all very humbly and remorsefully, for he was indeed
+shocked at his untimely slumber; but he could not help it--he had been
+so sleepy and the music was so wearying.
+
+Quite crushed, he entered the next room, where Toni stood, rather
+offended, at the window.
+
+"Dear Toni, do not think hard of me," he began hesitatingly; "it was so
+hot and your playing had something so pacifying."
+
+Toni turned. That this march, with her playing of it, should be
+pacifying was new to her; but when she saw the crushed mien of her
+betrothed, who stood like a prisoner before her, her good nature
+conquered, and she held out her hand.
+
+"No, I am not angry with you, Willy," she said cordially. "I do not
+care either for the stupid music. We will do something more sensible
+when we are at Burgsdorf."
+
+"Yes, that we will," exclaimed Willy, joyfully pressing the offered
+hand. He had not yet aspired to even a kiss upon the hand. "You are so
+good, Toni."
+
+When Frau von Eschenhagen entered soon afterward, she found the couple
+in perfect harmony, engaged in a highly interesting conversation about
+dairy affairs, which were somewhat different in the two localities of
+Burgsdorf and Furstenstein. This was a subject over which Willy did not
+fall asleep, and his mother congratulated herself secretly upon this
+splendid daughter-in-law, who showed no inconvenient sensitiveness.
+
+The young man found opportunity almost directly to prove himself
+grateful for the indulgence of his betrothed. Toni complained that a
+package which she had ordered and which was needed for the supper table
+had not yet come. It had arrived safely at the post office, but, it
+seemed, with a wrong address, and had not been delivered to the
+messenger, who in the meantime had been dispatched elsewhere. No other
+servant was at liberty to go, and the time of need for it was drawing
+near. Willibald hastened to offer his services, which were joyfully
+accepted by his fiancée.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Waldhofen was the most important village of the vicinity, but still
+only a small place. It was about half an hour's distance from
+Furstenstein and formed a kind of centre for all the scattered villages
+and hamlets of the Wald.
+
+It looked very desolate and forlorn during the afternoon hours, when
+nobody was on the streets; so thought Herr von Eschenhagen as he walked
+across the market place, where the post office was situated.
+
+He finished the errand which had brought him to Waldhofen, and found a
+man to carry the parcel to the castle. Then, since the streets of the
+quiet little place offered no diversion, he turned into a lane which
+led to the high road behind the gardens of the houses.
+
+The path was rather boggy; yesterday's rain had made it quite without a
+foothold in places. Yet Willibald was farmer enough not to care about
+such things, but marched on unconcernedly.
+
+He was in an exceedingly happy mood. It was surely a pleasant thing to
+be betrothed, and he did not doubt in the least that he would lead a
+very happy life in the future with his good Toni.
+
+At this moment a carriage came toward him, making its way laboriously
+through the boggy soil, and apparently bringing travellers, for a large
+trunk was strapped on behind, and the inside seemed to contain various
+travelling appurtenances.
+
+Willibald could not help wondering why they used this lane, which, in
+its present condition, was very tiresome; indeed the driver seemed
+dissatisfied. He turned in his seat to consult with the traveller, who
+so far had not been visible.
+
+"It really does not go any further, Fraulein. I told you so before. We
+cannot get through here, the wheels stick in the mud. We are in a fix
+now."
+
+"But it is not far now," said a fresh voice from the inside; "only a
+few hundred paces. Just try it again."
+
+"What is not possible is not possible," returned the driver with
+philosophical composure. "We cannot get through that mire before us; we
+must turn back."
+
+"But I do not wish to drive through town." The voice had a spice of
+defiance in it now. "If it is not possible to drive on, I shall
+dismount."
+
+The driver stopped, the door was opened, and a light, slender figure
+sprang from the carriage with such sure aim as to reach a higher spot
+across the mire. There she remained and glanced around searchingly: but
+as the lane made a bend nearby, only a little of it could be
+overlooked. The young lady seemed to observe this with dissatisfaction.
+Then her glance fell upon Herr von Eschenhagen, who, approaching from
+the other direction, now reached the bend.
+
+"Please, mein Herr, is the lane passable?" she called. He did not
+answer directly, being petrified with admiration of her daring and
+graceful jump. Why, she flew through the air like a feather and yet
+stood firm and safe upon her feet where she landed.
+
+"Do you not hear?" repeated the Fraulein impatiently; "I asked if the
+lane is passable."
+
+"Yes, I have walked over it," said Willibald, somewhat confused by the
+dictatorial questioning.
+
+"I see that, but I have no boots like yours and cannot wade through the
+mire. Is it possible to pass along the hedges? Great heavens! at least
+answer me."
+
+"I--I believe so. It is somewhat dry over yonder."
+
+"Well, I shall try, then. Turn back, driver, and deliver my baggage at
+the post office. I will send for it. Wait, I will take that satchel
+with me. Hand it across."
+
+"But the satchel is too heavy for you, Fraulein," remonstrated the
+driver, "and I cannot leave the horses alone."
+
+"Well, then, this gentleman will carry it for me. It is not far to our
+garden. Please, mein Herr, take the satchel, the small one upon the
+back seat with the black leather lining. But do make haste."
+
+The little foot stamped the ground impatiently, for the young lord
+stood there with open mouth. He could not comprehend how a total
+stranger could dispose of him so nonchalantly, nor how so young a girl
+could command in such a way.
+
+At the last very ungracious words, however, he made haste to approach
+and take the designated satchel, which seemed the proper thing to be
+done.
+
+"So," she said shortly. "You, driver, stop at the post office, and now
+forward into the bogs of Waldhofen!"
+
+She picked up her gray travelling dress and walked close to the hedge,
+where the road was somewhat higher and dryer.
+
+Willibald, of whom no notice was taken, trotted behind her with the
+satchel. He had never seen anything so graceful as this slender figure,
+which did not reach to his shoulder, and he occupied himself in
+observing this figure, because he had nothing else to do.
+
+The young girl had something exceedingly charming and graceful in her
+motions, as well as her whole appearance; but the small head, with the
+dark hair curling from under her hat, was carried with undeniable
+spirit. The face was rather irregular in outline, but lovely with its
+dark, roguish eyes, while the small, rosy mouth, around which lay a
+line of refractory defiance, and the two dimples in the chin, made it
+perfectly charming. The gray travelling dress, in spite of its
+plainness, was very tasteful and met the requirements of fashion. The
+young traveller apparently did not belong to the home-made villagers of
+Waldhofen.
+
+The road around the corner proved indeed somewhat dryer, but one had to
+keep to the little, raised path near the hedge and to jump at times
+over damp places. Conversation was, therefore, not possible, and Willy,
+in truth, never thought of commencing it. He carried the satchel
+patiently, accepting just as patiently the fact that his companion did
+not concern herself in the least about him, until, after ten minutes'
+walk, they stood at the low gate of a garden.
+
+The young girl bent over the pickets and pushed an inside bolt; then
+she turned.
+
+"Many thanks, mein Herr. Please give me my satchel now."
+
+In spite of its small dimensions, the bag was rather heavy, much too
+heavy for the little hands outstretched for it. Willibald was seized
+with a sudden attack of chivalry--not a usual fault with him--and
+declared that he would carry it to the house, which was accepted with a
+gracious nod.
+
+They passed through a small, but carefully kept, garden to an old,
+plain house, and entered through the back door into a cool, dusky hall,
+where their arrival was immediately perceived. An old servant rushed
+out of the kitchen.
+
+"Fraulein! Fraulein Marietta! Have you come already to-day? Ach, what
+joy----"
+
+She got no further, for Marietta flew to her and pressed her little
+hand upon her mouth.
+
+"Be still, Babette! Speak quietly; I want to surprise him. Is he at
+home?"
+
+"Yes, the Herr Doctor is in his study. Do you wish to go there,
+Fraulein?"
+
+"No; I will steal into the sitting room and sing his favorite song.
+Careful now, Babette; so that he does not hear us."
+
+Like a fairy she slipped lightly and noiselessly to the other side of
+the house and opened a door. Babette followed her, not noticing, in the
+joy and surprise of her Fraulein's return, that some one else stood in
+the dark hall. The door was left wide open, a chair was carefully
+moved, and directly a low prelude began in trembling notes, probably
+from a venerable old piano; but it sounded like the music of a harp,
+and then a voice arose, clear and sweet and joyous as a lark.
+
+It did not last many minutes, for a door opposite was hastily opened,
+and a white-haired old man appeared.
+
+"Marietta, my Marietta! is it really you?"
+
+"Grandpapa!" was cried back, joyfully. The song broke off and Marietta
+threw herself upon her grandfather's neck.
+
+"You naughty child, how you have frightened me!" he scolded, tenderly.
+"I did not expect you until the day after to-morrow, and intended to
+meet you at the station. Now I hear your voice, and do not dare to
+believe my ears."
+
+The young girl laughed merrily as a child. She was more than happy and
+content.
+
+"Yes, the surprise has been a complete success, grandpapa. I drove into
+the lane and actually stuck in the bog. I came in the back door. What
+do you want, Babette?"
+
+"Fraulein, the man who brought the bag is still there," said the old
+servant, who had but just observed the stranger. "Shall I pay him for
+you?"
+
+The young lord still stood there with the satchel in his hand. But now
+Dr. Volkmar turned and exclaimed in great embarrassment: "Gracious
+heavens! Herr von Eschenhagen!"
+
+"Do you know the gentleman?" Marietta asked without much surprise, for
+her grandfather was accustomed to meet all of Waldhofen in his office
+of physician.
+
+"Certainly. Babette, take the valise from the gentleman. I beg your
+pardon, mein Herr. I did not know that you were already acquainted with
+my granddaughter."
+
+"No, we are not acquainted in the least," declared the girl. "Will you
+not present the gentleman to me, grandpapa?"
+
+"Certainly, my child. Herr Willibald von Eschenhagen of Burgsdorf----"
+
+"Toni's betrothed!" interrupted Marietta, gaily. "Oh, how funny that we
+should meet in the middle of a bog! If I had only known, Herr von
+Eschenhagen, I would not have treated you so badly. I let you follow me
+like a regular porter. But why did you not say something?"
+
+Willibald did not say anything now, but looked mutely at the little
+hand which was cordially extended to him. Feeling that he had to either
+say or do something, he grasped the rosy little hand in his giant fist
+and squeezed and shook it heartily.
+
+"Oh!" cried the young lady, retreating horrified; "you have an awful
+handshake, Herr von Eschenhagen. I believe you have broken my fingers."
+
+Willibald turned red with confusion and stammered an excuse.
+Fortunately, Dr. Volkmar now invited him to enter, which invitation he
+accepted silently, and Marietta narrated in a very laughable way her
+meeting with him. She treated her friend's betrothed like an old
+acquaintance, for she had long known of their engagement. She asked him
+about Toni, about the Chief Forester and all the household, her small,
+red mouth rattling on like a mill wheel.
+
+Still the young lord was almost mute. The clear voice which sounded,
+even in talking, like the twittering of birds, utterly confused him.
+
+He had only met the doctor yesterday, when the latter had called
+at Furstenstein. There had been some casual mention of a certain
+Marietta--a friend of Toni's--but he did not know anything further, for
+his fiancée was not very communicative.
+
+"And this naughty child allows you to stand in the hall without
+ceremony, while she seats herself at the piano to notify me of her
+arrival," said Volkmar, shaking his head. "That was very naughty,
+Marietta."
+
+The young girl laughed and shook her curly head.
+
+"Oh, Herr von Eschenhagen will not be offended at that, and therefore
+he may listen while I sing you your favorite song again. You scarcely
+heard a note of it before. Shall I begin now?"
+
+Without waiting for an answer, she ran to the piano, and again that
+silvery, clear voice arose, entrancing the ear with its charm. She sang
+an old, simple carol, but it sounded as soft and sweet and coaxing as
+if spring and sunshine had suddenly entered the desolate rooms of the
+old house. It spread sunshine over the face of the old, white-haired
+man, where many a line of care and anxiety was visible. He listened
+with a smile, half sad, half happy, to the song which may have reminded
+him of his youth. But he was not the only attentive listener.
+
+The young lord of Burgsdorf, who two hours previously had fallen asleep
+amidst the thunders of "The Janissaries' March"--who, in perfect accord
+with his betrothed, had considered silly music a tiresome thing--now
+listened to those soft, floating sounds as intently as if they brought
+him a revelation.
+
+He sat there, bent over, his eyes fixed immovably upon the young girl,
+who apparently put all her soul into the song, moving her head to and
+fro with an infinitely graceful motion.
+
+When the song ended he breathed deeply and passed his hand across his
+brow.
+
+"My little singing bird," said Dr. Volkmar, tenderly bending over his
+granddaughter and kissing her brow.
+
+"Well, grandpapa, my voice has not exactly deteriorated in the last few
+months, has it?" she asked, teasingly, "but it does not seem to please
+Herr von Eschenhagen. He does not say a word about it."
+
+She glanced with a childish pout over at Willibald, who now also arose
+and approached the piano. A slight flush suffused his face, and his
+usually quiet eyes flashed as he said in a low tone: "Oh, it was
+beautiful, very beautiful!"
+
+The young singer may have been accustomed to other compliments, but she
+felt the deep, honest admiration in the laconic words, and knew very
+well the impression the song had made. She smiled, therefore, as she
+replied: "Yes, the song is beautiful. I have always had a regular
+triumph when I sang it as an addition to my rôle."
+
+"To your rôle!" replied Willibald, not understanding the expression.
+
+"Yes, in the play from which I have just returned. Oh, it has been a
+splendid success, grandpapa. The manager would gladly have prolonged
+it, but I had already given the greater part of my vacation to it, and
+I wished to be with you at least a few weeks."
+
+The young lord listened with increasing astonishment.
+
+Play! vacation! manager! What could all that mean? The doctor saw his
+surprise.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen does not know your vocation, my child," he said,
+quietly. "My granddaughter has been educated for the opera."
+
+"How dryly you say that, grandpapa!" cried Marietta, springing up.
+Straightening herself to the fullest height of her dainty figure, she
+added, with mock solemnity: "For five months a member of the highly
+respected Ducal Court Theatre, a person of official honors and renown!"
+
+Member of the Court Theatre! Willibald almost shuddered at those awful
+words. The obedient son of his mother shared her disdain of
+"actresses." Involuntarily he receded a step and glared horrified at
+the young lady who had imparted such awful news to him. She laughed
+merrily at this motion.
+
+"You are not compelled to show so exceeding much respect and awe, Herr
+von Eschenhagen. I will allow you to remain near the piano. Has not
+Toni told you that I am on the stage?"
+
+"Toni--no!" Willibald burst out, having lost his composure completely.
+"But she is waiting for me. I must return to Furstenstein. I have
+tarried here already too long."
+
+"You are very polite," laughed the girl, gayly. "That is not very
+flattering to us, but since you are engaged you must naturally return
+to your fiancée."
+
+"Yes, and to my mamma," said Willibald, who had a dark feeling that
+something awful threatened him, before which his mother appeared as a
+saving angel. "I beg your pardon, but I have stayed here already too
+long----"
+
+He stopped, for he remembered that he had already said that once, and
+searched for other words, but could not find any, and, unhappily,
+repeated the phrase for the third time.
+
+Marietta almost choked with laughter, but Dr. Volkmar declared politely
+that they did not wish to detain him any longer, and begged him to take
+his regards to the Chief Forester and Fraulein von Schonan.
+
+The young lord scarcely heard. He looked for his hat, made a bow,
+stammered a few words of adieu and ran off as if his head was burning.
+He had but one thought--that he must leave as quickly as possible; that
+gay, teasing laugh made him crazy.
+
+When Volkmar, who had escorted Willibald to the door, returned, his
+granddaughter was wiping the tears from her eyes, quite overcome with
+laughter.
+
+"I believe something is wrong with Toni's betrothed here," she cried,
+putting a delicate ringer to her forehead. "At first he ran behind me,
+mutely carrying the bag like a fish wife; then he seemed to thaw at my
+singing, and now he is seized with an attack of something and runs away
+to Furstenstein to his 'mamma,' so quickly that I could not even send a
+greeting to his betrothed."
+
+The doctor smiled a little plaintively. He had observed closely and
+guessed whence came this sudden change of manner in his guest.
+
+"The young man has probably not had much intercourse with ladies," he
+said, evasively; "and he seems to stand somewhat in awe of his mother,
+but he appears to please his fiancée very well, and that is surely the
+most important thing."
+
+"Yes, he is handsome," said Marietta, somewhat thoughtfully; "even very
+handsome. But I believe, grandpapa, he is also very stupid."
+
+In the meantime Willibald had run like a storm to the next corner,
+where he came to a standstill and tried to collect his thoughts, which
+were in great confusion. It was a long time before he succeeded, but he
+looked back once more to the doctor's house before he walked on.
+
+What would his mother say to it? She who had placed the whole world of
+actresses under a ban; and she was right. Willy plainly felt that
+something bewitching belonged to the tribe; one had to beware of them.
+
+But what if this Marietta Volkmar should take a notion to visit her
+friend at Furstenstein? The young lord ought to have been horrified at
+the thought, and was convinced that he was horrified; but with all that
+the strange flash returned to his eyes. He suddenly saw in the
+reception room, at the piano where Toni had been a little while ago, a
+small, delicate figure, whose dark, curly head moved to and fro like a
+bird, and the thunder of the march changed into the soft, rippling
+notes of the old carol, while between all again sounded the gay,
+silvery laugh which also was music.
+
+And all this loveliness must be ruined and lost because it belonged to
+the stage! Frau von Eschenhagen had often expressed such an opinion,
+and Willibald was too good a son not to consider her an oracle. But he
+heaved a deep sigh, and murmured: "Oh, what a pity; what a great pity!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+About half way between Furstenstein and Rodeck, where the forest
+mountains rose to their greatest height, lay the Hochberg, a popular
+resort for sight-seeing on account of its magnificent views. The old
+stone tower upon its summit, the last remnant of an otherwise totally
+demolished castle ruin, had been made an object of interest, and at its
+foot nestled a little inn, which entertained numerous guests from the
+neighborhood. Strangers did not often come into these almost unknown
+forest mountains and valleys. Visitors of any sort were somewhat rare
+now in the fall, but to-day's beautiful weather had enticed several
+people out on the trip. Half an hour ago two gentlemen had arrived on
+horseback, attended by a groom, and now a carriage, bringing more
+sight-seers, drove up to the inn.
+
+Upon the flat roof of the tower, near the stone breastwork, stood the
+two gentlemen, the younger one zealously occupied in pointing out and
+explaining the various points of interest.
+
+"Yes, our Hochberg is renowned for its views." he said. "I was obliged
+to show them to you, Hartmut. Is not the view over this wide, green
+forest ocean incomparable?"
+
+Hartmut did not answer; he seemed to be looking through the glass for
+some distant point.
+
+"Where is Furstenstein? Ah, there. It seems to be an enormous old
+structure."
+
+"Yes, the castle is worth seeing," assented Prince Adelsberg. "But,
+outside of that, you were wise to remain at home the other day; I was
+bored to death by the visit."
+
+"So? You seemed to think a great deal of the Chief Forester."
+
+"Certainly, I like to chat with him; but he had driven out and returned
+only just before I left. His son is not at Furstenstein. He is studying
+at the school for foresters, so I had to wait upon Fraulein von
+Schonan; but that pleasure was not exactly interesting. A word every
+five minutes and a minute to every word. Very many domestic virtues,
+but very little behind the forehead. I kept the conversation going by
+the sweat of my brow, and then had the honor of meeting the betrothed
+of the Baroness--a genuine, undiluted country squire, with a very
+energetic mamma, who has him and the future daughter-in-law under
+complete control. We had an exceedingly brilliant conversation, finally
+landing on turnip culture, in which I was thoroughly instructed. The
+visit was bearable only when the Chief Forester returned with his
+brother-in-law, the Baron Wallmoden."
+
+Rojanow still held the glass directed upon Furstenstein, listening,
+apparently, indifferently. Now he repeated questioningly: "Wallmoden?"
+
+"The new Prussian Ambassador to our court, a genuine diplomat in
+appearance; aristocratic, cool and buttoned up to the chin; also having
+very agreeable manners. Her Excellency, the Frau Baroness, was not
+visible, which I bore with composure, since the husband already has
+gray hair, and consequently the lady would probably be of an age which
+one approaches only with veneration."
+
+A peculiarly bitter expression played around Hartmut's lips as he now
+lowered the glass.
+
+He had kept his encounter with Frau von Wallmoden from his friend. Why
+mention the name? He wished to be reminded of it as little as possible.
+
+"But our romantic forest solitude will soon be ended," continued Egon.
+"I heard from the Chief Forester that the court will come to
+Furstenstein this year for the hunting season, and I can then expect a
+visit from the Duke. I am not very delighted at the prospect, for my
+highly honored uncle has a habit of holding forth to me just as
+frequent and just as impressive moral sermons as Stadinger, and I must
+naturally keep the peace then. But I shall present you at this visit,
+Hartmut. You consent?"
+
+"If you consider it necessary, and the etiquette of your court
+allows----"
+
+"Bah! the etiquette is not so strictly adhered to with us. Besides, the
+Rojanows belong to the nobility of your country, do they not?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, then, you are in every case entitled to the presentation. I
+consider it by all means desirable, for I have set my mind on seeing
+your 'Arivana' at our Court Theatre; and as soon as the Duke knows you
+and your work, that will be done beyond a doubt."
+
+The words betrayed the passionate admiration the young Prince felt for
+his friend; but the latter only shrugged his shoulders slightly.
+
+"Possibly, particularly if you plead for me; but I do not like to
+succeed under protection. I am no poet of renown. Indeed, I'm not sure
+whether I am a poet; and if my work cannot smooth a way for itself----"
+
+"You would be obstinate enough to keep it from publicity; that is like
+you. Have you no ambition at all?"
+
+"Perhaps only too much, and from that arises originally what you call
+my obstinacy. I never could bow down and subordinate myself in life. I
+could not; my whole nature rose against it, and I am not at all suited
+to the ways of your court."
+
+"Who told you that?" laughed Egon. "They will flatter and spoil you
+there, just like everywhere else. It is your nature to rise everywhere
+like a meteor, and one does not expect these stars to travel in old
+routes. Besides, you have from the start the exceptional position of
+guest and foreigner, and when you are once summoned by the halo of
+poesy, then----"
+
+"Then it is with that you intend to keep me here in your country?"
+
+"Well, then, yes. I do not think that I alone possess the power to keep
+you here permanently, you wild, restless guest; but a rising poet's
+name is a fetter which one does not slip off so easily, and I have
+sworn to myself since this morning not to let you go again at any
+price."
+
+Rojanow started and looked at him inquiringly.
+
+"Why just since this morning?"
+
+"That is my secret for the present," said Egon, jestingly.
+
+"Ah, more guests are coming here, it seems."
+
+A step was heard upon the narrow, winding stone stairs, and the bearded
+face of the tower watchman appeared at the opening which led to the
+platform.
+
+"Please take care, gracious lady," he said, warningly, looking back
+with concern; "the last steps are very steep and much worn. So, now we
+are at the top."
+
+He offered a helping hand to the lady who followed him, but she did not
+need it, ascending easily with effort.
+
+"What a beautiful girl!" whispered Prince Adelsberg to his friend, who,
+instead of replying, made a deep and formal bow before the lady. She
+could not conceal a certain surprise at the sight of him. "Ah, Herr
+Rojanow, you here?"
+
+"I am admiring the view from the Hochberg, which may also have
+attracted you, Your Excellency."
+
+The face of the Prince betrayed boundless astonishment when the
+"beautiful girl" was called "Excellency," and when he saw that she was
+not a stranger to his friend. He speedily drew near for an introduction
+to this acquaintance, and Hartmut could not avoid presenting the Prince
+Adelsberg to the Baroness Wallmoden.
+
+He touched upon the forest encounter very lightly, for the lady found
+it convenient to-day to enshroud herself in her haughty reserve. It was
+hardly necessary, for Rojanow observed the strictest reticence. Both
+seemed decided to treat the acquaintance as a very slight and formal
+one.
+
+Egon had thrown a glance of the liveliest reproach upon his friend. He
+could not understand how Hartmut could have kept such a meeting to
+himself; but, after that, he cast himself with ardor into the
+conversation. He announced himself a neighbor, mentioned his recent
+call at Furstenstein, and expressed his regret at having missed Frau
+von Wallmoden at that time. A conversation was commenced, in which the
+Prince exhibited his amiability and vivacity, while retaining the
+reserve of etiquette. He knew from the beginning that he stood before
+the wife of the Ambassador, whom one could not approach with a bold
+compliment, as Hartmut had ventured.
+
+Finally his happy, unaffected good humor succeeded in diminishing the
+icy atmosphere which surrounded the beautiful woman, and he had the
+good fortune of being permitted to show and explain to her the
+surrounding country.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Hartmut did not join in the conversation with his usual vivacity, and
+when he again drew out the glass from his pocket, at the Prince's
+request, he suddenly missed his letter-case.
+
+The watchman offered at once to look for it, but Rojanow declared he
+would do it himself. He remembered exactly the place where something
+had slipped to the floor when he came up the stairs, which he had not
+noticed at the time. It was the letter-case, no doubt, and he would
+find it with little trouble and return. Saying which, he bowed and
+departed.
+
+Under other circumstances Egon would doubtless have thought it strange
+that his friend should refuse the offer of the old man and take upon
+himself the trouble of searching the dark stairway, but he was at
+present so totally occupied with his office of explanatory exhibitor
+that he did not seem to regret being left alone.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden had accepted the glass which he offered her and
+followed with apparent attention his explanations as he pointed out all
+the various heights and villages.
+
+"And over yonder, behind those hills, lies Rodeck," he concluded; "the
+little hunting lodge where we live like two hermits, cut off from all
+the world, having only the company of monkeys and parrots, which we
+brought from the Orient, and which have already become quite
+melancholy."
+
+"You do not look at all like a hermit, Your Highness," said the young
+Baroness, with a fleeting smile.
+
+"In truth, I have not much taste for it; but at times Hartmut has
+perfect attacks of the ailment, and then I bury myself in solitude for
+weeks for his pleasure."
+
+"Hartmut! That is a thoroughly German name, and it is also surprising
+that Herr Rojanow speaks German with such fluency and without even a
+foreign intonation. Yet he introduced himself to me as a foreigner."
+
+"Certainly. He comes from Roumania, but was raised by relatives in
+Germany, from whom also he may have inherited the German name," said
+the Prince, simply.
+
+It was plainly to be seen that he knew nothing further of the origin of
+his friend. "I became acquainted with him at Paris, when I was about to
+begin my trip to the East, and he decided to accompany me. It was my
+good star of fortune that brought him to me."
+
+"You seem infatuated with your friend."
+
+There was something like disapprobation in the tone.
+
+"Yes, Your Excellency, I am indeed," affirmed Egon, warmly; "and not I
+alone. Hartmut is one of those genial natures who conquers and wins
+people by storm wherever he appears. You should see and hear him when
+he is heart and soul enthusiastic. Then his soul flames like fire into
+yours. He envelops everything with his warmth; one has to follow where
+his flight leads."
+
+The enthusiastic eulogy found a very cool listener. The young lady
+seemed to bend all her attention upon the landscape, as she replied:
+"You may be correct. Herr Rojanow's eyes betray something of it, but
+such fiery natures make upon me an impression more uncanny than
+sympathetic."
+
+"Perhaps because they bear the demoniac lines which are peculiar to
+genius. Hartmut has them. He startles me sometimes, and yet the dark
+depths of his nature draw me irresistibly to him. I have actually
+forgotten how to live without him and shall try everything to retain
+him in our country."
+
+"In Germany? You will hardly succeed in that, Your Highness. Herr
+Rojanow has a poor opinion of our fatherland. He betrayed that to me
+the day before yesterday in rather an offensive way."
+
+The Prince became attentive. The words at once explained the cold
+reserve, which was not usually Hartmut's manner toward a beautiful
+woman, and which had surprised him at the first moment. But he smiled.
+
+"Ah, that was the reason why he did not speak of the encounter. Your
+Excellency has probably shown him your displeasure. It serves him
+right. Why does he prevaricate with such persistency? He has irritated
+me often enough with this assumed depreciation, which I accepted then
+in good faith; but I know better now."
+
+"You do not believe in it?" Adelaide suddenly turned from the view to
+the speaker.
+
+"No, I have the proof of it in my hands. He is infatuated with our
+German land. You look at me incredulously, Your Excellency. May I
+impart a secret to you?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I was looking for Hartmut this morning in his room, but did not find
+him, I found, instead, a poem upon his desk, which he had probably
+forgotten to lock up, for it was surely not intended for my eyes. I
+stole it, without any compunction of conscience, and carry the spoils
+still with me. Will you permit me to read it?"
+
+"I do not understand the Roumanian language," said Frau von Wallmoden,
+with cool satire. "Herr Rojanow has scarcely condescended to compose a
+poem in German."
+
+Instead of answering, Egon drew out the paper and opened it. "You are
+prejudiced against my friend; I see it. But I do not like you to regard
+him in the wrong light in which he has placed himself. May I justify
+him with his own words?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+The words sounded indifferent, and yet Adelaide's gaze was riveted with
+a strange expectancy upon the paper, which seemed to contain only a few
+hastily written stanzas. Egon read.
+
+They were German verses, indeed; but of a perfection and harmony which
+could belong only to a master of the language. The pictures they
+conjured up before the listener were strangely familiar. Deep, dreamy
+forest solitude, touched by the first breath of approaching autumn;
+endless green depths which beckoned and charmed irresistibly with their
+twilight shadows; aromatic meadows flooded with sunlight; small, still
+waters, which gleamed in the distance, and the foaming forest brook
+roaring down from the heights.
+
+And this picture had taken on life and language. That which whispered
+in it was the old, old song of the forest itself; its murmuring and
+rustling--its mysterious working gathered into words which enchanted
+the ear of the listener like melody, while through it all floated and
+moaned a deep, unspeakable longing for this forest peace.
+
+The Prince read warmly at first, then with great enthusiasm. Now he
+dropped the sheet and asked triumphantly:
+
+"Well?"
+
+The young Baroness had listened spellbound. She did not look at the
+reader, but stared motionless into the blue distance. At the question
+she started slightly and hastily turned.
+
+"What did you say, Your Highness?"
+
+"Is this the language of a depredator of our fatherland? I believe
+not," said Egon in most decided tones, but greatly as he was engrossed
+with his friend's poetry, he could still notice how exceptionally
+beautiful Frau von Wallmoden looked at this moment.
+
+Of course, it must have been the setting sun which lent the rosy
+coloring to her face and the brilliancy to her eyes, for her bearing
+was as cold as her answer.
+
+"It is really surprising that a foreigner should command the German
+language so perfectly."
+
+Egon looked at her in amazement. Was this all? He had expected a
+different impression. "And what do you think of the poem itself?" he
+asked.
+
+"Quite excellent. Herr Rojanow seems indeed to possess much poetic
+talent. But here is your glass, Your Highness. I thank you. I must be
+thinking of the descent now, as I do not wish to keep my husband
+waiting too long."
+
+Egon folded up the paper slowly and deposited it in his breast pocket.
+He felt the icy breath now surround again the beautiful woman, which
+chilled him to the heart.
+
+"I already have the honor of an acquaintance with His Excellency," he
+said. "May I renew it today?"
+
+A slight bow gave the permission to accompany her. They left the
+platform, but the Prince had grown somewhat monosyllabic. He felt
+offended for his friend, and now regretted having given this poetry,
+the beauty of which carried him away, to a lady who had no
+understanding of, nor appreciation whatever for, poetry.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Hartmut descended the stairs slowly after his leave-taking, the lost
+letter-case resting safely in its usual place. It had served its
+purpose as a pretext to free its possessor a little while.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden had casually mentioned having come with her
+husband, who remained down at the inn because he disliked the
+troublesome climbing of the steep stairs.
+
+Hartmut could not therefore evade a meeting with him, but it should at
+least take place without witnesses. If Wallmoden should recognize the
+son of his friend, whom he had known only as a boy, he might not be
+able to master his surprise.
+
+Hartmut did not fear this meeting, even if it were inconvenient and
+uncomfortable to him. There was but one face in the whole world he
+feared--only one face to which he would not dare lift his eyes--and
+that face was far away; probably he would never see it again. Every one
+else he met with the proud defiance of a man who had only done right in
+withdrawing from a hated vocation.
+
+He was decided upon not permitting any expression of reproach, but, if
+he should be recognized, to request the Ambassador in the most decided
+manner to consider certain old connections, with which he had so
+totally broken, as no longer existing. With this conclusion he emerged
+into the open air.
+
+Herbert Wallmoden sat with his sister upon the little veranda of the
+inn. The Chief Forester had been too much occupied with the approaching
+arrival of the court, the hunting expeditions of which he had to
+arrange, to accompany the party. The betrothed couple had also remained
+at home; but the day for the little trip could not have been more
+pleasant.
+
+"This Hochberg is really worth seeing," said Frau von Eschenhagen, her
+eyes roaming over the country. "We have almost the same view here as
+upon the top of the tower. Why climb and overheat oneself and lose
+one's breath on those never-ending steps?"
+
+"Adelaide was of a different opinion," replied Wallmoden, with a casual
+glance at the tower. "She does not know fatigue nor how to get
+overheated."
+
+"And also how not to catch cold. She proved that the day before
+yesterday, when she came home drenched through. She did not catch the
+least cold."
+
+"Nevertheless, I have requested her to take an escort for her future
+walks," said the Ambassador, calmly. "To get lost in the forest, wade a
+creek, and be guided to the right path by the first hunter one comes
+across are things which must not occur again. Adelaide agreed with me
+and promised immediately to obey my wishes."
+
+"Yes, she is a sensible woman, a thoroughly healthy nature from which
+anything romantic or adventurous is far removed," complimented Regine.
+"But there seem to be more visitors upon the tower. I thought we should
+be the only guests to-day."
+
+Wallmoden looked indifferently at the tall, slender gentleman who now
+emerged from the small tower door and walked toward the inn. Frau von
+Eschenhagen also looked at him carelessly; but suddenly her glance grew
+keener, and she started.
+
+"Herbert--look!"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"That stranger there. What a strange resemblance!"
+
+"To whom?" asked Herbert, growing more attentive and looking sharply at
+the stranger.
+
+"To--impossible! That is not only a resemblance. It is he himself."
+
+She sprang up, pale with excitement, and her look fastened itself upon
+the features of the man just now putting his foot upon the first step
+of the veranda. She met his eyes, those dark, glowing eyes, which had
+so often shone upon her from the face of the boy, and the last doubt
+disappeared.
+
+"Hartmut--Hartmut Falkenried--you----"
+
+She was suddenly silenced by Wallmoden's laying his hand heavily upon
+her arm and saying slowly, but with emphasis: "You are mistaken,
+Regine. We do not know this gentleman."
+
+Hartmut stopped short when he caught sight of Frau von Eschenhagen, who
+had been hidden by the foliage. He was not prepared for her presence.
+At the moment he recognized her the words of the Ambassador reached his
+ear. He knew that icy tone only too well; it forced the blood to his
+brow.
+
+"Herbert!" Regine looked doubtingly at her brother, who still held her
+by the arm.
+
+"We do not know him," he repeated in the same tone.
+
+"Is it possible that I have to tell you that, Regine?"
+
+She understood now his meaning. With a half threatening, half painful
+glance, she turned her back upon the son of her friend and said, with
+deep bitterness:
+
+"You are right. I was mistaken."
+
+Hartmut started, and in rising anger he drew a step nearer.
+
+"Herr von Wallmoden!"
+
+"Did you speak to me?" The tone was as stinging and scornful as before.
+
+"You have anticipated my wishes, Your Excellency," said Hartmut,
+forcing himself to be calm. "I wished to ask you not to recognize me.
+We are strangers to each other."
+
+He turned and walked off defiantly, tall and erect, and entered the
+house by another door.
+
+Wallmoden looked after him with darkened brow. Then he turned to his
+sister.
+
+"Could you not control yourself better, Regine? Why have a scene at
+such a meeting? This Hartmut does not exist any longer for us."
+
+Regine's face betrayed only too well how much this encounter had
+shocked her. Her lips still quivered as she replied:
+
+"I am no practiced diplomat like you, Herbert. I have not learned to be
+still when one whom I thought dead or ruined suddenly appears before
+me."
+
+"Dead? that was hardly to be expected at his age. Ruined, corrupted?
+that might be nearer it. His life up to the present moment has lain in
+that direction."
+
+"Do you know about it?" Frau von Eschenhagen started with surprise. "Do
+you know of his life?"
+
+"Partly. Falkenried was too much my friend for me not to investigate
+what became of his son. Of course, I was silent to him as well as you
+concerning it; but as soon as I had returned to my office that time, I
+used our diplomatic relations, which reach everywhere, to inquire about
+it."
+
+"Well, what did you learn?"
+
+"Principally only that which was to be expected. Zalika had turned her
+steps directly homeward with her son. You know that her stepfather--our
+cousin Wallmoden--was already dead when she returned to her mother
+after the divorce. The connections on our side were thereby broken off,
+but I learned that shortly before Zalika's reappearance in Germany she
+had come into the possession of the Rojanow estates."
+
+"Zalika? Did she not have a brother?"
+
+"Yes, he had charge of the estates for ten years, but died, unmarried,
+from an accident while hunting, and, since his mother's second
+marriage had resulted in no descendant, Zalika entered now upon the
+inheritance--at least in name--for through the reckless management of
+the Bojar, the most of it belonged to the Jews. Nevertheless, she now
+felt herself master, and planned the _coup_ of getting possession of
+her son. The old, wild life was then continued upon the estates for a
+few years, with senseless management, until everything was gone. Then
+mother and son, like a couple of gypsies, went out into the wide
+world."
+
+Wallmoden narrated this with the same cold contempt which he had shown
+to Hartmut, and the same horror and aversion were pictured in the face
+of his sister--that strictly duteous and moral lady. Nevertheless, a
+certain degree of sympathy was in her voice as she asked: "And you have
+not heard anything of them since?"
+
+"Yes, several times. A casual mention of the name led me to the track.
+While I was at the embassy at Florence, they were in Rome; a few years
+later they appeared in Paris, and there I heard of the death of Frau
+Zalika Rojanow."
+
+"So she is dead," said Frau von Eschenhagen, in a low voice. "What do
+you think they have lived on all these years?"
+
+Wallmoden shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What do all adventurers who wander homeless over the world live on?
+They may perhaps have saved something from the wreck, perhaps not. At
+any rate, they visited all the salons in Paris and Rome. A woman like
+Zalika finds help and protection everywhere. She had the title of
+nobility as daughter of a Bojar, and the forced sale of the Roumania
+property was probably not known, so it played a prominent part in their
+success. Society opens its doors only too quickly to this element if it
+knows how to keep up appearances, which seems to have been the case
+here. By what means, that, of course, is another question."
+
+"But Hartmut, whom she forcibly carried into such a life--what of him?"
+
+"An adventurer--what else?" said the Ambassador, with intense
+harshness. "He always had an inclination that way; he will have
+developed finely in such a school. I have not heard anything of him
+since the death of his mother, three years ago."
+
+"And you kept it a secret from me?" said Regine, reproachfully.
+
+"I wished to spare you. You had taken this scoundrel--this Hartmut--too
+much into your heart. I was afraid you might be carried away in a hint
+to Falkenried."
+
+"You took unnecessary pains. I have ventured but once to speak of
+the past to Falkenried. He looked at me--I shall never forget that
+look--and said, with an awful expression: 'My son is dead--you know
+that, Regine. Let the dead rest!' I shall certainly not mention that
+name to him again."
+
+"Then I do not need to caution you when you return home," replied
+Wallmoden. "But you ought not to speak of it to Willibald, either. His
+good nature might play him a trick when he learns that his once great
+friend lives in the neighborhood. It is best for him to hear nothing of
+it. I shall certainly ignore this _gentleman_ at a possible second
+meeting, and Adelaide does not know him at all. She does not even know
+that Falkenried had a son."
+
+He broke off and arose, for his young wife now appeared in the door of
+the tower.
+
+Prince Adelsberg renewed the acquaintance of yesterday and inquired
+innocently if his friend, Rojanow, had passed by here. He could not
+explain his absence.
+
+A glance from Wallmoden warned his sister, who was proof this time
+against surprise. Wallmoden himself regretted not having seen the
+gentleman, and said that he was just about to leave with his wife and
+sister, having only awaited the former's return. The order for the
+carriage was given at once, to which Egon accompanied them, taking
+leave of them with a deep bow, but following the carriage with
+attentive eyes.
+
+Hartmut stood alone at a window of the inn, also observing the
+departure. The same ashy paleness again overspread his face, which had
+gleamed there at the first mention of the name of Wallmoden; but now it
+was the whiteness of a wild anger which almost shocked him.
+
+He had expected questions and reproaches, which, of course, he had
+intended to refute haughtily; but was met instead with a complete
+ignoring, which was a deadly insult to his pride. Wallmoden's harsh
+warning to his sister, "We do not know him--have I to remind you of
+that?" had wrought up his whole being. He felt the annihilation
+contained in it. And the woman, who had always shown him a mother's
+love--even Frau von Eschenhagen--had joined her brother in turning her
+back upon him, as upon a person one is ashamed to have once known. This
+was too much.
+
+"Well, here you are!" Egon's voice came from the door. "You disappeared
+as if the earth had swallowed you. Has the unlucky letter-case been
+found?"
+
+Rojanow turned. He was obliged to recall the pretext he had used.
+
+"Yes, indeed," he answered absently, "it lay upon the stairs."
+
+"Well, the guide would have found it just as well. Why did you not come
+back? Very polite of you to leave Frau von Wallmoden and me without
+ceremony. You have not even taken leave of the lady. His Excellency's
+highest displeasure is sure to fall upon you."
+
+"I shall know how to bear the misfortune," said Hartmut, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+The Prince drew near and laid his hand jestingly upon his friend's
+shoulder.
+
+"So? It is probably because you fell into disgrace yesterday. It is not
+your usual way to run off where the entertainment of a beautiful lady
+is concerned. Oh, I know all about it. Her Excellency has given you a
+lecture over your loving tirades against Germany, and the spoiled
+favorite has been offended. Why, one could afford to be told the truth
+by such lips."
+
+"You seem to be quite transported," sneered Hartmut. "Beware lest the
+husband be not jealous in spite of his years."
+
+"It is a strange couple," said Egon musingly, as if lost in thought;
+"that old diplomat, with his gray hair and immovable face, and his
+young wife with her brilliant beauty like----"
+
+"An aurora which rises from a sea of ice. It is only a question of
+which stood furthest below zero."
+
+The young Prince laughed heartily. "Very poetical and very malicious;
+but you are not far wrong. I have also felt something of this polar
+breath touching me chillingly several times; but that is my luck.
+Otherwise I would fall hopelessly in love with the beautiful
+Excellency. But I think it is time for us to leave, _nicht wahr?_"
+
+He went to the door to call the groom. Hartmut following, threw one
+more glance out to where, through an opening in the forest, the
+Ambassador's carriage was again visible, and his hands clinched
+involuntarily.
+
+"We shall speak yet, Herr Wallmoden," he muttered. "I shall remain now.
+He shall not think that I fly from his presence. I shall allow Egon to
+present me at court, and exert my utmost to make my work a success. We
+shall see then if he dares treat me like a first-class adventurer. He
+shall pay for that tone and look!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Everything at Furstenstein was in a state of preparation for the
+arrival of the Court. Their stay was to be of longer duration than for
+a short hunting expedition; they were to remain several weeks, for
+which time the Duchess also was expected. The upper stories of the
+castle, with their numerous suites of rooms, were being aired and put
+in order. A portion of the court officials and servants had already
+arrived. Extensive and festive preparations were also being made in
+Waldhofen, through which the Court was to pass on its way to the
+castle.
+
+Wallmoden's stay, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have been
+short, was prolonged. The Duke, who was pleased to distinguish the
+Ambassador in every way, had heard of his attending a family fête at
+Furstenstein, and had expressed a wish to find him and his wife still
+there. The invitation was equivalent to a command which had to be
+obeyed.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen and her son also wished to remain to look at the
+Court in close proximity; and the Chief Forester, who wished to
+distinguish himself in the probably extensive hunts, held daily
+conferences with the Head Forester and his subordinates, and put the
+whole forestry in motion.
+
+There was much bustle already about the castle. A sound of merry
+chattering and clear laughter came from Fraulein von Schonan's room.
+Marietta Volkmar had come to her friend for an hour, and as usual there
+was no end to the talking and laughing.
+
+Toni sat near the window, and Willibald, who was acting as guard at his
+mother's command, stood beside her.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen so far had not had her way about the intercourse
+of the two girls. Her brother-in-law had remained obstinate, and even
+her future daughter-in-law, usually so compliant, rendered unexpected
+resistance when the subject was broached.
+
+"I cannot, dear Aunt," Toni had answered. "Marietta is so sweet and
+good that I cannot offend her so bitterly."
+
+Sweet and good! Frau Regine shrugged her shoulders over the
+inexperience of the young girl, whose eyes she did not wish to open,
+but she felt bound to interfere, and concluded to act diplomatically
+this time.
+
+Willibald, accustomed to confess everything to his mother, had narrated
+to a fine point the encounter with the young singer. Frau von
+Eschenhagen had naturally been beside herself to think that the master
+of Burgsdorf should have carried a satchel behind the "theatre
+princess!" On the other hand, she heard the description of his horror
+upon learning who this lady really was, and his running away, with high
+pleasure, and thought it exceedingly praiseworthy that he objected to
+the rôle of guard over the girl. Of course he disliked every touch with
+such a person; but since his mother found it beneath her dignity to
+attend these meetings, he _must_ protect his bride-elect.
+
+He was given the curt command to never leave the young ladies alone,
+but to report explicitly how this Marietta actually behaved herself.
+After the first report, which would undoubtedly be atrocious, Frau
+Regine would impress upon her brother-in-law's conscience the frivolous
+association he had allowed his child; would call upon her son as
+witness, and request emphatically the breaking off of the friendship.
+
+Willibald had finally consented. He had been present when Fraulein
+Volkmar made her first visit to Furstenstein. He had accompanied his
+fiancée when she returned the call at Waldhofen, and now stood at his
+post to-day.
+
+Antonie and Marietta talked about the expected arrival of the Court,
+and the former, who had but little taste in dress, asked her friend's
+advice, which was gladly given.
+
+"What must you wear? Roses, of course," said Marietta; "white or
+delicate-colored ones. They will look lovely with the dainty blue."
+
+"But I do not like roses," declared Toni. "I intended to wear
+asters----"
+
+"Then why not sunflowers? Do you wish to appear autumnal in spite of
+everything, although you are a young girl and a bride-elect? And how
+can you help liking roses? I love them passionately and use them at
+every opportunity. I wanted so much to wear a rose in my hair at the
+Mayor's party to-night, and am quite unhappy because none are to be
+found anywhere in Waldhofen. Of course it is late in the season."
+
+"The gardener has roses in the hothouse," remarked Antonie in the
+sleepy manner which was such a sharp contrast to her vivacious friend.
+
+The latter shook her head laughingly.
+
+"They are doubtless for the Duchess' use, and we poor mortals dare not
+venture to ask for one. What's the use? I must deny myself that
+pleasure---- But to return to the dress question. You are quite
+superfluous in this, Herr von Eschenhagen. You do not understand a
+thing about it and must be bored to death, but in spite of it you do
+not waver nor move; besides, what is there so remarkable about me that
+you look at me so constantly?"
+
+The words sounded very ungracious. Willy started, for the last reproach
+was well founded. He had been meditating upon how a fresh, half-open
+rose would look in the dark, curly locks, and, of course, had to
+subject the curls and the head belonging to them to a minute
+observation, which his fiancée had passed unnoticed.
+
+"Yes, Willy, go," she now said good-naturedly. "You must really feel
+bored over our dress affairs, and I have much to talk over yet with
+Marietta."
+
+"Just as you wish, dear Toni," returned the young lord; "but may I not
+come back?"
+
+"Of course, as soon as you wish."
+
+Willibald left the room, not in the least remembering that he was
+deserting his post. He was thinking of something quite different as he
+stood for a few moments in the little ante-room. In consequence of this
+meditation he finally descended the stairs and turned his steps
+straight to the house of the castle gardener.
+
+He had scarcely left when Marietta sprang up and exclaimed with comic
+vehemence: "Gracious heavens! what a tiresome couple you are!"
+
+"But, Marietta----"
+
+"Yes, whether you are offended or not, I declare it is a sacrifice to
+friendship to stand it in your presence, and I had anticipated such a
+jolly time when I heard you were engaged. You were never particularly
+lively, but your betrothed seems to have lost his speech entirely. How
+did you manage to become engaged? Did he actually speak then, or did
+his mamma attend to that?"
+
+"Stop your foolishness," replied Antonie, displeased. "Willy is only so
+silent in your presence. He can be quite entertaining when we are
+alone."
+
+"Yes, over the new threshing machine he has bought. When I came I
+listened a moment before I entered. He was singing the praise of the
+before-mentioned threshing machine, and you were listening attentively.
+Oh, you will reign as a model couple, but--may heaven protect me in
+mercy from such a marriageable blessing!"
+
+"You are very naughty. Marietta," said the young Baroness, now really
+angry, but her mischievous little friend instantly clung to her neck.
+
+"Don't be mad, Toni. I do not mean any harm, and wish you happiness
+with all my heart, but you see my husband has to be of a different
+nature."
+
+"Ah, and how, pray?" asked Toni, half pouting, half reconciled by the
+coaxing plea.
+
+"First, he has to be under my command, and not under his mother's.
+Second, he must be a genuine man in whose protection I feel safe. He
+need not talk much--I do that--but he must love me so much--so much
+that he will not talk about papa or mamma, or his estates, or the new
+threshing machine, but let them all go if only he has--me."
+
+Toni shrugged her shoulders with compassionate superiority.
+
+"You have very childish views at times, Marietta--but now let us talk
+about the dresses."
+
+"Yes, we will, before your elect returns and posts himself at our side
+like a guard. He has a remarkable talent for mounting guard. Now, you
+wear with the blue silk----"
+
+The pending question was not destined to receive a solution this time,
+either, for the door opened and Frau von Eschenhagen entered, calling
+for Antonie, whose presence was desired elsewhere.
+
+Antonie arose obediently and left the room. Frau Regine made no effort
+to follow her, but took her vacant seat at the window instead.
+
+The reigning mistress of Burgsdorf was not diplomatically inclined like
+her brother; she had to interfere everywhere with force. She had become
+impatient, for Willy had as good as reported nothing. He grew red and
+stammered every time he should have repeated what the "theatre
+princess" had said and done, and his mother, who would not believe in a
+harmless girls' chat, concluded to take the affair in her own hands.
+
+Marietta had dutifully risen at the entrance of the older lady, whom
+she had scarcely seen at the first visit, and whose hostile bearing she
+had not observed in the joy of the first meeting. She only thought that
+Toni's future mother-in-law had little friendliness about her, but
+troubled herself no further about the severe lady who was now measuring
+her from head to foot, with the stern mien of a judge.
+
+In point of fact this Marietta looked just like other young girls, but
+she was pretty--very pretty, which was that much worse. She wore her
+hair in short curls--that was improper; other bad attributes would
+doubtless make their appearance in the conversation which was now
+begun.
+
+"You are a friend of the fiancée of my son?"
+
+"Yes, gracious lady," was the unembarrassed rejoinder.
+
+"A friendship which dates from childhood, as you were raised in the
+house of Dr. Volkmar?"
+
+"Certainly; I lost my parents very early."
+
+"Quite right; my brother-in-law told me so. And to what calling did
+your father belong?"
+
+"He was a physician like my grandpapa," replied Marietta, more amused
+than surprised at this examination, the object of which she did not
+guess. "My mother was also the daughter of a physician--a whole medical
+family, is it not? Only I have taken a different course."
+
+"Alas, yes," said Frau von Eschenhagen with emphasis.
+
+The young girl looked at her with surprise. Was that a jest? The mien
+of the lady was not at all mirthful, though, as she continued: "You
+will admit, my child, that if one has the good fortune to come from an
+honorable and respected family, one ought to show oneself worthy of it.
+You ought to have chosen your vocation accordingly."
+
+"Mon Dieu! but I could not study medicine like my father and
+grandfather," exclaimed Marietta, breaking into an amused laugh. The
+affair gave her endless fun, but the remark displeased her stern judge,
+who replied with considerable sharpness:
+
+"There are, God be thanked, plenty of proper vocations for a young
+girl. You are a singer?"
+
+"Yes, gracious lady, at the Court Theatre."
+
+"I know it. Are you disposed to accept a dismissal?"
+
+The question was put so suddenly, in such a domineering tone, that
+Marietta involuntarily retreated.
+
+She was still of the opinion that the lord of Burgsdorf, with his
+obstinate silence and stormy leave-taking, was not quite sane, and now
+she was struck by the thought that it might be a family failing which
+he had inherited from his mother, for it was very apparent that
+everything was not quite right with her.
+
+"A dismissal?" she repeated. "But why?"
+
+"For the sake of morality. I am willing to offer you a helping hand.
+Turn aside from this path of frivolity and I pledge myself to find a
+place as companion for you."
+
+Now at last the young singer comprehended the object of the
+conversation. Half angrily and half scornfully she tossed back the
+little, curly head.
+
+"I must thank you for it, but I love my work and cannot think of
+exchanging it for a dependent position. I am not fit, anyway, for an
+upper maid."
+
+"I have expected this answer," said Frau von Eschenhagen with a grim
+nod of the head, "but I consider it my duty to once more appeal to your
+conscience. You are still very young and are therefore not responsible
+to a great extent for it; the heaviest reproach falls on Doctor
+Volkmar, who allowed the daughter of his son to accept such a calling."
+
+"Gracious lady, I must beg you to leave my grandfather entirely out of
+the question," cried Marietta indignantly. "You are Toni's future
+mother-in-law--otherwise I should not have stood this examination--but
+I will not suffer an insult to my grandfather from anybody on the
+earth."
+
+In their excitement the two ladies had not noticed that the door
+leading to the ante-room had opened quietly, and that Willibald had
+appeared. He was much surprised when he saw his mother, and hastily
+thrust in his pocket something that he carried carefully wrapped in
+paper, but he remained standing in the door.
+
+"I do not intend to argue with you," said Frau von Eschenhagen in lofty
+tones, "but since I am Toni's future mother-in-law, I have the right to
+warn her of a friendship which does not seem proper to me. Pray do not
+misunderstand me. I am not haughty. The granddaughter of Dr. Volkmar
+would be quite welcome to a continuance of friendship, but a lady from
+a theatre probably has all of her connections in theatrical circles,
+and here at Furstenstein---- I hope you understand me?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I understand you, gracious lady," cried Marietta, whose face
+was suddenly suffused by a deep blush. "You do not need to say anything
+more. I ask but for one more word. Is Herr von Schonan--is Antonie--of
+the same opinion as yourself?"
+
+"Chiefly so as to the matter of it, but, of course, they do not
+wish--with explanations--to----" A very graphic shrug finished the
+sentence.
+
+The otherwise just and truth-loving woman did not even feel that she
+was plainly telling an untruth. So taken up with her idea was she that
+she was firmly convinced that the Chief Forester kept up the
+intercourse only through a spirit of spite, and Antonie through her
+good nature, although it must be uncomfortable to them, and she was
+firmly decided to bring this thing to an end.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+But something unexpected happened now. Willibald, who still stood upon
+the threshold, advanced into the room and exclaimed, half entreatingly,
+half reproachfully: "But, mamma!"
+
+"Is it you, Willy? What do you want here?" demanded Frau von
+Eschenhagen, noticing him for the first time, and to whom the
+interruption was very unwelcome.
+
+Willibald saw very well that his mother was very ungraciously inclined,
+and was accustomed always to retreat when he found her in that mood,
+but today, with unusual courage, he remained. He drew nearer and
+repeated, "But, mamma, I beg of you--Toni has never thought of Fraulein
+Volkmar's----"
+
+"How dare you! do you wish to accuse me of an untruth?" the angered
+mother flamed. "What is it to you that I speak with Fraulein Volkmar?
+Your fiancée is not here--you see that--therefore leave us!"
+
+The young lord grew darkly red at this tone, to which he was
+accustomed; he seemed to feel shame at the treatment because of the
+young girl, and looked as if he would offer some resistance, but at a
+threatening, "Well, did you not hear?" the old habit conquered. He
+turned hesitatingly and actually left the room, but the door remained
+slightly ajar.
+
+Marietta looked after him with scornfully curled lips, then turned to
+her opponent.
+
+"You may rest assured, gracious lady, that I have come to Furstenstein
+for the last time. As the Chief Forester received me with his usual
+cordiality, and Antonie with the old affection, I did not comprehend
+that I now bear a stain in their eyes. I certainly would not have made
+myself troublesome otherwise. It shall not happen again--no, never!"
+
+Her voice faltered; with effort she suppressed the tears, but they
+trembled bitterly and plaintively around the little mouth, and Frau von
+Eschenhagen felt that she had gone too far in her management of the
+case.
+
+"I did not wish to offend you," she said soothingly. "I only intended
+to make clear to you----"
+
+"You did not wish to offend me and yet tell me such things,"
+interrupted the young girl in an outburst of anger. "You treat me like
+an outcast, who should not dare to approach decent circles, because I
+earn my living, and give pleasure to mankind with a gift which God has
+given me. You abuse my good, dear old grandfather, who has made such
+painful sacrifices for my education, who has let me go into the world
+with such a heavy heart. Bitter tears stood in his eyes when he drew
+me once more into his arms at parting and said: 'Remain good, my
+Marietta--one can be good in every position. I can leave you nothing.
+If I should close my eyes in death to-day or to-morrow you would have
+to struggle for yourself.' And I have remained good, and I will remain
+good, even if it is not made easy for me as it is for Toni, who is the
+daughter of a rich father, and only leaves her paternal home to go to
+the home of her husband. But I do not envy her the good fortune of
+calling you mother."
+
+"Fraulein Volkmar, you forget yourself," cried Regine, highly offended,
+rising to her fullest height; but Marietta was not intimidated, she
+only grew more excited.
+
+"Oh, no; it is not I who forget myself. You are the one--you who
+insult me without cause, and I know that the Chief Forester and Antonie
+are under your influence if they turn from me. Nevertheless, I do not
+want any kindness nor friendship which cannot stand more firmly,
+and I am done with a friend who gives me up at the request of her
+mother-in-law--done with her once for all. Tell her so, Frau von
+Eschenhagen."
+
+She turned and left the room with a stormy gesture, but in the
+ante-room the carefully preserved composure gave way; pain overcame
+anger, and the bravely suppressed tears burst forth hotly. The young
+girl leaned her head against the wall in passionate, bitter sobbing
+over the insult.
+
+Hearing her name called in a low, timid voice, she looked up and saw
+Willibald von Eschenhagen standing before her, holding out the paper
+which he had dropped so hastily into his pocket. It was folded back
+now, and disclosed a rose branch, bearing a wonderfully beautiful and
+fragrant blossom with two half-open buds.
+
+"Fraulein Volkmar," he repeated, stammering, "you wished a rose--please
+accept----"
+
+Mute apology for his mother's rudeness could be plainly seen in his
+eyes and his whole bearing. Marietta suppressed her sobs, but the tears
+still glistened in the dark eyes, which looked at him with an
+inexpressibly contemptuous expression.
+
+"No, I thank you, Herr von Eschenhagen," she replied sharply. "You have
+probably heard what has been said in there and have also probably
+received a command to shun me. Why do you not obey?"
+
+"My mother has done you wrong," Willibald said half aloud, "and she
+also spoke without the knowledge of the others. Toni does not know
+anything about it, believe me----"
+
+"So you knew that and did not offer a word of contradiction!" the girl
+interrupted, scarlet with anger. "You listened to your mother insulting
+and offending a defenseless girl and did not have chivalry enough to
+oppose it! Oh, yes, you tried it, but were scolded and sent off like a
+schoolboy and--bore it meekly!"
+
+Willibald stood there as if thunderstruck. He had, indeed, felt the
+injustice of his mother deeply, and wished to make it good to the best
+of his ability, and now he was treated like this! He stared at Marietta
+in deep perplexity, while she only grew angrier at his silence.
+
+"And now you come and bring me flowers," she continued, with increasing
+passion, "secretly--behind your mother's back, and think that I will
+accept such an apology! You would better learn first how a _man_
+deports himself when he is witness to such injustice. But now--now I
+will show you what I think of your present and of you!"
+
+She tore the paper with its contents out of his hand, threw it on the
+ground, and in the next second her little foot stamped upon the
+fragrant blossoms.
+
+"My, Fraulein----" Willibald wavered between shame and indignation, but
+a stern glance from the hitherto saucy eyes silenced him, and the poor
+roses were finished by a push from the small foot.
+
+"So--now we are at the end. If Toni really knows nothing of this affair
+I shall be sorry, but in spite of it I must remain away in the future,
+for I will not expose myself to fresh insults. May she be happy. I
+could not be in her place. I am a poor girl, but I would not accept a
+man who is still afraid of his mother's switch--no, not if he were ten
+times lord of Burgsdorf!"
+
+With which she disappeared, and left the poor lord standing alone.
+
+"Willy, what does this mean?" demanded the voice of Frau von
+Eschenhagen, who appeared in the door. As no reply came, she approached
+her son with threatening mien.
+
+"It was certainly a strange scene which I had to look upon. Will you be
+so good as to explain what it really meant? That little thing actually
+glared with anger and said the most impertinent things to your face,
+and you stood there like a sheep, without defending yourself."
+
+"Because she was right," murmured Willibald, still looking at the
+roses.
+
+"She was what?" demanded the mother, who could not believe that she had
+heard aright.
+
+The young lord raised his head and looked at her. He had a peculiar
+expression on his face.
+
+"She was right, I say, mamma. It is true, you have treated me like a
+schoolboy. I ought not to have submitted to it."
+
+"Boy, I believe you are not in your senses," said Frau Regine, but
+Willibald started in irritation:
+
+"I am no boy. I am lord of Burgsdorf and twenty-seven years old. You
+forget that always, mamma, and I have forgotten it always--but now I
+recall it."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen looked with boundless astonishment at her hitherto
+obedient son, who was now suddenly making resistance.
+
+"I actually believe you would like to be rebellious, my boy. Do not
+try; you know I will not permit it. What possesses you suddenly to be
+so arbitrary? While I try to end a highly improper intercourse and put
+aside this Marietta, you go and, behind my back, actually offer an
+apology for it--even offer her the roses which you had intended for
+your betrothed. Although I do not know how you came to do it, it is the
+first time in your life--but Toni will not thank you for it. It served
+you right that the little witch crushed them. You will leave such
+foolishness alone in the future."
+
+She scolded him in the usual tone without taking any notice of his
+rebellion, but Willibald took it wrongly this time. He who had but ten
+minutes before hidden the flowers in his pocket with fear now had a
+touch of heroism. Instead of leaving his mother in her belief and
+hushing the dangerous storm, he positively challenged it.
+
+"The roses were not destined for Toni at all, but for Fraulein
+Volkmar," he explained defiantly.
+
+"For----" the word choked the terror-stricken woman.
+
+"For Marietta Volkmar! She wanted to wear a rose in her hair to-night,
+and since there were none to be had in Waldhofen, I went to the castle
+gardener and got those flowers. Now you know it all, mamma."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen stood there like a pillar of salt. She had turned
+ashy pale, for suddenly a light had dawned upon her, but it showed her
+something so awful that she lost both speech and motion for a while.
+
+But her old fire returned. She grasped her son's arm as if she meant to
+have him in any case and said curtly:
+
+"Willy--we leave to-morrow."
+
+"Leave!" he repeated. "For where?"
+
+"Home. We depart to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock, so that we can catch
+the fast train and arrive at Burgsdorf the day after to-morrow. Go
+immediately to your room and pack."
+
+But the commanding tone made no impression whatever on Willy this time.
+
+"I shall not pack," he declared sullenly.
+
+"You shall pack. I command you."
+
+"No," defied the young lord. "If you want to leave so badly, mamma, you
+can leave--I remain here."
+
+This was unheard of, but it dispelled the last doubt and the energetic
+woman, who still held her son in her grasp, now shook him fiercely.
+
+"Boy, wake up! Come to your senses! I believe you do not know what is
+the matter with you. I will tell you then. You are in love--in love
+with this Marietta Volkmar."
+
+She threw the last words at him with annihilating emphasis, but
+Willibald was not in the least annihilated. He stood quite still from
+surprise for a moment. He had not thought of that, but now it began to
+dawn upon him.
+
+"Oh," he said with a deep sigh, and something like a smile flitted over
+his features.
+
+"'Oh!' is that your whole answer?" burst forth the enraged mother, who
+had hoped for a denial. "You do not even deny it? And I have to live to
+see that in my own son whom I have raised--who has never been allowed
+to leave my side! While I put you there as a guard during those
+previous visits to your fiancée she bewitches you--that is plain--and
+even plays the virtuous, deeply offended one before you--this----"
+
+"Mamma, stop; I cannot allow it," interrupted Willibald, irritated
+beyond silence.
+
+"You cannot allow it? What does it mean----" Frau von Eschenhagen
+suddenly paused and looked toward the door, listening. "Toni is
+returning, there--your betrothed, to whom you have pledged your word,
+who wears your ring. How will you account to her?"
+
+She had finally struck the right chord. The young lord started at this
+thought and bowed his head mutely when Antonie entered, quite
+unconcerned.
+
+"You have returned already, Willy?" she asked. "I thought--but what is
+it? Has anything happened?"
+
+"Yes," answered Frau Regine, grasping the reins, as usual, decisively.
+"We have just received a communication from Burgsdorf which forces us
+to depart to-morrow morning. You need not be frightened, my child, it
+is nothing dangerous--only a foolishness"--she laid sharp emphasis on
+the word--"a foolishness which has been committed, but which will be
+removed just as speedily by quick interference. I will tell you all
+about it later, but for the present nothing can be done but by our
+departure."
+
+Curiosity was not one of Antonie's faults, and even this quite
+unexpected news was not able to ruffle her composure. The statement
+that nothing serious was concerned satisfied her entirely.
+
+"Must Willy leave also?" she asked without particular enthusiasm.
+"Cannot he at least remain?"
+
+"Answer your fiancée yourself, Willy," said Frau von Eschenhagen,
+fixing her sharp, gray eyes upon her son. "You know best what the
+circumstances are. Can you really consent to stay here?"
+
+A short pause. Willibald's glance met his mother's; then he turned away
+and said in a suppressed voice, "No, Toni, I must go home--nothing else
+is possible."
+
+Toni accepted the decision, which would have pained another girl
+deeply, with moderate regret, and began to inquire directly where the
+travelers would dine to-morrow, since the fast train had no stoppage
+anywhere. This seemed to grieve her as much as the separation, but she
+finally concluded that it would be best for them to take a lunch along
+to eat on the train.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen felt triumphant when she went to her
+brother-in-law to notify him of their departure, for which she had
+already found a pretext.
+
+Many a thing could happen on the large estates to afford an
+explanation.
+
+Naturally, the Chief Forester must not learn the truth any more than
+his daughter, although he had caused the whole trouble in his
+blindness.
+
+Regine did not doubt in the least that as soon as she removed her Willy
+from the fascinating circle of this "witch" he would return to reason.
+Had he not shown it just now?
+
+She would not see that honor toward his betrothed alone had conquered,
+and that it had been a terrible mistake to expose his feelings to
+another.
+
+"Wait, my boy," she muttered grimly. "I will teach you to commence such
+things, and to rebel against your mother. When once I have you at
+Burgsdorf, may God have mercy on you!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+On the appointed day the Duke, with the Duchess and a numerous suite,
+arrived at Furstenstein, and the life full of splendor which had been
+led in former times began again in the wide, beautiful hunting grounds
+of the Wald.
+
+The present sovereign was no ardent huntsman, and the hunting lodge of
+his ancestors had stood deserted for years, or was occupied only at
+long intervals for a brief visit. Now, when a prolonged stay was
+anticipated, the spacious castle scarce afforded room enough for the
+guests; a part of them were quartered in neighboring Waldhofen, which
+made the little town, as well as the entire vicinity, very festive in
+joyful excitement.
+
+The owners of the neighboring castles and villas, who, like Prince
+Adelsberg, belonged to the best families of the land, were induced by
+the arrival of the Court to take up their fall quarters there, too.
+Nearly everybody had brought numerous guests, and so an unusual life
+and bustle developed in the silent Wald, the centre of which activity
+being, of course, Furstenstein.
+
+The castle shone to-night in fullest splendor; every window of the
+upper floor was lighted, and in the court torches threw their red light
+upon the walls and towers gray with age.
+
+It was the occasion of the first large fête since the arrival of the
+princely family, to which were asked all the nobility of the
+neighborhood, the higher officials of the district, and, in short,
+everybody who had any claim upon their sovereign's notice.
+
+The castle, which was built in a grand style, contained a number of
+gorgeous rooms of state, which, with their old-fashioned but costly
+furnishings, and the brilliant company moving through them, afforded a
+decidedly splendid spectacle.
+
+The young wife of the Prussian Ambassador was a new star among the
+ladies present. Mourning for her father, who had died shortly after her
+marriage, had kept her from all festivities, and she entered to-day for
+the first time this brilliant circle, where the position of her husband
+assured her a prominent place, and where she was being treated by the
+Duke and Duchess with noticeable distinction.
+
+The rising of this new star was noticed by the ladies, of course, with
+some displeasure. They found Frau von Wallmoden very haughty in her
+cool composure, and that she had very little occasion for such bearing;
+for, of course, they all knew that she was a born burgher, who did not
+properly belong in this circle, even if her father's wealth and his
+prominent position with the industries of the country gave her a
+certain distinction. Nevertheless, she moved upon the foreign soil with
+a strange ease--the husband must have schooled her well for this first
+appearance.
+
+The gentlemen were of a different opinion. They found that His
+Excellency the Ambassador had proved his talent most strikingly in his
+own cause. He who already stood upon the border of old age had
+understood how to gain, with the hand of this young, beautiful wife, a
+fortune extensive enough in itself, but magnified by rumor into the
+immeasurable. For this he was envied on all sides.
+
+Wallmoden did not seem at all surprised at the impression which the
+beauty and stateliness of his wife too apparently caused, but accepted
+it as something natural. He had expected nothing else; the contrary
+would have surprised him in the highest degree.
+
+At present he was standing in a window recess with his brother-in-law,
+the Chief Forester, and after exchanging a few indifferent remarks
+about the fête and the guests, he asked casually: "What sort of person
+is that whom Prince Adelsberg has introduced? Do you know him?"
+
+"You mean the young Roumanian?" said Schonan. "No; I see him to-day for
+the first time, but have heard of him before. He is the bosom friend of
+the Prince, whom he accompanied upon his Eastern travels, and a young
+man handsome as a picture--his eyes positively sparkle with fire."
+
+"He impresses me as an adventurer," remarked Wallmoden coldly. "How
+does he happen to have an invitation? Has he been presented to the
+Duke?"
+
+"Yes, at Rodeck, if I am not mistaken; the Duke was there recently.
+Prince Adelsberg loves to throw etiquette aside as much as possible.
+But this invitation to-day signifies no acceptance, since everybody has
+been asked."
+
+The Ambassador shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Nevertheless, one should hesitate about bringing such elements near
+one before they come well recommended."
+
+"Everything must be certified to with letter and seal with you
+diplomats," laughed the Chief. "This Rojanow has certainly something
+aristocratic about him, and one is never so strict, anyway, with a
+foreigner. I can well understand that our sovereigns like to hear and
+see something different from the usual court circle, which presents the
+same old tiresome face from year to year. The Duke appears to be quite
+captivated already with the Roumanian."
+
+"Yes, it seems so," muttered Wallmoden, upon whose brow a cloud
+gathered.
+
+"But why should this concern us?" remarked Schonan. "I will go now and
+look for Toni, who has to appear now everywhere without her betrothed.
+That was another notion of Regine's. She departed from us with her son
+like a skyrocket. Your sister cannot be detained as soon as the beloved
+Burgsdorf is brought into question. If she had only left Willy with us!
+Everybody wonders that my future son-in-law should take his departure
+before the fête. I cannot understand it at all."
+
+"A stroke of good fortune that they are gone," thought Wallmoden, as
+his brother-in-law left him. "If Willibald had met his former friend
+and playmate here unexpectedly another scene similar to that upon the
+Hochberg might have occurred. But who would have thought that Hartmut
+would carry his defiance so far as to appear in a circle where he was
+sure to meet the Ambassador?"
+
+Prince Adelsberg, who held in this circle one of the highest positions
+through his name and relationship to the reigning house, had, indeed,
+succeeded with the presentation of his friend, and the Duke seemed to
+have had a very favorable opinion of him from the first meeting at
+Rodeck, for he now himself presented this young stranger to the
+Duchess.
+
+This Rojanow, with the captivating charm of his personality and the
+foreign air which surrounded him, was, indeed, an extraordinary person,
+who had only to appear to cause general observation.
+
+To-day he displayed lavishly all the brilliant attributes which were at
+his command. His conversation sparkled with life and spirit, his fiery
+temperament, which betrayed itself involuntarily, gave to everything he
+said and did a peculiar charm, while he proved himself in every respect
+master of society forms and customs. In short, the prophecy of the
+Prince was fulfilled.
+
+Hartmut knew how to conquer everybody here by storm, and had hardly put
+his foot upon the soil when he reigned there by the power of his
+magnetism.
+
+This could not pass unnoticed by the Ambassador, even if he did not
+come into direct contact with the Roumanian. It was not difficult to
+evade each other in the throng of guests, and a meeting was not desired
+on either side.
+
+Wallmoden walked through a side room, where the Duke's sister, the
+Princess Sophie, had gathered a large circle around her.
+
+The Princess, who had married the younger son of a princely house, had
+very early become a widow, and had lived since then at the court of her
+brother, where she was not in the least popular. While the Duchess
+charmed everybody who came into her presence by her grace and kindness,
+the older sister was considered haughty and _intriguante_. Everybody
+stood in fear of the lady's sharp tongue, which had a habit of saying
+something disagreeable to each and every one.
+
+Herr von Wallmoden did not escape this fate. He was graciously beckoned
+to and received flatteries on the beauty of his wife, which was not to
+be denied.
+
+"I offer you my congratulations, Your Excellency. I was quite surprised
+when your young wife was presented to me, for I had naturally expected
+to see an elderly lady."
+
+The "naturally" sounded very malicious, for Princess Sophie had known
+for months that the wife of the Prussian Ambassador was only nineteen
+years old, but he smiled in the most amiable way as he replied: "Your
+Highness is very gracious. I can only be grateful that my wife has had
+the good fortune to make a favorable impression upon you."
+
+"Oh, you cannot doubt it. The Duke and Duchess are quite of my opinion.
+Frau von Wallmoden is really a beauty--Prince Adelsberg seems to think
+so, too. Perhaps you have not observed as yet how very much he admires
+your wife?"
+
+"Yes, Your Highness, I have observed it."
+
+"Really? And what do you say to it?"
+
+"I?" inquired Wallmoden with perfect tranquillity. "It rests solely
+with my wife as to whether she will permit the admiration of the
+Prince. If she finds pleasure in it---- I do not give her any rules in
+this respect."
+
+"An enviable confidence which our young gentlemen ought to pattern
+after," said the Princess, vexed that the arrow had missed its aim. "It
+is surely very agreeable to a young wife if the husband is not jealous.
+Ah, there is Frau von Wallmoden herself, with her cavalier, of course,
+at her side. My dear Baroness, we were just speaking of you."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden, who had just entered in company with Prince
+Adelsberg, bowed her recognition of the Princess' notice.
+
+She made, indeed, a brilliant picture to-night, for the splendid court
+toilet enhanced her beauty triumphantly. The costly brocade of the
+white dress, which fell to her feet in heavy folds, suited the slender
+figure admirably. The pearls encircling her throat and the diamonds
+which sparkled in her blond hair were perhaps the most costly of any
+worn to-night; but more sharply than ever appeared the cold and serious
+expression of the young wife. She did not in the least resemble others
+of her age who were also married, but who claimed the right of youth to
+dress in dainty laces and flowers. She possessed nothing of their
+brightness--the urbane amiability which was so fully brought to view in
+them. The severe, serious expression which was an inheritance from her
+father, and so indelibly stamped in her nature, betrayed itself in her
+character.
+
+Egon kissed his exalted aunt's hand, and had been honored with a few
+gracious words, but from the first, the amiable attention of Her
+Highness was quite taken up by the young Baroness, who was immediately
+drawn into conversation.
+
+"I was just expressing my pleasure to His Excellency that you find
+yourself so quickly at home in our court circle, dear Baroness. You
+enter these circles to-day for the first time, if I understand aright,
+and have lived hitherto in entirely different surroundings. You were
+born a----"
+
+"Stahlberg, Your Highness," was the calm rejoinder.
+
+"Quite right. I remember the name, which has been spoken several times
+in my presence. It is honorably known in your native town, I presume."
+
+"Most gracious aunt, you must permit me to inform you better," joined
+in Prince Adelsberg, who seldom permitted an opportunity of vexing his
+most gracious aunt to pass by. "The factories of Stahlberg are
+world-renowned. They are as well known across the ocean as they are
+here. I had an opportunity to learn all about them when I was in
+Northern Germany several years ago, and I can assure you that those
+works those iron foundries and factories, with their colonies of
+officers and their army of workmen, can well vie with many a small
+principality, whose sovereign, though, is not such an absolute ruler as
+was the father of Her Excellency."
+
+The Princess cast anything but a friendly glance at her nephew; his
+interference was not desired.
+
+"Indeed! I had no idea of such magnificence," she said in her most
+caustic tone. "We may, perhaps, then greet His Excellency as such a
+ruler?"
+
+"Only as administrator, Your Highness," rejoined the Ambassador. "I am
+only the executor of my father-in-law's will, and guardian of my young
+brother-in-law, to whom the works will go when he attains his
+majority."
+
+"Ah, so? The son will probably know how to keep the inheritance. It is
+really astonishing what the energy of a single man can do in these
+days, and it is so much more praiseworthy if he, like the father of our
+dear Baroness, has come from humble circles. At least I believe I have
+heard so, or am I mistaken?"
+
+Princess Sophie knew very well that these remarks about the origin of
+his father-in-law were unpleasant to the Ambassador, a man of old
+Prussian nobility, and it caused her great satisfaction that the
+surrounding circle did not lose a word of the conversation, which was
+intended principally to humble the lady of burgher descent.
+
+But she was mistaken if she counted upon the Baroness falling into
+embarrassment or evasion. Instead of that she drew herself up in all
+her pride.
+
+"Your Highness is quite correctly informed. My father came to the
+Capital a poor boy without means. He had to struggle hard, and worked
+for years as a humble laborer, before he laid the foundation to his
+later enterprises."
+
+"How proudly Frau von Wallmoden says that!" cried the Princess,
+smiling. "Oh, I love this filial attachment above everything. So Herr
+Stahlberg--or perhaps _von_ Stahlberg?--the large manufacturers often
+bear a title----"
+
+"My father did not bear it, Your Highness," replied Adelaide, meeting
+the glance of the royal lady calmly and openly. "A title had indeed
+been offered him, but he refused it."
+
+The Ambassador pressed his thin lips together. He could but find the
+remark of his wife very undiplomatic. The features of the Princess
+assumed an angry expression, and she returned with biting sarcasm:
+"Well, then, it is a good thing that this aversion has not descended to
+the daughter. His Excellency will know how to value it. I beg your
+escort, Egon. I should like to look for my brother."
+
+She bowed to the circle and glided away on the arm of the Prince, whose
+bearing plainly said:
+
+"Now comes my turn."
+
+He was not mistaken. Her Highness had no thought of finding the Duke,
+but took a seat in the adjoining room with her young relative, whom she
+wished to have to herself.
+
+At first her anger burst forth at the unbearably haughty Frau von
+Wallmoden, who boasted of her father's burgher pride, while she had
+married a Baron from vanity, for she could not possibly feel any
+affection for a man old enough to be her father. Egon was silent as to
+that, for he had already put the same question to himself, How had this
+unequal match come to take place? without finding an answer to it; but
+his silence was now an offence.
+
+"Well, Egon, have you nothing to say? But you seem to have sworn
+allegiance to this lady; you have been constantly at her side."
+
+"I do homage to beauty wherever I meet it; you know that, most gracious
+aunt," expostulated the Prince. But alas! he only called forth another
+storm.
+
+"Yes, alas! I know that. In this respect you are of incomprehensible
+heedlessness. Perhaps you do not remember all my admonishings and
+warnings before your departure?"
+
+"Ah, only too well," sighed Egon, who even now felt quite stifled with
+the remembrance of the endless lecture which he had had to endure at
+that time.
+
+"Really? But you have not returned any more sensible or sedate. I have
+heard things---- Egon, there is only one salvation for you--you must
+marry."
+
+"For heaven's sake, anything but that!" Egon started up so terrified
+that Princess Sophie opened her fan indignantly.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" she asked in cutting tones.
+
+"Oh, only my un worthiness to enter into that state. Your Highness
+yourself have often assured me that I was particularly fitted to make a
+wife _unhappy_."
+
+"If the wife does not succeed in bettering you, of course. I do not
+despair yet of that. But this is not the place to speak of such things.
+The Duchess is planning a visit to Rodeck, and I intend to accompany
+her."
+
+"What a charming idea!" exclaimed Egon, who was almost as much
+terrified by the proposed visit as by the thought of marriage. "I am
+really proud that Rodeck, which is usually such a small, tiresome
+forest nook, can just now furnish you with some curiosities. I brought
+many things from my travels, among them a lion, two young tigers,
+several snakes----"
+
+"But not live ones?" interrupted the horrified lady.
+
+"Of course, Your Highness."
+
+"But, mon Dieu! one is not sure of one's life there."
+
+"Oh, it is not so dangerous, although some of the beasts have broken
+away from us already--the people are so careless at feeding time; but
+they have always been secured again, and have not done any harm as
+yet."
+
+"As yet? That is a charming prospect, indeed," said the Princess
+angrily. "You put the whole neighborhood in danger. The Duke ought to
+prohibit you such dangerous playthings."
+
+"I hope not, for I am just now seriously occupied in attempting to tame
+some of them. But besides these I can show you many domestic things
+that are worth looking at. There are several girls among my servants
+from this vicinity who look charming in their peasant costumes."
+
+Egon shuddered at the thought of his female servants "with wagging
+heads," whom he still employed under Stadinger's careful eye, but he
+had speculated correctly. His gracious aunt was indignant and measured
+him with an annihilating glance.
+
+"So? You have such as that at Rodeck!"
+
+"Certainly. There is Lena in particular, the granddaughter of my
+steward, a charming little thing, and when you give me the honor of
+your visit, most gracious aunt----"
+
+"I shall leave it alone," interrupted the incensed lady, using her fan
+violently. "It must be a peculiar household which you carry on at
+Rodeck with the young foreigner whom you have, perhaps, also brought as
+a curiosity from your travels. He has the face of a perfect brigand."
+
+"My friend Rojanow! He has been pining a long time to be presented to
+Your Highness. You permit it, I hope?"
+
+Without waiting for an answer he hastened away and took possession of
+Hartmut.
+
+"Now it is your turn," he whispered, dragging him along
+unceremoniously. "I have been the victim long enough, and my most
+precious aunt has to have some one whom she can roast slowly. She
+insists upon marrying me off-hand, and you have the face of a perfect
+brigand, but, thank God! she does not come to Rodeck. I have taken care
+of that!"
+
+In the next moment he stood before Her Highness, introducing his friend
+with his blandest smile.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Herr von Wallmoden had lingered in the circle a few moments after the
+departure of the Princess; then, with his wife on his arm, he walked
+slowly through the suite of rooms, greeting an acquaintance here,
+conversing briefly there, until they finally reached the last of the
+reception rooms, which was rather deserted.
+
+The tower room, opening directly from this, was not generally used in
+entertainments, but for tonight it had been transformed into a small,
+cosy apartment with curtains and carpets and a picturesque group of
+plants, and, with its dim lights, offered a pleasing contrast to the
+blinding flood of light and the commotion of the other rooms.
+
+It was quite vacant now, which the Ambassador seemed to have counted
+upon when he entered with his wife and offered her a seat upon a divan.
+
+"I must draw your attention to the fact, Adelaide, that you did an
+unwise thing just now," he began in a low tone. "Your remark to the
+Princess----"
+
+"Was self-defense," finished the young wife. "You must have felt, as
+well as I did, what the object of the conversation was."
+
+"Nevertheless, at your first appearance you have made for yourself an
+antagonist whose enmity can materially render your own and my position
+more difficult."
+
+"Yours?" Adelaide looked at him in surprise. "Are you, the Ambassador
+of a great power, to ask the grace of a malicious woman who happens to
+be related to a ducal family?"
+
+"My child, you do not understand," returned Wallmoden coldly. "An
+intriguing woman can be more dangerous than a political opponent, and
+Princess Sophie is well known in that line. Even the Duchess is known
+to be in fear of her malicious tongue."
+
+"That is the Duchess' affair. I am not in fear of it."
+
+"My dear Adelaide," said the Ambassador, with a superior smile, "that
+proud turn of your head is very becoming to you, and I approve entirely
+of your making yourself unapproachable with it in other circles, but
+you will have to leave it off at Court, as well as several other
+things. One does not give royalty a lesson before so many observers,
+and you did that when you spoke of the refusal of the title. In any
+case, it was not necessary for you to lay so much stress upon the
+descent of your father."
+
+"Should I perhaps have denied it?"
+
+"No, for it is a well-known fact."
+
+"Of which I am as proud as was my father."
+
+"But you are not Adelaide Stahlberg any longer, but the Baroness
+Wallmoden." The voice of the Ambassador had acquired a certain
+sharpness. "And you will admit that it is very contradictory to boast
+of your burgher pride when you have given your hand to a man of the old
+nobility."
+
+A slight bitterness quivered around the lips of the young wife, and
+although the conversation had been carried on in low tones, her voice
+sank even lower as she returned: "Perhaps you have forgotten, Herbert,
+why I gave you my hand."
+
+"Have you had cause to regret it?" he asked instead of replying.
+
+"No," said Adelaide, drawing a deep breath.
+
+"I should think you could be satisfied with the position you have at my
+side. Besides, you remember that I did not compel you. I left you
+perfectly free choice."
+
+The wife was silent, but the bitter expression did not leave her lips.
+
+Wallmoden arose and offered his arm.
+
+"You must permit me, my child, to come to your assistance sometimes in
+your inexperience," he said in his usual polite tone. "So far I have
+had every reason to be satisfied with your tact and manner. To-day is
+the first time I have had to give you a hint. May I ask if you are
+ready to return?"
+
+"I should like to remain here a few moments longer," said Adelaide in a
+smothered voice. "It is so insufferably hot in the salons."
+
+"Just as you desire, but I beg that you will not remain too long, as
+your absence would cause remark."
+
+He saw and felt that she was offended, but found it expedient not to
+notice it. Baron Wallmoden, in spite of all his politeness and
+attention, understood that in the training of his wife such kinds of
+sentiment must not be encouraged. He left the room, and Adelaide
+remained alone. She leaned her head upon her hand, and with unseeing
+eyes stared at the group of plants near her, whispering almost
+inaudibly: "Free choice--O, my God!"
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+In the meantime Prince Adelsberg and his friend were being most
+graciously dismissed. They bowed low before the Princess, who arose and
+left the salon with an unusually mild expression on her sharp features.
+
+"Hartmut, I believe you can magnetize," said Egon under his breath. "I
+have seen many examples of your irresistibility, but that my most
+gracious aunt has a regular attack of affability in your presence is
+something never heard of before. It puts all your other victories into
+the shade."
+
+"Well, the reception was cool enough," laughed Hartmut. "Her Highness
+really seemed to take me for a brigand at first."
+
+"But in ten minutes you stood in the full sunshine of her grace, and
+have been dismissed a prime favorite. Do tell me what you have in you
+that everybody, without exception, bows to your charm. One might well
+believe in the old fairy tale of the rat-catcher."
+
+Again the harsh, repulsive sarcasm which took for a moment every beauty
+from his face, passed over Hartmut's lips, giving him a satanic
+expression.
+
+"I understand how to play the thing they like best to hear. It has a
+different sound to every one, but if one knows how to strike the right
+chord, none can resist it."
+
+"None?" repeated Egon, while his glance passed searchingly through the
+room.
+
+"Not one, I tell you."
+
+"Yes, you are a pessimist in this respect. I at least recognize some
+exceptions. If I only knew where Frau von Wallmoden was. I cannot see
+her anywhere."
+
+"His Excellency is probably reading her a lecture upon the undiplomatic
+remark of a short time since."
+
+"Did you also hear it?" asked Egon quickly.
+
+"Yes; I stood in the door."
+
+"Well, I do not in the least begrudge our most gracious one the lesson.
+Naturally she was beside herself about it, but do you really believe
+that the Ambassador---- Hush! there he is himself."
+
+It was, indeed, the Ambassador before them, just returning from the
+tower room. An encounter now could not be avoided, and the young
+Prince, who had no idea of the existing connection, hastened to
+introduce his friend.
+
+"Allow me, Your Excellency, to make good a neglect which was forced
+upon me that day upon the Hochberg by the disappearance of my friend. I
+only found him after your departure. Herr Hartmut Rojanow, Baron von
+Wallmoden."
+
+The eyes of the two men met. The sharp, penetrating eyes of the one met
+the expression of challenging defiance in the other, but Wallmoden
+would not have been the finished diplomat he was if he were not equal
+to the present moment.
+
+His greeting was cool but polite, only he turned to the Prince alone
+with his answer, regretting not being able to chat with the gentlemen,
+since he was called to the Duke.
+
+The whole meeting had lasted but two minutes, but it had taken place.
+
+"His Excellency is more taciturn to-day than usual," remarked Egon,
+walking on. "Whenever I see this cold, diplomatic face before me I have
+a chill, and feel a pressing desire to seek warmer zones."
+
+"Therefore we follow so persistently the track of the beautiful, cold
+aurora," said Hartmut, teasingly. "Whom do we really seek in this walk
+through the rooms which you continue so untiringly?"
+
+"The Chief Forester," said the Prince, vexed at seeing himself
+betrayed. "I wish to make you acquainted with him, but you are in one
+of your railing moods to-day. Perhaps I may find Schonan over yonder in
+the armory. I shall look there."
+
+He took a speedy departure, and actually turned his steps to the
+armory, where the ducal couple was at present, and where he also
+believed Adelaide von Wallmoden to be. But, unfortunately, at the
+entrance he again crossed the path of his most gracious aunt, who took
+possession of him. She wished for more particulars of the interesting
+young Roumanian who stood, indeed, in the sunlight of her favor, and
+her impatient nephew had to answer all her questions willingly or
+otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The fête progressed; the assembly glided to and fro as Hartmut walked
+slowly and apparently purposelessly through the long suite of reception
+rooms. He, too, looked for some one, and was more successful than Egon.
+A hasty glance into the tower room, the entrance of which was partly
+concealed by heavy portières, showed him the hem of a white train which
+floated over the floor, and the next moment he had crossed the
+threshold.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden was still sitting in the same position, and
+slowly turned her head toward the intruder. Suddenly she started, but
+only for an instant, then with her habitual composure she returned the
+deep bow of the young man who remained standing at the door.
+
+"I hope I have not disturbed Your Excellency," he said. "I fear you
+came here for solitude into which I have broken suddenly, but it
+happens quite unintentionally."
+
+"I only took refuge here from the smothering heat of the salons."
+
+"The same cause brought me here, and since I did not have the honor
+to-day to greet you, permit me to do so now."
+
+The words sounded very formal. Rojanow had drawn nearer, but remained
+standing at a respectable distance. Nevertheless, the start at his
+entrance had not been passed by unobserved by him. A peculiar smile
+hovered around his lips as he directed his eyes upon the young
+Baroness.
+
+She had made a gesture as if to rise and leave the room, but seemed to
+remember in time that so sudden a move would look like flight. She
+remained seated and leaned over the plants. Absently she picked one of
+the large crimson japonicas as she replied to the question about her
+health, but that line of severe will-power appeared again, sharply and
+distinctly, just as in that moment when she stood in the middle of the
+brook. That day she had stepped without hesitation into ankle-deep
+water rather than accept the help which was offered her; but that had
+occurred in the forest loneliness. No such obstacle had to be overcome
+here in the ducal castle, filled with the pomp of a fête; but the man
+with the dark, consuming glance was here, and he did not remove his
+eyes from her face.
+
+"Shall you remain at Rodeck any length of time?" asked Adelaide in the
+indifferent tone with which remarks are exchanged in society.
+
+"Probably a few weeks longer. Prince Adelsberg will hardly leave his
+castle as long as the Duke is at Furstenstein. I intend to accompany
+him to the Residenz later on."
+
+"And we shall then learn to know you as a poet?"
+
+"Me, Your Excellency?"
+
+"I learned so from the Prince."
+
+"Oh, that is only Egon's idea," said Hartmut, lightly. "He has settled
+it in his mind that he must see my Arivana upon the stage."
+
+"Arivana! A strange title."
+
+"It is an Oriental name for an Indian legend, whose poetical charm had
+prepossessed me so strangely that I could not resist the temptation to
+form it into a drama."
+
+"And the heroine of the drama is Arivana?"
+
+"No; that is only the name of an ancient, sacred spot, around which
+this legend clings. The name of the heroine is--Ada."
+
+Rojanow uttered the name softly, hesitatingly; but his eyes flamed up
+triumphantly, as he saw again the same slight quiver he had seen at his
+entrance. Slowly he approached a few steps, continuing: "I heard the
+name for the first time upon India's soil, and it had a sweet foreign
+sound for me, which I retained for my heroine, and now I learn here
+that the abbreviation of a German name is just like it."
+
+"Of the name Adelaide--yes. I was always called so at home; but it is
+nothing peculiar that the same sounds return in different languages."
+
+The words sounded repellent, but the young wife did not lift her eyes;
+she gazed fixedly upon the flower with which her fingers toyed.
+
+"Certainly not," assented Hartmut; "I only noticed it. It was no
+surprise, since all legends are repeated in all nations. They have a
+greater or less difference in appearance, but that which lives in
+them--the passion, the happiness and joy of the people--that is the
+same everywhere."
+
+Adelaide shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I cannot argue about that with a poet, but I do believe that our
+German legends possess other features than the Indian dreams of myths."
+
+"Perhaps so, but if you look deeper you will find these features
+familiar. This Arivana myth, at least, has similar lines. The hero, a
+young priest who has consecrated body and soul to his deity--the
+sacred, burning fire--is overwhelmed by earthly love, with all its
+fervor and passion, until his priestly vow perishes in its intensity."
+
+He stood quietly and respectfully before her, but his voice had a
+strangely suppressed sound, as if, hidden behind this narrative, there
+was another and secret meaning.
+
+Suddenly the Baroness raised her eyes and directed them fully and
+seriously upon the face of the speaker. "And--the end?"
+
+"The end is death, as in most mystic legends. The breaking of the vow
+is discovered, and the guilty ones are sacrificed to the offended
+deity; the priest dies in the flames with the woman he loves."
+
+A short pause followed. Adelaide arose with a rapid movement. She
+apparently wished to break off the conversation.
+
+"You are right; this legend has something familiar, if it were only the
+old doctrine of guilt and atonement."
+
+"Do you call that guilt, gracious lady?" Hartmut suddenly dropped the
+formal title. "Well, yes, by man it is called guilt, and they too
+punish it with death, without thinking that such punishment can be
+ecstasy. To perish in the flames after having tasted of the highest
+earthly happiness, and to embrace this happiness even in death--that is
+a glorious, divine death, worthy a long life of dull monotony. The
+eternal, undying right of love glows there like signs of flame in the
+sky, in spite of all laws of mankind. Do you not think such an end
+enviable?"
+
+A slight paleness covered the face of the Baroness, but her voice was
+firm as she answered:
+
+"No; enviable only is death for an exalted, holy duty--the sacrifice of
+a pure life. One can forgive sin, but one does not admire it."
+
+Hartmut bit his lips, and a threatening glance rested on the white
+figure which stood so solemn and unapproachable before him. Then he
+smiled.
+
+"A hard judgment, which strikes my work also, for I have put my whole
+power into the glorification of this love and death. If the world judge
+like you---- Ah, permit me, gracious lady."
+
+He quickly approached the divan where she had been sitting, where, with
+her fan, the japonica also had been left.
+
+"Thank you," said Adelaide, stretching out her hand; but he gave her
+only the fan.
+
+"Your pardon. While I was composing my Arivana on the veranda of a
+small house in India, this flower bloomed and glowed from its dark
+green foliage everywhere, and now it greets me here in the cold North.
+May I keep this flower?"
+
+Adelaide made a half reluctant gesture.
+
+"No, why should you?"
+
+"Why should I? For a remembrance of the severe opinion from the lips of
+a lady who bears the lovely name of my mystic heroine. You see,
+gracious lady, that the white japonica blooms here also, delicate,
+snowy flower; but unconsciously you broke the glowing red one, and
+poets are superstitious. Leave me the flower as a token that my work,
+in spite of all, may find favor in your eyes after you learn to know
+it. You have no idea how much it means to me."
+
+"Herr Rojanow--I----" She was about to utter a refusal, but he
+interrupted her, and continued in low, but passionate, tones:
+
+"What is a single flower to you, broken carelessly, and which you will
+allow to fade as carelessly? But to me leave me this token, gracious
+lady; I--I beg for it."
+
+He stood close beside her. The charm which he, as a boy, had
+unconsciously exerted when he made people "defenseless" with his
+coaxing, he, as a man, recognized as a power which never failed, and
+which he knew how to use. His voice bore again that soft, suppressed
+tone which charmed the ear like music; and his eyes--those dark,
+mysterious eyes--were fixed upon the girl before him with a half
+gloomy, half beseeching expression.
+
+The paleness of her face had deepened, but she did not answer.
+
+"I beg of you," he repeated, more lowly, more beseechingly, as he
+pressed the glowing flower to his lips; but the very gesture broke the
+spell. Adelaide suddenly drew herself up.
+
+"I must ask you, Herr Rojanow, to return the flower to me. I intended
+it for my husband."
+
+"Ah, so? I beg your pardon, Your Excellency."
+
+He handed her the flower with a deep bow, which she accepted with a
+barely noticeable inclination of the head. Then the heavy white train
+glided past him, and he was alone.
+
+In vain! Everything glided off this icy nature.
+
+Hartmut stamped his foot angrily. Only ten minutes ago he had passed
+such harsh judgment on all women, without an exception, to the Prince.
+Now he had sung again that charming tune which he had tried so often
+successfully, and had found one who resisted it. But the proud, spoiled
+man would not believe that he could lose the game which he had won so
+often, when just here he was so anxious to win it.
+
+And would it really remain only a game? He had not as yet accounted to
+himself for it, but he felt that the passion which drew him to the
+beautiful woman was mingled at times with hatred.
+
+They were conflicting emotions which had been deeply stirred when he
+walked by her side through the forest--half admiring, half repellent.
+But it was just that which made the chase so interesting to the
+practised huntsman.
+
+Love! The high, pure meaning of the word had remained foreign to the
+son of Zalika. When he learned to feel, he was living at his mother's
+side, she who had made such shameful play of her husband's love; and
+the women with whom she associated were no better. The later life which
+she led with her son, unsettled and adventurous, with no firm ground
+under their feet, had finally crushed out the last remnant of idealism
+in the young man. He learned to despise before he learned to love, and
+now he felt the merited humiliation given him to be an insult.
+
+"Struggle on," he muttered; "you battle against yourself. I have seen
+and felt it; and the one who does that, does not conquer in such a
+struggle."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+A slight noise at the entrance caused Hartmut to look up. It was the
+Ambassador who appeared on the threshold, casting a searching glance
+into the room. He came for his wife, whom he thought still there.
+
+He started at sight of Hartmut, and for a moment seemed undecided. Then
+he said, half audibly: "Herr Rojanow."
+
+"Your Excellency."
+
+"I should like to speak to you privately."
+
+"I am at your service."
+
+Wallmoden entered, but took up his position so as to keep the entrance
+in view. It was hardly necessary, for the doors of the dining room had
+just been thrown open, and the whole assembly floated there. The salon
+adjoining the tower room was already empty.
+
+"I am surprised to see you here," the Ambassador began in suppressed
+tones, but with the same insulting coldness which he had shown at the
+first meeting, and which brought the blood to the young man's brow. He
+drew himself up threateningly.
+
+"Why, Your Excellency?"
+
+"The question is superfluous. At any rate, I request you not to again
+force me into the position I was brought into a short while ago, when
+Prince Adelsberg introduced you to me."
+
+"The forced position was mine," returned Hartmut, just as sharply. "I
+will not assert that you consider me an intruder here, for you, best of
+all, know that I have a right to this intercourse."
+
+"_Hartmut von Falkenried_ would have had a right, of course; but that
+has changed."
+
+"Herr von Wallmoden!"
+
+"Not so loud, if you please," interrupted the Ambassador. "We might be
+overheard, and it would surely not be desirable to you that the name I
+just now uttered should be heard by outsiders."
+
+"It is true that at present I carry my mother's name, to which I surely
+have a right. If I laid aside the other, it happened out of
+consideration----"
+
+"For your father," finished Wallmoden, with heavy emphasis.
+
+Hartmut started. This was an allusion which he could not bear yet.
+
+"Yes," he replied, curtly. "I confess that it would be painful to me if
+I were forced to break this consideration."
+
+"And why? Your rôle here would be played out, anyway."
+
+Rojanow stepped close to the Ambassador with a passionate gesture.
+
+"You are the friend of my father, Herr von Wallmoden, and I have called
+you uncle in my boyhood; but you forget that I am no longer the boy
+whom you could lecture and master at that time. The grown man looks at
+it as an insult."
+
+"I intend neither to offend you nor to renew old connections, which
+neither of us consider as existing," said Wallmoden, coldly. "If I
+desired this conversation, it was to declare to you that it will not be
+possible to me, in my official position, to see you in intercourse with
+the Court, and be silent when it would be my duty to enlighten the
+Duke."
+
+"Enlighten the Duke! About what?"
+
+"About several things which are not known here and which have probably
+remained unknown to Prince Adelsberg. Please do not fly into a passion,
+Herr Rojanow. I would do this only in an extreme case, for I have to
+spare a friend. I know how a certain incident hurt him ten years ago,
+which is now forgotten and buried in our country, and, if all this
+should come up again and be brought into publicity, Colonel Falkenried
+would die of it."
+
+Hartmut blanched. The defiant reply did not cross his lips. "He would
+die of it." The awful word, the truth of which he felt only too well,
+forced aside for the moment even the insult of the remark.
+
+"I owe my father alone an account of that occasion," he replied in a
+painfully suppressed voice; "only him and nobody else."
+
+"He will hardly ask for it. His son is dead to him; but let that rest.
+I speak especially now of later years; of your stay at Rome and Paris,
+where you lived with your mother in lavish style, although the estates
+in Roumania had had to be sacrificed at a forced sale."
+
+"You seem to be all-knowing, Your Excellency!" hissed Rojanow in great
+anger. "We had no idea that we were under such conscientious
+surveillance. We lived upon the balance of our fortune which had been
+rescued from the wreck."
+
+"Nothing was rescued; the money was entirely lost--to the last penny."
+
+"That is not true," interrupted Hartmut, stormily.
+
+"It is true. Am I really better informed about it than you?" The voice
+of the Ambassador sounded cuttingly sharp. "It is possible that Frau
+Rojanow did not want her son informed of the source from which she
+derived her means, and left him in error about it intentionally. I know
+the circumstances. If they have remained unknown to you--so much the
+better for you."
+
+"Take care not to insult my mother," the young man burst forth; "or I
+shall forget that your hair is gray, and demand satisfaction."
+
+"For what? For a statement for which I can produce the proofs? Lay
+aside such foolishness, of which I shall take no notice. She was your
+mother, and is dead now; therefore we will go no deeper into this
+point. I should only like to put this question to you: Do you intend,
+even after this conversation, to remain here and appear in the circle
+into which Prince Adelsberg has introduced you?"
+
+Hartmut had turned deathly pale at the hint of the muddy origin of his
+mother's means, and the numb terror with which he looked at the speaker
+betrayed that he indeed knew nothing about it. But at this last
+question he regained his composure.
+
+His flashing eyes met those of his opponent, and a wild decision
+sounded in his voice as he replied: "Yes, Herr von Wallmoden, I
+remain."
+
+The Ambassador did not seem to have expected this defiance; he probably
+thought to have accomplished the matter more easily, but he retained
+his composure.
+
+"Really? Well, you are accustomed to playing a high hand, and you seem
+to wish here also--but hush! Some one is coming. Reconsider the matter,
+perhaps you will change your mind."
+
+He quickly entered the adjoining room, in which the Chief Forester now
+appeared.
+
+"Where have you hidden yourself, Herbert?" he asked, when he beheld the
+Ambassador. "I have looked everywhere for you."
+
+"I wished to find my wife."
+
+"She is already in the dining room, like everybody else, and where you
+are being missed. Come, it is high time that we get something to eat."
+
+Herr von Schonan took possession of his brother-in-law in his ever
+jovial manner and went off with him.
+
+Hartmut stood still in his place. He struggled for breath; the
+excitement threatened to choke him. Shame, hatred, anger, all floated
+wildly through his heart. That hint of Wallmoden's had hurt him
+terribly, although he but half understood it. It tore asunder the veil
+with which he had half unconsciously, half intentionally shrouded the
+truth. He had, indeed, believed that a remnant of their wealth, rescued
+from the wreck, had given him and his mother their income. But it was
+not the first time that he had shut his eyes to what he did not wish to
+see.
+
+He had enjoyed life in deep draughts without calling himself to account
+for it when the hand of his mother had so suddenly torn him from the
+enforced paternal education into unlimited freedom; when he exchanged
+the routine of the strictest duties for a life full of intoxicating
+enjoyments. He had then been too young to judge, and later on--it was
+then too late; habit and example had woven too unyielding a net around
+him. Now, for the first time, it was being shown him clearly and
+unmistakably what the life was that he had led so long--the life of an
+adventurer; and as an adventurer he had been pointed out the exit from
+society.
+
+But hotter than the shame of that burned the affront which had been
+given him, and hatred for the man who had forced this indisputable
+truth upon him. The unfortunate inheritance from his mother, the hot,
+wild blood which had once been fatal to the boy, welled up like a
+stream of fire, and every other thought went down in a sensation, wild
+and limitless, of thirst for revenge.
+
+His handsome features were distorted beyond recognition when he finally
+left the room, with tightly closed teeth. He knew and felt but one
+thing--that he must have revenge--revenge at any price!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+It was very late when the fête came to an end. After the withdrawal of
+the ducal couple, a general move for departure took place. Carriage
+after carriage rolled down the Schlossberg; the bright lights were
+extinguished, and Furstenstein began to shroud itself in darkness and
+silence.
+
+In the apartments devoted to the Ambassador and his wife, however, the
+lights still burned.
+
+Adelaide stood at the window in her rich robe of the fête and looked
+out into the night like one lost in thought, but it was with a
+peculiar, weary gesture that she leaned her head against the window
+panes.
+
+Wallmoden sat at the writing table, glancing through some letters and
+dispatches which had arrived in the last hour. They seemed to contain
+important news, for he did not lay them aside with other papers to
+receive attention to-morrow morning, but grasped a pen and hastily
+wrote a few lines, then arose and quickly approached his wife.
+
+"This comes unexpectedly," he said. "I shall have to go to Berlin."
+
+Adelaide turned in surprise. "So suddenly?"
+
+"Yes; I thought to accomplish this very serious affair by letter, but
+the Minister expressly desires a personal interview. Therefore I shall
+take leave of the Duke to-morrow morning for a period of about a week,
+and depart immediately."
+
+The young bride's features could not be distinguished in the
+semi-darkness, but her breast heaved with a deep sigh, which betrayed a
+perhaps unconscious relief.
+
+"At what hour do we leave?" she asked quickly; "I should like to notify
+my maid."
+
+"We? This is entirely a business trip, and, naturally, I go alone."
+
+"But I could accompany you."
+
+"What for? You understand that it means an absence of only a week or
+two."
+
+"No matter. I--I should like to see Berlin again."
+
+"What a whim!" said Wallmoden, shrugging his shoulders. "I shall be so
+occupied this time that I could not accompany you anywhere."
+
+The young wife had approached the table and now stood in the full light
+of the lamp. She was much paler than usual, and her voice had a
+suppressed sound as she returned: "Well, then, I shall go home. I
+should really not like to remain here alone at Furstenstein without
+you."
+
+"Alone?" The Ambassador looked at her in astonishment. "You will be
+with our relatives, whose guests we are. How long have you been so
+desirous of protection? It is a thing I have not observed in you so
+far. I do not understand you, Adelaide. What is this strange caprice of
+wishing to accompany me at all hazards?"
+
+"Accept it as a caprice, then, but let me go with you, Herbert; I beg
+of you."
+
+She laid her hand entreatingly upon his arm, and her eyes were directed
+with almost an expression of fear upon her husband's face, whose thin
+lips parted in a sarcastic smile. It was that superior smile, which
+could be so insulting at times.
+
+"Ah, so? Now I understand. That scene with the Princess has been
+disagreeable to you. You fear renewed annoyances, which will probably
+not fail to come. You must lose this sensitiveness, my child. On the
+contrary, you ought to be aware of the fact that this encounter alone
+puts you to the necessity of remaining here. Every word, every look is
+interpreted at Court, and a sudden departure on your part would give
+rise to all sorts of speculations. You have to hold your own now, if
+you do not wish to make your connections with the Court forever
+difficult."
+
+The young wife's hand slipped slowly from his arm, and her look sank to
+the floor at this cool rejoinder to her almost beseeching entreaty--the
+first she had uttered in her short marriage.
+
+"Hold my own," she repeated, in a low voice. "I do that, but I hoped
+you would remain at my side."
+
+"That is not possible just now, as you see; besides, you understand in
+a masterly manner how to defend yourself. You have shown that to me as
+well as to the whole Court to-day, but I am sure the hint I gave you
+will be considered, and that you will be more cautious with your
+answers in the future. At any rate, you will remain at Furstenstein
+until I return for you."
+
+Adelaide was silent. She saw that nothing was to be gained here.
+
+Wallmoden stepped back to the writing table and looked at the document
+just received; then he grasped the sheet on which he had written the
+answer and folded it.
+
+"One thing more, Adelaide," he said, carelessly; "the young Prince
+Adelsberg was constantly at your side to-night. He pays homage to you
+in rather a conspicuous manner."
+
+"Do you wish me to decline these attentions?" she asked, indifferently.
+
+"No; I only ask you to draw the necessary limit, so that no idle talk
+may ensue. I do not intend to cut short your social victories. We do
+not live in burgher circumstances, and it would be ridiculous in my
+position to play the jealous husband who views every attention paid his
+wife with suspicion. I leave this entirely to your own tact, in which I
+have unlimited confidence."
+
+All of this sounded so tranquil, so sensible, so boundlessly
+indifferent, Herr von Wallmoden might, indeed, be exonerated from any
+thought of jealousy. The openly offered admiration of the young,
+charming Prince caused him no anxiety; he quietly left his wife to her
+"tact."
+
+"I shall attend to this dispatch myself," he continued; "as we have a
+telegraph station in the castle since the Duke's arrival. You should
+ring for your mail, my child; you look somewhat fatigued and probably
+feel so. Good night."
+
+He left the room, but Adelaide did not follow the advice. She had drawn
+near the window again, and a half bitter, half pained expression
+trembled on her lips. She had never felt so painfully as at this moment
+that she was nothing more to her husband than a shining jewel which one
+exhibits, a wife whom one treats with perfect politeness and attention
+because she brought in her hand a princely fortune, and to whom a
+request could be denied with equal politeness; a request which might
+have been so easily granted.
+
+Night rested over the forest; the sky was cloudy and dark, with here
+and there a solitary star glimmering through the flying clouds. A pale
+face looked up to the gloomy sky; not with the cold, proud composure
+the world was accustomed to see, but with an expression of beseeching
+entreaty.
+
+The young wife pressed both hands to her bosom, as if the pain and
+unrest were there. She had wished to flee from the dark power
+whose approach she had felt, and which was drawing the circles nearer
+and closer around her. She had wished to flee to her husband's
+protection. In vain! He would go away and leave her alone, and another
+remained--another, who, with dark, glowing eyes and thrilling voice,
+wielded such a mysterious, irresistible power. "Ada," the name with its
+sweet, foreign sound, floated near her like a spirit's breath. It was
+her name which the legend of the Arivana bore!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+October had come, and autumn began to show its reign in a marked
+manner. The foliage of the trees bore gay tints; the country was
+wrapped, morning and night, in mist. The nights sometimes brought
+frost, while the days were unusually fine and sunny.
+
+With the exception of that large fête which had collected the whole
+community, and the hunts, which were naturally prominent at this time
+of the year, no particular festivities took place.
+
+The Duke, as well as his wife, loved to entertain small circles, and
+did not wish to disturb the quiet and freedom of their autumn visit
+with brilliant entertainments. On that account excursions were more
+often taken. The forest hills were being explored on horseback and in
+carriages, and the ducal table daily held a large number of guests.
+Adelaide von Wallmoden belonged to this small circle. The Duchess, who
+had learned in what manner her sister-in-law tried to make the position
+of the young Baroness more difficult, counterbalanced it with greater
+affability, drawing Adelaide into her presence at every opportunity;
+and the Duke, who wished to distinguish the Ambassador and his wife,
+was well satisfied with it.
+
+Wallmoden was still in Berlin. The two weeks he had appointed for his
+trip had passed away, and yet nothing was said of his return.
+
+One of the most frequent visitors at Furstenstein was Egon von
+Adelsberg, the pronounced favorite of his princely relatives; and his
+friend, Rojanow, was always honored with an invitation. The young
+Prince had prophesied correctly. Hartmut was like a shining meteor,
+whom all eyes followed with admiration, and of whom it was not expected
+that he should follow in the old beaten track of Court life.
+
+He had read his Arivana to them at the request of the Duchess, and with
+it had gained a perfect triumph. The Duke had immediately promised him
+a performance of the drama in the Court Theatre, and Princess Sophie
+turned her special favor upon the young poet.
+
+The surrounding Court circle, of course, followed the example of the
+princely people in this case only too gladly, for the charm he
+exercised was universal.
+
+The hunting carriage of Prince Adelsberg stood before the castle of
+Rodeck. It was still early, and the misty October morning seemed to
+promise a clear, beautiful day. Egon had just appeared upon the terrace
+in full hunting costume and was speaking with the castle steward, who
+followed him.
+
+"And so you wish to look at the hunt also?" he asked. "Of course, Peter
+Stadinger has to be wherever anything is to be seen. My valet has also
+asked leave of absence, and I believe the whole population of the Wald
+will turn out to-day to be at the hunting grounds."
+
+"Yes, Your Highness, such things are not often to be seen," said
+Stadinger. "The great Court and gala hunts have become rare in our
+Wald. Hunting goes on everywhere, but then the gentlemen are mostly by
+themselves, like here at Rodeck, and if the ladies are not there----"
+
+"Then it is unbearably tiresome," completed the Prince. "Quite my
+opinion; but you are otherwise prejudiced against womankind, and cry
+out if any one who has not reached a good old age comes within the
+borders of Rodeck. Have you changed your opinion in your old days?"
+
+"I meant the high princely ladies, Your Highness," declared the old
+servant, with particular emphasis.
+
+"The high princely ladies could only honor me with a visit upon the
+occasion of a drive. I cannot invite them, as I am a bachelor."
+
+"And why is Your Highness still a bachelor?" asked Stadinger in
+reproachful tones.
+
+"Man, I believe you also have matrimonial plans for me as well as the
+world has," laughed Egon. "Spare your pains; I shall not marry."
+
+"That is not right, Your Highness," persisted Stadinger, who gave his
+master his title at least once in every sentence because it was
+"respectable" so to do, while at the same time he took the liberty of
+lecturing him upon every occasion; "and it is also unchristianlike, for
+matrimony is a holy state, in which one feels well off. Your sainted
+father was married--and so was I."
+
+"Oh, of course, you too. You are even grandfather of a most charming
+granddaughter, whom you have most cruelly sent off. When does she come
+back, anyhow?"
+
+The steward thought best to lose the last question, but he remained
+obstinately at his subject.
+
+"Your Highness, the Duchess and the Princess Sophie are of the same
+opinion. Your Highness should consider the subject seriously."
+
+"Well, since you exhort so paternally, I will consider it. But,
+concerning the Princess Sophie, she intends to drive to Bucheneck,
+which is the meeting place of to-day's hunt; it may be possible she
+will notice you there and may speak to you."
+
+"Very probable, Your Highness," confirmed the old man, complacently.
+"Her Highness always honors me by speaking to me, because she knows me
+as the oldest servant of the ducal house."
+
+"Very well. If the Princess should ask casually after the snakes and
+animals which I have brought back from my travels, you say that they
+have already been sent to one of my other castles."
+
+"It is not necessary at all, Your Highness," Stadinger assured him,
+benevolently; "the most illustrious aunt already knows all about it."
+
+"Knows all about what? Have you told her anything?"
+
+"At your service. The day before yesterday, when I was at Furstenstein,
+Her Highness had just returned from a drive and graciously beckoned me
+to approach and asked me--Her Highness likes to do that----"
+
+"Yes, Heaven knows!" groaned the young Prince, who already scented
+mischief. "And what did you answer?"
+
+"'Your Highness may rest easy,' I said; 'we have only monkeys and
+parrots of the live animals in the castle. Serpents have never been
+there. A large sea serpent, though, was to have arrived, but he died on
+the voyage, and the elephants tore themselves lose at the embarking and
+ran back to the palm forests--at least, so His Highness says. To be
+sure, we have two tigers, but they are stuffed; and of the lions, there
+is only the skin, which lies in the armory. Therefore Your Highness may
+see that the beasts cannot break loose and do harm.'"
+
+"Oh, but you have fixed things now with your chattering!" cried Egon,
+exasperated. "And the Princess, what did she say?"
+
+"Her Highness only smiled and inquired what kind of female servants we
+had at Rodeck, and if the girls of this vicinity were among them; but I
+said then"--here Stadinger drew himself up consciously--"'The servants
+in service at the castle I have hired. They are all industrious and
+reliable; I have looked out for that. But His Highness runs when he
+puts eyes on them, and Herr Rojanow runs still more; and the gentlemen
+have never gone back into the kitchen since the first time they went
+there.' After that Her Highness was most gracious and condescended to
+praise me and dismissed me in the very highest satisfaction."
+
+"And I should like to run you to perdition in the very highest
+dissatisfaction," the Prince burst forth, wrathfully. "You unlucky old
+Waldgeist, what _have_ you been doing again?"
+
+The old man, who apparently thought that he had done his part extremely
+well, looked at his master in perplexity.
+
+"But I have only said the truth, Your Highness."
+
+"There are cases where one must not say the truth."
+
+"So? I did not know that till now."
+
+"Stadinger, you have quite an abominable way of answering. Have you
+told the Princess also that Lena has been in town for the past four
+weeks?"
+
+"At your service, Your Highness."
+
+"What is the matter with Stadinger again?" inquired Hartmut, who
+emerged from the castle, also dressed for the hunt, and who had heard
+the last of the conversation.
+
+"He has committed a first-class foolishness," grumbled Egon, but he was
+met with bad success by the "oldest servant of the ducal house," who
+drew himself up, deeply offended.
+
+"With your permission, Your Highness, I have not committed the
+foolishness."
+
+"Do you mean perhaps that I have done it?"
+
+Stadinger looked at his master keenly from the corner of his eye, after
+which he said deliberately: "That I do not know, Your Highness; but it
+may be so."
+
+"You are a churl!" cried the Prince, hotly.
+
+"Known for that through all the Wald, Your Highness."
+
+"Come, Hartmut; nothing can be done with the old, grumbling bear
+to-day," said Egon, half laughing, half vexed. "At first he gets me
+into scrapes, and then he lectures me on top of it. May graciousness
+help you, Stadinger, if you give any more such reports!"
+
+With which he entered the carriage with Rojanow. Stadinger remained
+standing in military position and saluted as was demanded by his idea
+of the respectful, for respect was the main thing, although he did not
+in the least think of giving in by so doing. His Highness, Prince Egon,
+had to do that; he could not come up with his Peter Stadinger.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+Egon was evidently of the same opinion as he narrated the proceeding to
+his friend, and concluded with comic despair: "Now you can imagine what
+a reception will be mine from the most illustrious aunt. She has
+guessed that I wished to keep her away from Rodeck. My morals are
+rescued in her eyes, but at the expense of my veracity. Hartmut, do me
+the favor of showering your sweetest affability upon my revered aunt.
+If necessary, compose a poem for her as a lightning rod; otherwise the
+flash of her most high anger will annihilate me."
+
+"Well, I should think you were weather-proof in this respect," quoth
+Hartmut. "You have had to have forgiveness for many similar escapades.
+The Duchess and the younger ladies will be at the chase on horseback,
+will they not?"
+
+"Yes, they could not see much from a carriage. Do you know that Frau
+von Wallmoden sits her horse perfectly. I met her the day before
+yesterday as she returned from a ride with her brother-in-law, the
+Chief Forester."
+
+"Ah, so? Well, one knows, then, where Prince Adelsberg will be to-day
+exclusively."
+
+Egon, who had been reclining comfortably, straightened himself and
+looked at his friend inquiringly.
+
+"Not so much sarcasm, if you please. Although you are not to be found
+so frequently in the presence of the afore-mentioned lady, and even
+pretend a certain coldness toward her, I know you too well not to see
+that we are only too much of the same opinion."
+
+"And if it were so, would you consider it a break in our friendship?"
+
+"Not in this case, where the object is unobtainable to both."
+
+"Unobtainable!" That unpleasant smile again passed over his lips.
+
+"Yes, Hartmut," said the Prince, seriously, "the beautiful, cold
+Aurora, as you have christened her, remains true to her nature. She
+stands far removed and unapproachable on the horizon, and the ice sea
+from which she rises is not to be penetrated. The lady has no heart;
+she is incapable of a passionate feeling, and this gives her this
+enviable security. Come, confess that here your power is wrecked. The
+icy breath has chilled you, and therefore you flee from it."
+
+Hartmut was silent. He thought of those moments in the tower room, when
+he asked for the brilliant flower. It had been refused him, but it had
+not been an icy breath which came from the Baroness when she had
+trembled under the gaze of the beseecher.
+
+He had since seen her almost daily, but had rarely approached her,
+although he knew that he held her under his spell now as before.
+
+"Nevertheless, I cannot get free from this foolish infatuation,"
+continued Egon, with a half dreamy expression. "It seems to me that
+life and warmth could grow up in that nature, and change the snow
+region into a blooming world. If Adelaide von Wallmoden were still
+free, I believe I should make the attempt."
+
+Rojanow, who had been gazing into the misty forest, lost in thought,
+turned quickly and sharply:
+
+"What attempt? Does that perhaps mean that you would offer her your
+hand?"
+
+"You seem really horror-stricken at the idea." The Prince laughed
+aloud. "I meant that, indeed. I have no prejudice against the
+manufacturing world, like my most gracious aunt, whom such a
+possibility would indeed throw into convulsions. Strange to say, you
+seem to think so, too. Well, both of you may rest easy. His Excellency,
+the husband, has seized the prize; but he truly does not make a life of
+roses for her with his tiresome diplomatic face. Ah! but the man has
+had enviable good luck."
+
+"Call no man happy before his death," muttered Hartmut under his
+breath.
+
+"A very wise remark, and one not quite new to me. But you sometimes
+have something in your eyes which frightens me. Do not be offended,
+Hartmut; but you look like a demon at this moment."
+
+Rojanow made no answer.
+
+The road now left the forest, and yonder Furstenstein rose into view,
+where the ducal colors floated in the morning breeze. Half an hour
+later the carriage rolled into the castle court, where an animated
+scene reigned.
+
+The entire force of servants was at hand; saddle horses and carriages
+were ready, and the greater number of invited guests had already
+arrived.
+
+The start took place at the appointed hour, and the bright light of the
+sun, breaking through the mist, shone resplendent on the imposing
+cavalcade as it moved down the Schlossberg.
+
+The Duke and Duchess led the party; then followed the numerous suite
+and the whole assembly of guests, and the grooms in full livery who
+were permitted to go.
+
+Out through the sunny autumn morning into the forests and heights of
+the hunting preserves, where it soon became lively. Firing resounded on
+all sides; the flying game broke through the thickets or sped across
+the openings, now alone and now in droves, only to be reached finally
+by a ball; and the usually quiet forest gave back the echo of the
+chase.
+
+The Chief Forester had ordered out the entire forester staff of the
+Wald, and had made all arrangements so excellently that it brought him
+great honor to lead the chase, which was not marred by any accident.
+
+Toward noon a rendezvous was held at Bucheneck, a small ducal forest
+lodge situated in the midst of the Wald, and which could afford shelter
+in case of unfavorable weather. This was not necessary to-day, for the
+weather had turned out to be fine, only a little too warm for an
+October day. The sun burned so hotly as to render it unpleasant at
+luncheon, which was partaken of out of doors; but otherwise all passed
+off happily and unceremoniously, and a gay scene developed upon the
+large green meadow, at the border of which Bucheneck was situated.
+
+The entire hunting cortege was assembled here. The Duke, who had been
+especially fortunate in the chase to-day, was in the very best of
+spirits. The Duchess chatted with animation to her surrounding ladies,
+and the Chief Forester beamed with pleasure, for the Duke had expressed
+his satisfaction in the most flattering manner.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden, who was near the Duchess, was the subject of
+general admiration to-day. She was, without doubt, the most beautiful
+of all the assembled ladies, nearly all of whom needed rich dressing
+and candle-light to bring out their beauty. Here, in the bright, midday
+sun, in plain, dark riding habits, which permitted no colors or jewels,
+many an otherwise admired appearance faded. The young Baroness alone
+remained victorious in this simplicity. Her tall, slender figure looked
+as if formed for her habit, while the transparent clearness and
+freshness of her skin, and the shining blondness of her hair were even
+more to be admired in daylight than at the night fête. Besides, she had
+really proved herself an able horsewoman, who sat in the saddle with as
+much ease as security; in short, the "beautiful Aurora," as Frau von
+Wallmoden was now called in the court circle since Prince Adelsberg had
+given her that name, was admired on all sides, and received the more
+attention as it was known that she was to disappear for several weeks.
+
+The Ambassador had notified his wife yesterday that his diplomatic work
+was now finished, but that he would utilize his presence in North
+Germany in looking after the Stahlberg works.
+
+Important changes had been planned there, and new improvements spoken
+of, for which a final decision had to be made, and Wallmoden, as
+executor and guardian of the heir, had the deciding voice in it. His
+presence at the conference was indispensable; he had asked leave of
+absence from his office, and had notified the Duke of a return later.
+
+At the same time he left it to his wife to decide whether she would
+remain at Furstenstein or take the trip to her old home with him, if
+she wished to see her brother. Now, after fully two weeks, no one could
+misconstrue her departure. The young wife had immediately chosen to go
+with her husband, and had notified the Duchess that she should leave on
+the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Princess Sophie had arrived at Bucheneck with her lady of honor and the
+elder ladies in carriages, and now attempted, above everything, to lay
+hands on her illustrious nephew; but he developed an incredible aptness
+at keeping out of her reach. He was everywhere except in the near
+presence of his most gracious aunt, until finally she lost patience and
+ordered a gentleman to call Prince Adelsberg into her presence.
+
+Egon had to obey this command, but he used the precaution of taking the
+"lightning rod" with him. Rojanow was at his side when he stood before
+the Princess.
+
+"Well, Egon, do I really get a glimpse of you?" was the not very
+gracious reception. "You seem to have been taken possession of on all
+sides to-day."
+
+"I am always ready for the service of my most gracious aunt," declared
+Egon in honeyed accents; but the sweetness did him no good. The
+Princess measured him with an annihilating glance.
+
+"As far as your knightly service to Frau von Wallmoden leaves you time.
+She will give this chivalry a glowing mention to her husband. You may
+know him, perhaps?"
+
+"Certainly. I revere him highly as a man, as a diplomat and as His
+Excellency. Your Highness may believe that."
+
+"I believe you unconditionally, Egon. Your love for veracity is far
+above any doubts with me," said the lady, with stinging sarcasm. "I
+just happen to remember speaking the day before yesterday with the
+steward of Rodeck--the old Stadinger--who is still very active for his
+years."
+
+"But he suffers seriously from failing memory," the Prince hastened to
+assure her. "I am sorry to say that Stadinger forgets everything. Is it
+not so, Hartmut? He positively does not know to-day what he saw
+yesterday."
+
+"On the contrary, I found that his memory was exceptionally fresh.
+Besides, he is the oldest and truest servant of your house,
+reliable--careful----"
+
+"And a churl," interrupted Egon, sighing. "Your Highness, you have no
+idea of the unlimited gruffness which dwells in this Peter Stadinger.
+He tyrannizes over Herr Rojanow and me shamefully. I have actually
+thought of retiring him."
+
+Of course, he did not dream of that. His Highness knew better than to
+make Peter Stadinger such a proposition, and would have fared badly if
+he had. But Princess Sophie, who had the reputation of being very
+haughty and relentless toward her servants, now favored a very mild
+course.
+
+"You should not do that," she remonstrated. "A man who is now serving
+the third generation of the ducal family may be pardoned such a thing,
+particularly considering the somewhat loose housekeeping which the
+young gentlemen lead at Rodeck. It seems that they do not like to see
+visitors there, preferring the solitude."
+
+"Ah, yes, the solitude!" sighed Egon, sentimentally. "It does one so
+much good after the stormy life of travel, and we enjoy it in full
+draughts. I occupy myself mostly----"
+
+"With the taming of your wild animals," finished the Princess
+maliciously.
+
+"No, with--with my travelling memoirs, which I intend to publish; and
+Hartmut composes melancholy songs. He has just now the material for a
+ballad under his pen, to which Your Highness drew his attention."
+
+"Why, Herr Rojanow, have you really utilized the theme?" asked the
+lady, whose face now suddenly beamed with sunshine, as she turned to
+the young poet.
+
+"Certainly, Your Highness. I am very grateful to you for the
+suggestion," said Hartmut, who had not the slightest idea what the
+subject was, but felt that he had to go into action now.
+
+"I am glad of that. I love poetry and seek it at every opportunity."
+
+"And with what understanding and appreciation!" cried Egon,
+enthusiastically. But he quickly embraced the opportunity of slipping
+away, leaving his friend behind as the victim. He hastened to the
+presence of the Duchess, which meant the presence of Frau von
+Wallmoden, where he seemed to feel decidedly better than with his most
+gracious aunt.
+
+The chase was resumed after luncheon was over. It was now a hunt for
+large game, which was commenced with renewed zeal.
+
+But the hitherto sunny weather changed in the afternoon. The sky grew
+cloudy and dark, but it remained warm, almost stifling, and a heavy
+bank of cloud arose in the west. It looked as if one of those late
+thunderstorms was preparing, which passed at times over the Wald at
+this season.
+
+The Duchess, with a portion of her attendants, had taken her stand upon
+a hill which seemed to afford the best view, but soon the chase took
+another quite unexpected direction, and the onlookers made ready to
+follow.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden met here with a slight accident. The girth of her
+saddle suddenly broke and she sprang lightly from the stirrup, thus
+saving herself from a fall. It was not possible to continue her ride,
+for although the accompanying groom could have given her a horse, there
+was no lady's saddle at hand; consequently she had to give up further
+participation, and decided to walk back to Bucheneck, to where one of
+the grooms would lead her horse.
+
+Adelaide had requested the servant to precede her, and she lingered on
+the hill which had become quiet and lonely. It almost seemed that the
+accident had been welcome to her, since it relieved her from attending
+the chase to the end.
+
+It is always a relief when one can drop a mask which has deceived the
+world and can breathe in solitude, if it only brings conviction of the
+heavy load one had to bear under that mask.
+
+Where had the cold, proud calm vanished with which the young wife had
+entered her new home upon the arm of her husband? Now, when she knew
+herself alone and unobserved, it could be plainly seen that she had
+changed much.
+
+That strong will-line which had made her resemble her father so much
+had become more pronounced, but besides that there was another line--a
+painful one--as of a person who has to struggle with secret torture and
+anxiety. The blue eyes had lost the cold, dispassionate expression. A
+deep shadow rested within them which also told of struggle and pain,
+and the blonde head drooped as if under an invisible but heavy load.
+
+And yet Adelaide drew a breath of relief at the thought that this would
+be the last day she should spend at Furstenstein. By to-morrow she
+would be far from here. Perhaps there would be rest in the far removal
+of the dark power against which she had struggled now for weeks so
+painfully, and yet so vainly.
+
+Perhaps she would get better if she did not see those eyes day after
+day, nor hear that voice.
+
+When she should have fled from the enchanted circle the charm would
+have to break, and now at last she could flee--oh, the happiness of it!
+
+The noise of the chase sounded in ever-increasing distance, and was
+finally lost, but steps now sounded in the forest which encircled the
+hill closely, and warned the young Baroness that she was no longer
+alone. She started to leave, but at the moment she turned the one
+approaching emerged from under the trees.
+
+Hartmut Rojanow stood before her.
+
+The meeting was so sudden and unexpected that Adelaide's composure was
+not proof against it. She retreated to the trunk of the tree, under the
+boughs of which she had been standing, as if seeking there a protection
+from this man, upon whom she gazed with fixed, fearful eyes--with the
+gaze of a wounded animal which sees the huntsman approach.
+
+Rojanow did not seem to notice it. He saluted her and asked hastily:
+"You are alone, Your Excellency? The accident did not have any serious
+consequences?"
+
+"What accident?"
+
+"It was said you had a fall from your horse."
+
+"What exaggeration! The girth broke, but I knew it in time to spring
+from the stirrup, while the horse stood perfectly still--that was the
+accident."
+
+"God be praised! I heard something of a fall--an injury--and as you did
+not reappear at the chase I feared----"
+
+He paused, for Adelaide's glance showed him plainly that she did not
+believe this pretense; probably he knew the whole occurrence and had
+learned why and where Frau von Wallmoden had been left behind. She now
+regained her composure.
+
+"I thank you, Herr Rojanow, but your being at all concerned was not
+necessary," she said coldly. "You could have told yourself that had
+there been a real accident the Duchess and the other ladies would not
+have left me helpless in the forest. I am on my way to Bucheneck."
+
+She attempted to pass him. He bowed and stepped aside as if to let her
+pass, but said in a low voice:
+
+"Gracious lady, I have yet to ask your pardon."
+
+"My pardon! For what?"
+
+"For a request which I uttered thoughtlessly and for which I have had
+to suffer seriously. I only asked for a flower. Is that, then, so
+severe a transgression that one should be angry over it for weeks?"
+
+Adelaide had paused almost without knowing it.
+
+Again she was under the charm of these eyes--this voice, which held her
+fast as with magnetism.
+
+"You are mistaken, Herr Rojanow. I am not angry with you."
+
+"Not? And yet it is this icy tone I have always to hear since I dared
+approach you in that hour. You have learned, too, to know my work, for
+which I begged a recognition. You were present when I read it at
+Furstenstein. My Arivana was praised overwhelmingly on all sides, but
+from your mouth alone I heard no word--not one. Will you refuse it even
+now?"
+
+"I thought we were hunting to-day," said Adelaide with an attempt to
+pass the subject by, "where it is surely not admissible to speak of
+poetical works."
+
+"We have both left the chase; it is running now toward the Rodeck
+forest. There is only forest solitude here. Look at this autumn-tinted
+foliage which warns so mournfully of fleeting existence--the silent
+water down there, those thunder clouds in the distance. I believe there
+is a more endless amount of poetry in all this than in the halls of
+Furstenstein."
+
+He pointed to the landscape which spread out before them, but no longer
+in the bright sunlight that had favored the chase at the beginning. Now
+it lay in the dim light of an overcast sky, which made even the gay
+foliage appear withered and dull.
+
+They could see far out into the mountains, which, retreating on both
+sides, left the distance free. The endless ocean of forest crowns which
+only a few weeks ago waved green and airily in the breeze, now bore the
+color of the fall. They shone from the darkest brown to brilliant
+golden yellow in every shade all around, and shining red gleamed from
+the bushes and shrubs.
+
+The dying forest adorned itself once more with deceptive splendor, but
+it was only the coloring of the passing away and dying. All life and
+bloom were at an end.
+
+Deep in the ravine lay a little forest lake, which, dark and
+motionless, seemed to dream in the wreath of reeds and rushes which
+surrounded it. It resembled strangely another pond that, far away
+in North Germany, lay in the midst of a pine forest--the Burgsdorf
+pond--which, like this one, ended in a meadow where rich green
+beckoned, nourished by the swamp and bog, hiding itself deceitfully
+beneath it, and drawing the ignorant one into its depth without hope of
+rescue.
+
+Even now in daylight it seemed to breathe fog and twilight, and when
+night should descend the will-o'-the-wisp probably commenced here also
+its ghostly play.
+
+At the horizon, where in clear weather the summits of the mountains
+were visible, towered now a dark bank of clouds. As yet in the
+distance, its stifling breath rested already over the Wald, and at
+times a dull light flashed from it.
+
+Adelaide had not answered Hartmut's question. She gazed out over the
+country to avoid looking into the face of the man who stood before her,
+but she felt the dark, passionate look which rested upon her face, as
+she had always felt it in the last weeks, as soon as Rojanow was in her
+presence.
+
+"You are going away to-morrow, gracious lady," he commenced again. "Who
+knows when you will return and when I shall see you again? May not I
+beg for your opinion? May I not ask if my work has found grace in the
+eyes of--Ada?"
+
+Her name again upon his lips; again that soft, veiled, yet passionate,
+tone which she feared, and yet to which she listened as to enchanting
+music!
+
+Adelaide felt that here she was a prisoner; there was no chance for
+flight. She had to look the danger full in the face.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden turned slowly toward her questioner, and her
+features betrayed that she was determined to end the hard struggle the
+struggle with her own self.
+
+"You play strangely with this name, Herr Rojanow," she said
+emphatically and proudly. "It stood over the poem which was put into my
+possession in a mysterious manner last week, written in a strange hand,
+without signature----"
+
+"And which you read, nevertheless," he interrupted triumphantly.
+
+"Yes, and burned."
+
+"Burned!"
+
+From Hartmut's eyes flashed again the uncanny look which had startled
+even Egon and made him exclaim, "You look like a demon!"
+
+The demon of hate and revenge had risen wildly against the man who had
+insulted him unto death and whom he therefore wished to hurt unto
+death, and yet he loved that man's wife as the son of Zalika alone
+could love--with wild, consuming passion; but that which he felt at
+this moment resembled hatred more than love.
+
+"The poor leaf," he said with ill-concealed bitterness. "And so it had
+to suffer death in the flames--perhaps it deserved a better fate."
+
+"You ought not to have sent it to me, then. I dare not and will not
+accept such poetry."
+
+"You dare not, gracious lady? It is the homage of a poet which he
+lays at the feet of the woman who has been his from the beginning of
+time--and you will concede that to him also."
+
+The words came but half-aloud from his lips, but so hot and passionate
+that Adelaide shuddered.
+
+"You may pay homage like that to the women of your country, and in such
+words," she said. "A German woman does not understand it."
+
+"But you have understood it, nevertheless," Hartmut burst forth, "and
+you also understood the doctrine of the intense ardor of my Arivana,
+which bears off the victory over all human laws. I saw it that evening
+when you turned your back apparently so coldly upon me, while all the
+others overwhelmed me with admiration. Do not deceive yourself, Ada.
+When the divine spark falls into two souls it flames up, in the cold
+north as well as the fervent south, and it already burns within us. In
+this breath of fire, will and will-power die the death; it smothers
+everything that has existed, and nothing remains but the holy, blazing
+flame which shines and makes happy, even if it destroys. You love me,
+Ada--I know it--do not attempt to deny it, and I--I love you
+boundlessly."
+
+He stood before her in the stormy triumph of the victor, and his dark,
+demoniacal beauty had, perhaps, never been as captivating as at this
+moment, when the fire which breathed in his words burst also from his
+eyes--his whole being.
+
+And he did speak the truth!
+
+The woman who leaned there against the trunk of the tree so deathly
+white, loved him as only a pure, proud nature can love; that nature
+which so far had lived in the delusion that her emotions would forever
+lie in slumber, called by the world coldness of heart.
+
+Now she saw herself awaking before a passion which found a
+thousand-fold echo in her own breast; now that breath of flame floated
+around her also with its scorching glow; now came the test!
+
+"Leave me, Herr Rojanow, instantly!" cried Adelaide.
+
+Her voice sounded half smothered, almost inaudible, and she addressed a
+man who was not wont to yield when he felt himself victorious.
+
+He started to approach her hastily--he suddenly stood still. There was
+something in the eyes--in the bearing of the young Baroness which kept
+him within bounds, but again he breathed her name in that tone, the
+power of which perhaps he knew best--"Ada."
+
+She shuddered and made a repellent gesture.
+
+"Not that name. For you I am Adelaide von Wallmoden. I am married--you
+know that."
+
+"Married to a man who stands on the border of old age, whom you do not
+love, and who could not give you any love if he were young. That cold,
+calculating nature knows no emotion of passion. The Court, his
+position, his promotion, are everything to him--his wife, nothing. He
+perhaps boasts of the possession of a jewel which he does not know how
+to value, and for which another would give his soul's eternal bliss."
+
+Adelaide's lips quivered. She knew only too well that he was right, but
+she did not answer.
+
+"And what binds you to this man?" continued Rojanow, still more
+impressively. "A word--a single 'Yes' uttered by you without knowing
+its full meaning--without knowing yourself. Shall it bind you for your
+life? Shall it make us both miserable? No, Ada, love the eternal,
+undying right of the human heart does not bow before that. People may
+call it guilt, they may call it doom. We stand now under this doom, and
+must follow it; a single word shall not part us."
+
+Far off at the horizon the flame burst up with such glaring light that
+it shone also over the opening on the hill.
+
+Hartmut stood for a moment in this light. He was now so fully the son
+of his mother; resembling so closely her beautiful but pernicious
+features; but it was that flash of lightning that brought Adelaide back
+to consciousness; or had it shown her the unholy fire which burned in
+his eyes? She retreated with an expression of unveiled horror.
+
+"A solemnly given and accepted word is a vow," she said slowly, "and he
+who breaks it breaks his honor."
+
+Hartmut started. Sudden and glaring like that flash of lightning flamed
+up a remembrance in his mind--the resemblance of that hour when he had
+given a solemn word--a word of honor, and--had broken it!
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden straightened her slender figure; her features
+still showed the deathly pallor as she continued in a low but steady
+tone to Rojanow:
+
+"Abandon this persecution which I have felt for weeks. I shudder before
+you--at your eyes, your words. I feel that it is destruction that goes
+out from you, and one does not love that."
+
+"Ada!"
+
+Passionate entreaty sounded in the word, but the low voice of Adelaide
+gained firmness quickly as she continued:
+
+"And you do not love me. It has often seemed to me as if it were your
+hatred that pursued me. You and your kind cannot love."
+
+Rojanow kept silence in bewilderment. Who taught this young woman,
+still so inexperienced in life, to look so deeply into his inmost
+heart? He had not made clear to himself yet how inseparably hate and
+love were combined in his passion.
+
+"And you tell this to the writer of Arivana!" he burst out in
+bitterness. "They have called my work the high song of love----"
+
+"Then they have let themselves be deceived by the veil of the Oriental
+legend in which you shrouded your characters. They saw then only the
+East Indian priest sink with his beloved one under an iron, inhuman
+law. You are perhaps a great poet, and perhaps the world overwhelms you
+with praise, but it tells me something different--this fervent, ardent
+doctrine of your Arivana. It has taught me to know its creator--a man
+who does not believe in anything, and to whom nothing in the world is
+sacred; no duty and no vow; no man's honor and no woman's virtue--who
+would not hesitate to drag the highest into the dust as play for his
+passion. I still believe in duty and honor; I still believe in myself,
+and with this faith I offer defiance to the doom you hold so
+triumphantly before me. I could force myself to death, but never to
+your arms!"
+
+She stood before him, not as just now in trembling fear--in the
+tortured wrestling with a secret struggle, It seemed as if, with each
+of the annihilating words, one ring of the chain which held possession
+of her so mysteriously was broken. Her eyes met fully and freely the
+dark look which had kept her a prisoner so long; the charm was broken
+now and she felt it, and breathed like one rescued.
+
+Again that flash in the distance--noiseless, without the rumbling of
+thunder--but it was as if heaven had opened in all its vastness.
+Fantastic formation of clouds was in this flaring light--forms which
+seemed to wrestle and struggle with each other, born of the storm, and
+yet that bank of cloud stood motionless at the horizon--and just as
+motionless stood the man, whose dark features showed now an ashy
+paleness in the glare of the lightning.
+
+His eyes were fixed upon the young woman, but the wild fire in
+them had died out, and his voice had a strange sound as he said: "And
+this is the opinion I asked for? I am nothing more in your eyes than
+an--outcast?"
+
+"A lost man, perhaps. You have forced me to this confession."
+
+Hartmut slowly retreated a few steps.
+
+"Lost!" he repeated hoarsely. "In your meaning, perhaps, yes. You may
+rest assured, gracious lady, I shall not approach you any more. One
+does not desire to hear such words a second time--you stand so high and
+proud upon your virtue and, judge so severely. Of course you have no
+idea what a hot, wild life can make of a person who wanders restlessly,
+without home and family, through the world. You are right--I have not
+believed in anything, either upon high or here upon the earth--until
+this hour."
+
+There was something in his tone, in his whole bearing, that disarmed
+Adelaide. She felt that she would not have to fear another burst of his
+passion, and her voice softened involuntarily at her answer.
+
+"I do not judge anybody; but with my whole mind and being I belong to
+another world, with other laws than yours. I am the daughter of an
+idolized father, who, all of his life, knew but one road that of
+earnest, severe duty. On that he worked himself up from poverty and
+want to wealth and honor. He led his children along this road, and his
+memory is the shield which covers me in every hard hour. I could not
+bear it if I had to cast down my eyes before the picture of my memory.
+You probably have no father?"----
+
+A long, heavy pause ensued. Hartmut did not answer, but his head sank
+under those words, the crushing weight of which the Baroness had no
+idea, and his eyes were upon the ground.
+
+"No," he at last replied, hoarsely.
+
+"But you have the memory of him and your mother."
+
+"My mother!" Rojanow started up suddenly and violently. "Do not speak
+of her in this hour--do not speak to me of my mother."
+
+It was an outburst of mingled bitterness, of accusation and despair.
+The mother was being judged by her son in this exclamation. He rejected
+her memory as a desecration of this hour.
+
+Adelaide did not understand him; she saw only that she had touched a
+topic which did not admit of explanation, and she also saw that the
+man who stood before her now with this dark look--with this tone of
+despair--was a different being from that one who had approached her a
+quarter of an hour ago. It was a dark, mysterious depth into which she
+gazed, but it no longer caused her fear.
+
+"Let us end this conversation," she said earnestly. "You will not seek
+a second one--I trust you. But one more word before we part. You are a
+poet. I felt it in spite of all when I heard your work, and poets are
+teachers of mankind. They can lead to happiness or destruction. The
+wild flames of your Arivana seem to burst forth from the depths of a
+life which you yourself seem to hate. Look there!" She pointed into the
+distance, which was now lighted up again in a flaming glow. "Those are
+also signs of flame, but they come from on high, and they point to
+another road---- Farewell!"
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+She had disappeared long ago, but Hartmut still stood as if rooted to
+the ground. He had not replied with one word--had made no motion; he
+only looked with hot, fixed eyes to where now one flash of lightning
+after another tore the clouds asunder, shrouding the whole country with
+a fiery cloak, and then he looked at the little forest lake which
+resembled so closely that one at Burgsdorf, with its waving reed and
+the deceiving, foggy meadow, which here also pressed so close to the
+water.
+
+The boy had once dreamed among such whispering rushes of soaring
+up like the falcon of which his race bore the name, in boundless
+freedom--ever higher toward the sun--and at the same place the decision
+over his fate had been made on that dark autumn night, when the
+will-o'-the-wisp led its ghostly dance.
+
+But the deserter had not risen to the sun--the earth had held him fast;
+the rich, green meadow had drawn him down deeper and deeper. He had
+felt at times that the intoxicating cup of freedom and life which the
+hand of his mother gave him was poisoned, but no precious memory
+shielded him; he did not dare to think of his father.
+
+Over there in the distance the forms of cloud struggled and wrestled
+wilder and wilder; closer and closer together they drew, and in the
+midst of this struggle and this darkness the flames again burst
+victoriously--the powerful flames from on high.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+The winter social life had commenced at the Residenz, where the
+professional element played a conspicuous rôle. The Duke, who loved and
+encouraged art, took great pride in gathering renowned members of it
+into his presence, seeking to retain them in his capitol, and, of
+course, society followed largely in the same direction.
+
+The young poet who was being so highly favored by the Court, and whose
+first large work was to appear on the court stage, was from the first
+an interesting person to everybody, and the tales which were told about
+him served to increase this interest.
+
+It was very unusual for a Roumanian to compose his work in the German
+language, even when it was whispered that he had received his education
+in Germany. Besides that, he was the bosom friend, and the guest here
+in town also, of Prince Adelsberg, and all sorts of touching and
+wonderful stories were narrated about this friendship.
+
+Above all, Hartmut's personality gave him a favored position wherever
+he went. The young, handsome, highly-gifted stranger, whom a
+half-romantic, half-mysterious air surrounded, had only to make his
+appearance even here to draw all eyes upon him.
+
+The rehearsal of Arivana had commenced immediately after the return of
+the ducal party to the Residenz, under the personal supervision of the
+poet; while Prince Adelsberg, who in his enthusiasm for the work of his
+friend, had changed into a kind of manager, made life hard to the
+performers by all sorts of requests in regard to the filling of
+characters and the setting of the play.
+
+He knew how to get his way, and the scenery and setting were brilliant;
+the rôles were all filled by the first talent of the Court Theatre, and
+even the opera singers were called into service, since one of the rôles
+required a rather extensive part of song. One could not expect this
+from an actress, therefore a young singer--Marietta Volkmar--was
+entrusted with it.
+
+The performance of the play, which was to have taken place at a later
+date, was being hastened as much as possible, as guests were expected
+at Court, and the new drama, which toyed so poetically and airily with
+the Indian legend as a background, was to be performed before the
+illustrious guests. An unusual success was anticipated.
+
+This was the state of affairs at the return of Herbert von Wallmoden,
+who was naturally painfully surprised. Although he had learned from a
+casual question to his wife that Rojanow still kept up his intercourse
+at Furstenstein, and although he had not counted upon a sudden
+disappearance on Rojanow's part which would necessarily have caused
+comment, still he had been of the firm opinion that in spite of his
+haughty decision to remain, Hartmut would consider it again and make
+his retreat as soon as Prince Adelsberg left Rodeck. Surely he would
+not dare to appear at the Prince's side at the Residenz, where his stay
+might be made impossible through those threatened "explanations."
+
+But the Ambassador had not counted upon the unyielding defiance of the
+man who ventured and dared a high game here. Now, after a few weeks, he
+found him in a favored position in every respect and in closest
+intercourse with the court society.
+
+If now, just before the performance of the drama which the Duke favored
+so decidedly, and of which the whole town was already talking, one
+should publish the disclosures of the former life of the poet, it would
+touch all circles unpleasantly and appear malicious.
+
+The experienced diplomat did not deceive himself about the fact that
+the deep displeasure which would doubtless take possession of the Duke
+would then fall back upon himself, because he had not spoken before at
+the first appearance of Rojanow. Nothing was left for him to do but to
+keep silence and await developments.
+
+Wallmoden was far from having an idea that a heavy danger had
+threatened himself from that quarter. He supposed that his wife knew
+Hartmut only as a companion of Prince Adelsberg. She had never
+mentioned the name since, after her arrival in Berlin, she answered a
+seemingly careless question just as carelessly, and he had also kept
+silence. She must not and should not learn anything of those old
+connections which he had kept from her from the beginning.
+
+But he dared not be silent toward his nephew, Willibald, if he did not
+wish to live to see another scene of recognition like that upon the
+Hochberg.
+
+The young lord had accompanied his relatives to South Germany; was to
+remain but a few days at the Residenz, and go from there to
+Furstenstein to his betrothed, for the Chief Forester had specially
+requested that the visit, which was so suddenly broken off in
+September, should be finished now.
+
+"You were here barely a week," he wrote to his sister-in-law, "and now
+I beg for my son-in-law a little longer. Everything has been put in
+order now at your much-loved Burgsdorf, and there is not much to do in
+November. Therefore at least send us Willy if you cannot get off. A
+refusal will not be accepted. Toni expects her betrothed."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen saw that he was right and was willing to send
+Willy--for she, of course, decided the matter. He had made no new
+attempt to rebel against the maternal ruling, and seemed, anyway, to
+have come to his senses completely again. He was, perhaps, more quiet
+than before, and threw himself with quite unusual zeal into his
+agricultural work after his return, but otherwise bore himself
+especially well.
+
+He remained obstinate only upon one point: he would not speak with his
+mother about that "silliness" which had caused the sudden departure,
+and avoided every explanation concerning it. Apparently he was ashamed
+of that quickly-flaming affection, which probably had never been
+serious, and did not wish to be reminded of it.
+
+He wrote frequently to his fiancée, and received just as punctual
+replies. The correspondence, however, was more of a practical than a
+tender nature, and mostly concerned plans for their future lives and
+farm arrangements; but one saw from this that the young lord considered
+his marriage, for which the day had been set, as quite decided, and
+Frau Regine, who deemed it her indisputable right to read all of the
+letters of the engaged couple, declared herself satisfied with them.
+
+So Willibald received a gracious permission to visit his betrothed,
+which was now so much less hazardous since the dangerous little
+person--Marietta Volkmar--was at present at the Residenz, where her
+position kept her. But to be quite sure, Frau von Eschenhagen put her
+son under the protection of her brother, who, with his wife, had paid a
+brief visit to Burgsdorf upon his return from the Stahlberg works.
+
+If Willibald, during the two or three days of his visit at the
+Residenz, remained at Wallmoden's house and went with them exclusively,
+no danger was to be feared.
+
+The Ambassador saw soon after his arrival that he would be forced to
+enlighten his nephew regarding Hartmut Rojanow, for the name was
+mentioned on all sides already the first day. Willy, who at that former
+time had been the confidant of the secret rendezvous of Hartmut and his
+mother, and knew her name, started upon hearing it, coupled with a
+remark that a young Roumanian was the gifted poet, which made him still
+more suspicious.
+
+He glanced in perplexity at his uncle, who managed to signal to him
+just in time not to question any further, and who then embraced the
+first opportunity to tell him the truth.
+
+He did this, of course, in the most inconsiderate manner, and presented
+Hartmut as an adventurer of the worst kind, whom he would in a very
+short time force to give up the rôle which he was playing here, without
+being in the least entitled to it.
+
+Poor Willibald's head swam at the news. His bosom friend--to whom he
+had always been attached with the fondest affection, and to whom he
+still clung in spite of the harsh sentence which was being pronounced
+upon him--was here in his immediate vicinity, and he was not to go to
+see him--was not even to recognize him if chance should bring about a
+meeting. Wallmoden especially impressed the latter upon his nephew,
+who, quite stunned, promised obedience and silence, as well toward
+Adelaide as to his fiancée and the Chief Forester; but he could not
+understand the thing by a long shot yet. He needed time for that as for
+everything.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+The day upon which Arivana was to be presented had arrived. It was the
+first work of a young author and quite unknown poet, but the
+circumstances made it a professional event, which was viewed by
+everybody with intensest interest.
+
+From the earliest hour the Court Theatre was filled to its utmost
+capacity, and now the ducal couple also appeared with their guests to
+occupy the large court box. Although not formally announced, the
+performance had the character of a benefit, to which the brilliantly
+lighted house and the rich costumes and uniforms bore witness.
+
+Prince Adelsberg, who appeared in the court box, was as excited as if
+he had written the drama himself. Besides, he found himself in as rare
+as joyful accord with his most gracious aunt, who had called him to
+her, and was speaking about the work of the poet.
+
+"Our young friend seems to have caprices like all poets," she remarked.
+"What a notion to change the name of the heroine at the last moment!"
+
+"It did not happen at exactly the last moment," replied Egon. "The
+change was made at Rodeck. Hartmut suddenly took a notion that the name
+'Ada' was too cold and pure for his fiery heroine, and so her name was
+changed forthwith."
+
+"But the name Ada stands on the programme," said the Princess.
+
+"Yes, but it has been turned over to an entirely different character of
+the drama, who appears only in one scene."
+
+"So Rojanow has made changes since his reading at Furstenstein?"
+
+"Only a few; the piece itself has remained quite the same, except the
+changing of names and that short appearance of Ada; but I assure Your
+Highness this scene which Hartmut has added to the play is the most
+beautiful thing he has ever written."
+
+"Yes, of course, you find everything beautiful which comes from the pen
+of your friend," said the Princess, but the indulgent smile with which
+she dismissed the Prince showed that she was of the same opinion.
+
+In one of the proscenium boxes were seen the Prussian Ambassador and
+his wife--returned only a day or two from his vacation. His presence at
+the theatre to-day was indeed not of his free will, for he would gladly
+have remained away from this performance, but dared not out of
+consideration for his position. The Duke himself had disposed of the
+boxes, and had invited the foreign diplomats and their ladies; there
+was no possibility of remaining away, particularly as Herr and Frau von
+Wallmoden had, only a few hours previously, participated in a large
+dinner at the ducal palace.
+
+Willibald, who had won permission from his uncle to at least get
+acquainted with the work of his friend, sat in the parquette. Wallmoden
+was not pleased with his presence here, but could not well forbid him
+what he was going to do himself. Willy, who with difficulty had found a
+seat, had not thought that a member of the opera could be employed in
+the theatre, but when he opened the programme and came suddenly upon
+the name of "Marietta Volkmar," whom he was to see to-night, he folded
+the paper with a quick gesture and hid it in his pocket, regretting now
+sorely having come to the theatre.
+
+The performance now commenced. The curtain rose and the first scene
+passed quickly. It was a kind of preface, to acquaint the audience with
+the strange, fantastic world into which they were to be introduced.
+
+Arivana, the ancient, sacred place of sacrifice, appeared in a
+magnificent and appropriate setting. The most prominent character of
+the piece, the young priest, who, in the fanaticism of his belief,
+renounces utterly everything worldly and unholy, enters, and the vow
+which removes him for time and eternity from the world, and binds him
+body and soul to his deity, resounds in powerful, soulful verse.
+
+The vow was offered--the sacred fire flamed high, and the curtain fell.
+
+Applause, for which the Duke gave the signal, came from all sides.
+Although it was assured that a work which was encouraged and favored so
+by all should have a certain success, at least upon its opening night,
+there was something else mingled in the applause. The audience already
+felt that a poet spoke to them; his creation had perhaps needed the
+approval of the Court, but now, since it was before them, it sustained
+itself. One was attracted and held by the language--the characters--by
+the theme of the drama, which already betrayed itself in its principal
+features, and when the curtain rose afresh, intense, expectant silence
+rested over the vast audience hall.
+
+And now the drama developed upon a background as rich and glowing in
+color as were its language and its characters. The magnificent verdure,
+the fairy-like splendor of its temples and palaces, the people with
+their wild hatred and wilder love, and the severe, iron laws of their
+belief--all, all, was fantastic and strange; but the feeling and acting
+of these people were familiar to every one, for they stood under the
+power which was the same centuries ago, as to-day, and which takes root
+the same under the glowing sky of the tropics as in the cold North--the
+passion and power of the human heart.
+
+This was indeed a "glowing doctrine," and it preached without restraint
+the right of the passions to storm over law and institutions--over
+oaths and vows--to reach their aims; a right such as Hartmut Rojanow
+had understood and practised with his unreined will, who recognized no
+law or duty, but who was all in all unto himself.
+
+The awakening of the passion--its powerful growth, its final
+triumph--were all depicted in transporting language, in words and acts
+which seemed to originate, now from the pure heights of the ideal, and
+now from the depths of an abyss.
+
+Not in vain had the poet shrouded his characters in the veil of
+Oriental legend, but under this veil he dared to speak and indorse that
+which would hardly have been permitted him, and he did it with a
+boldness which threw igniting sparks into the hearts of the listeners,
+enchaining them demoniacally.
+
+Arivana's success was assured already at the second act. The work was
+done by artists who belonged to the best on the stage, and they were
+doing the best playing ever witnessed. Those taking the principal rôles
+especially acted with the perfection of abandon which only real
+enthusiasm can give.
+
+The heroine's name was no longer Ada. Another form now bore this
+name--one who was strangely foreign to this excited picture of
+passions; one of those tender, half-fairy-like beings with whom the
+Indian legends inhabit the snow dwellings upon the icy heights of the
+Himalayas--cold and pure as the eternal snow which shines upon them.
+
+Only in one single instance, in the parting scene, she floated on
+spirit's wings through the stormy, excited gathering, remonstrating,
+entreating, warning; and Egon was right. The words which the poet had
+put into her lips were, perhaps, the most beautiful of the entire
+drama. It burst suddenly like pure, heavenly light into the flaming
+glow of a crater; but the scene was as short as beautiful. Quick as a
+breath the apparition disappeared again into her snow dwelling, and
+down yonder at the moonlit bank of the river floated the entrancing
+song of the Hindoo girl--Marietta Volkmar's soft, swelling voice--under
+the coaxing charm of which the cry of warning from the heights was
+dispelled and unheeded.
+
+The last act brought the tragic end; the breaking of the doom over the
+guilty pair; the death in the flames. This death was no atonement, but
+a triumph--"a shining, divine death," and with the flames there also
+flared up to heaven the demoniacal doctrine of the unconditional right
+of the passions.
+
+The curtain sank for the last time, and the applause, which had
+increased after every act, now grew to a storm. Usually the applause at
+the court performances was kept within measured bounds, but to-day it
+broke over the barriers. The flames of Arivana had kindled the
+enthusiasm with which the whole house demanded the appearance of the
+author.
+
+Hartmut finally appeared--without embarrassment or timidity--glowing
+with pride and joy; he bowed acknowledgment to the audience, which
+today offered him a drink he had never yet tasted in his wildly tossed
+life. They were intoxicating, these first sips from the cup of fame,
+and with this intoxicating knowledge, the celebrated poet now looked up
+to the proscenium box, whose occupants he had long ago recognized. He
+did not find, however, what he sought. Adelaide was leaning back in her
+chair, and her face was hidden by her open fan. He saw only the cold,
+unmoved face of the man who had insulted him so deeply, and who was now
+a witness of his triumph.
+
+Wallmoden understood only too well what the flash of those dark eyes
+told him: "Do you dare yet to despise me?"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The following morning at an early hour Willibald von Eschenhagen walked
+through the park, which he wanted to see--at least so he had told his
+uncle.
+
+The large, forest-like park which was situated directly before the
+city, was indeed worth seeing, but Willibald paid no attention to the
+landscape, which did not look very inviting this bleak November day.
+
+Without a glance to right or left he walked quickly forward, taking
+aimlessly now this and now that path, without noticing that he
+repeatedly returned to the same spot. It seemed as if he wished with
+this stormy walk to calm an inner unrest; he had really gone out to be
+alone in the free, open air.
+
+The young lord tried to persuade himself that it was only the meeting
+again with the friend of his youth that had taken him so completely out
+of his composure. He had not heard anything of Hartmut for fully ten
+years--did not even dare to mention him at home, and now he suddenly
+saw the lost one again, with the halo of a growing poetical glory
+around his head. Deeply and wonderfully changed in appearance and
+manner, in spite of all he was still the Hartmut with whom he had
+played his boyish games so often. He should have recognized him at the
+first glance without having been prepared for the meeting.
+
+Wallmoden, on the contrary, seemed to be disagreeably surprised at
+yesterday's success. He had hardly spoken during the drive home; his
+wife as little. She had stated in the carriage that the hot air of the
+theatre had given her an intolerable headache, and retired immediately
+upon their arrival home. The Ambassador followed her example, and when
+he gave his hand to his nephew, who wished him good-night, he said
+curtly: "Our understanding remains the same, Willibald. You are to keep
+silence toward everybody, whoever it be. Look out that you do not
+betray yourself, for the name Rojanow will be in everybody's mouth
+during the next few days. He has had luck again this time--like all
+adventurers."
+
+Willibald had accepted the remark silently, but he still felt that it
+was something else which gave the author of Arivana this success.
+
+Under other circumstances he would have considered this work as
+something unheard of--incomprehensible--without understanding it, but,
+strange to say, the understanding for it had dawned upon him yesterday.
+
+One could fall in love without the solemn approval of the respected
+parents, guardians and relations; it happened not only in India, but it
+happened here sometimes, too. One could also incautiously and hastily
+burden oneself with a vow and break it--but what then?
+
+Yes, then came the doom which Hartmut had pictured so horribly and yet
+so fascinatingly. Willy was transporting in earnest the highly romantic
+teachings of Arivana into Burgsdorf affairs, and the doom suddenly
+assumed the features of Frau von Eschenhagen, who, in her wrath, was
+surely worse than an angry caste of priests.
+
+The young lord heaved a deep sigh. He thought of the second act of the
+play, when, from the circle of Hindoo girls who marched to the place of
+sacrifice, a delicate figure had stepped forth, inexpressibly charming
+in the white, flowing garments, and the wreath of flowers in her curls.
+His eyes had hung riveted upon her, who appeared but twice or thrice
+upon the stage, but after that her song had sounded from the banks of
+the moonlit river. It was the same clear, sweet voice which had
+enchanted the listener at Waldhofen, and now the old mischief, which he
+had struggled down and thought forgotten, was back again. It stood
+before him with giant size, and the worst of it was that he did not
+even consider it longer as a mischief.
+
+The tireless walker now came for the third time to a small temple, open
+in front, and in which stood a statue, while a bench in the background
+invited one to rest.
+
+Willibald entered this time and sat down, less from a desire to rest
+than to be able to follow his thoughts undisturbed.
+
+It was, perhaps, ten o'clock in the morning, and the paths were at this
+hour almost deserted. Only a solitary pedestrian--a young man elegantly
+dressed--walked leisurely and with apparent aimlessness along the
+paths. He seemed to be expecting some one, for he glanced impatiently
+now toward town, and now toward the Parkstrasse which bordered the park
+for some distance.
+
+Suddenly he came toward the temple and took his stand behind it, where
+he could keep the path in view without being seen.
+
+In about five minutes a young lady came from the city--a delicate,
+graceful figure, in dark cloak and fur cape, with her fur cap pressed
+closely down upon her curly head, and a muff in her hand, from which
+peeped a roll of music. She was passing the temple quickly, when
+suddenly she uttered an ejaculation of displeased surprise:
+
+"Ah--Count Westerburg!"
+
+The young man had approached and bowed.
+
+"What a happy coincidence! How could I hope that Fraulein Marietta
+Volkmar would take so early a walk in the park!"
+
+Marietta stood still and measured the speaker from head to foot. Her
+voice had a half-angry, half-contemptuous sound as she answered:
+
+"I do not believe in this coincidence, Herr Count. You cross my path
+too often and persistently for that, although I have shown you
+sufficiently how annoying your attentions are to me."
+
+"Yes, you are endlessly cruel to me," said the Count, reproachfully,
+but with undeniable impertinence. "You do not accept my calls, refuse
+my flowers and offerings, and do not even return my greetings when I
+pass you by. What have I done to you? I have ventured to lay homage at
+your feet in the form of jewels, which you returned to me----"
+
+"With the request that you discontinue such impertinences once for
+all," interrupted the young girl vehemently. "I protest, besides,
+against your continued advances. You have actually lain in wait for me
+here."
+
+"Mon Dieu! I only wished to beg your pardon for that boldness," assured
+Count Westerburg, apparently submissive, but at the same time he
+stepped into the middle of the narrow path, so that it was impossible
+to pass. "I might have known that you are unapproachable, for everybody
+protests that none protects her name so jealously as you, beautiful
+Marietta."
+
+"My name is Fraulein Volkmar!" cried Marietta, angrily. "Keep your
+flattering speeches for those who allow such things to be told them. I
+shall not do it, and if your advances do not cease I shall have to call
+in protection."
+
+"Whose protection?" sneered the Count. "Perhaps that of the old lady
+with whom you live and who is always and everywhere at your side,
+except in your walk to Professor Marani. The singing studies at the old
+gentleman's are not dangerous, and that is the only walk you take
+alone."
+
+"Then you knew that I went to the Parkstrasse at this hour! Then it is
+actually an attack! Please let me pass. I wish to go."
+
+She tried to pass by him, but the young man stretched out his arms so
+that he filled the path.
+
+"You will assuredly permit me to accompany you, mein Fraulein. Only
+look, the path is quite lonely and deserted; there is not a soul
+around. I really must offer you my escort."
+
+The path seemed, indeed, quite deserted, and another girl might have
+been intimidated by this reference to her defencelessness, but the
+little Marietta only drew herself up undauntedly.
+
+"Do not dare to attempt to follow me by even a step." she cried in
+deepest anger. "Your escort is just as unbearable to me as your
+presence. How often must I tell you that?"
+
+"Ah, so angry!" cried the Count with a malicious smile. "Well, I shall
+not have ventured this attack for nothing. I shall at least repay
+myself with a kiss from those charming, angry lips."
+
+He actually prepared to fulfil his threat, approaching the quickly
+retreating girl, but at that moment, propelled by an awful blow, he
+flew to one side and fell full length upon the damp ground, where he
+remained lying in a very pitiable plight.
+
+Startled at this unexpected and stormy succor, Marietta turned around,
+and her face, flushed from insult and anger, bore expression of great
+amazement as she recognized her deliverer, who now stood at her side,
+looking wrathfully at the form upon the ground, as if it were his
+highest desire to quite finish him.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen--you!"
+
+In the meantime Count Westerburg had struggled painfully to his feet
+and now drew near his aggressor threateningly.
+
+"How dare you! Who gives you the right----"
+
+"I advise you to remain ten feet away from this young lady,"
+interrupted Willibald, placing himself in front of Marietta, "or you
+will fly off again, and the second blow might not prove as soft as the
+first."
+
+The Count, a slender, far from powerful man, measured the giant before
+him, whose fist he had already felt, but one look was enough to
+convince him that he would come out second best in an encounter.
+
+"You will give me satisfaction--if you are worth it," he hissed in a
+half-choked voice. "Probably you do not know whom you have before
+you----"
+
+"An impudent fellow whom one chastises with pleasure," said Willy
+stolidly. "Please remain standing where you are, or I will do it now.
+My name is Willibald von Eschenhagen. I am lord of Burgsdorf, and can
+be found at the mansion of the Prussian Ambassador if you should have
+more to tell me---- If you please, mein Fraulein, you may trust
+yourself unhesitatingly to my protection. I pledge myself that you will
+not be molested further."
+
+And now something unprecedented, unheard of, happened. Herr von
+Eschenhagen, without stammering, without showing embarrassment of any
+kind, offered his arm with a genuinely chivalrous movement to the young
+lady, and carried her off without concerning himself further about the
+Count.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII.
+Marietta had accepted the proffered arm without speaking a word until,
+having reached a considerable distance, she commenced, with a timidity
+otherwise foreign to her manner: "Herr von Eschenhagen----"
+
+"Mein Fraulein."
+
+"I--I am very grateful for your protection, but the Count--you have
+insulted him--even with a blow. He will challenge you and you will have
+to accept it."
+
+"Of course, with the greatest pleasure," said Willy, and his face was
+beaming as if the prospect gave him unmixed delight.
+
+His awkward, embarrassed manner had suddenly disappeared; he felt
+himself a hero and deliverer, and enjoyed the new position immensely.
+
+Marietta looked at him in speechless amazement.
+
+"But it is awful that this should happen for my sake!" she commenced
+again, "and that it should be just you."
+
+"Perhaps that is not agreeable to you," said the young lord, who in his
+present elated mood took offence at the last remark. "But Fraulein, in
+such a case one has no choice. Forced by necessity, you had to accept
+me as protector, even if I did not stand very high in your esteem."
+
+A burning blush spread over Marietta's face at the remembrance of that
+hour when she had poured out her supreme contempt on the man who now
+took her part so gallantly.
+
+"I thought only of Toni and her father," she returned in a low voice.
+"I am blameless in this matter, but if I should be the cause of your
+being torn from your fiancée----"
+
+"Toni must accept it then as providential," said Willy, upon whom
+the mention of his betrothed made little impression. "One can
+lose his life anywhere, and one must not always expect the worst
+consequences----Where shall I carry you, Fraulein? To the Parkstrasse?
+I believe I heard that you wished to go there."
+
+She shook her head quickly.
+
+"No, no! I intended going to Professor Marani, who is teaching me a new
+rôle, but I cannot sing now--it is impossible. Let us look for a
+carriage; we may find one over there. I would like to go home."
+
+Willibald turned his steps at once in the appointed direction, and they
+walked on silently to the edge of the park, where several cabs were
+standing.
+
+The young girl stopped here and looked anxiously and entreatingly at
+her companion.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen must it really be? Cannot the matter be smoothed
+over?"
+
+"Hardly: I have given the Count a heavy blow and called him an impudent
+fellow, and shall stand to that, of course, if it should come to any
+explanation; but do not worry about that. The affair will probably be
+settled with a few scratches by tomorrow or the day after."
+
+"And must I remain two or three days in this anxious uncertainty? Will
+you not at least send me word about it?"
+
+Willibald looked into the dark, tearful eyes, and with that look there
+came into his eyes that strange sudden glow as on that day when he
+heard the voice of the "_singvögelchen_" for the first time.
+
+"If everything passes off happily I shall come myself and bring you
+word," he replied. "May I?"
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly. But if an accident occurs--if you should
+fall?"
+
+"Then keep me in better remembrance than heretofore, mein Fraulein,"
+said Willibald, earnestly and cordially. "You must have considered me a
+great coward--oh, do not say anything! You were right. I felt it myself
+bitterly enough--but it was my mother whom I was accustomed to obey,
+and who loves me very much. But you shall see now that I know how a man
+must act when a defenceless girl is being insulted in his presence. I
+will now erase, if need be, with my blood, that bad hour."
+
+Without giving her time to reply he called one of the waiting cabs,
+opened the door, and gave the driver the street and number which
+Marietta had given him. She entered the carriage and stretched out her
+little hand to him once more. He held it for a moment, then the young
+girl threw herself back upon the cushion with a stifled sob, and the
+carriage rolled away.
+
+Willy followed it with his eyes until nothing more could be seen of it,
+then he drew himself up and said with a kind of grim satisfaction: "Now
+take care, Herr Count! It will be a real pleasure to me now to fire
+until sight and hearing leave me."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+Twilight came on early this bleak November day, and the Adelsberg
+palace was already lighted when the Prince, returning from a short
+drive, reached the portal.
+
+"Is Herr Rojanow in his rooms?" he inquired of the servant who hastened
+up.
+
+"At your service, Your Highness," the man replied, bowing low.
+
+"Order the carriage at nine o'clock. We drive to the ducal palace."
+
+Egon mounted the stairs and entered the apartments of his friend, which
+adjoined his own on the first floor, and which, like all the rest of
+the princely house, were furnished with antique splendor.
+
+A lamp burned upon the table of the sitting-room. Hartmut lay stretched
+upon a lounge in a position indicative of utter weariness and
+exhaustion.
+
+"Are you resting upon your laurels?" asked the Prince, laughing and
+drawing near. "I cannot blame you, for you have not had a moment's
+peace to-day. It is really a rather trying business to be a new rising
+star in the poetical firmament; nerve is required for it. The people
+actually fight each other for the honor of being allowed to tell you
+flatteries. You have held a grand reception today."
+
+"Yes, and now we have to go to the Court besides," said Hartmut in a
+weary voice. The prospect seemed to have no charm for him.
+
+"We must, indeed. The illustrious ladies and gentlemen wish also to
+bring their homage to the poet--my most gracious aunt at their head.
+You know she is a kind of _bel-esprit_, and believes to have found a
+kindred soul in you. Thank God, she does not order me to her side so
+continually, and perhaps through this she will forget those unfortunate
+schemes for my marriage. But you seem to be very unappreciative of the
+ducal favors which rained upon you yesterday. What is the matter? You
+hardly answer. Are you not well?"
+
+"I am tired. I wish I could escape all this noise and flee to the quiet
+of Rodeck."
+
+"Rodeck! Ah, it must be charming there at present, with the November
+fogs, and the wet, leafless forests! Brrr! a real spook's haunt!"
+
+"Nevertheless, I have a real longing for that gloomy solitude, and I
+shall go there soon for a few days. I hope you have no objections?"
+
+"I have very many objections to it," exclaimed Egon, indignantly. "What
+notion is this, I beg of you? Now, when the whole town lifts the poet
+of Arivana upon the shield, will you withdraw your honored presence and
+escape all the triumphs and attentions to bury yourself alive in a
+haunted little forest nook, which is only bearable in sunshine!
+Everybody will find it incomprehensible."
+
+"I don't care. I need solitude now. I go to Rodeck."
+
+Egon shook his head. Although he was accustomed to seeing his friend
+act in this domineering, inconsiderate manner whenever the notion
+seized him, and had himself spoiled him in this respect with all his
+might, the present idea seemed too preposterous.
+
+"I believe my most gracious aunt is right," he said half reproachfully,
+half jestingly. "She remarked yesterday at the theatre, 'Our young poet
+has caprices like all of his class.' I think so, too. What is the
+matter now, really, Hartmut? Yesterday and to-day you beamed with
+triumph, and now I have left you hardly an hour, when I find you in a
+regular attack of melancholy. Have the papers annoyed you? Perhaps it
+is some malicious, envious critic?"
+
+He pointed to the writing table, where the evening papers lay.
+
+"No, no," returned Rojanow quickly. But he turned his head so that his
+face was in shadow. "The papers contain only general remarks so far,
+and they are all flattering. You know that I am subject to such moods,
+which often overcome me without cause."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but now that good luck overwhelms you on all sides,
+those moods should absent themselves. But you really look haggard--that
+comes from the excitement through which both of us have passed during
+these last few weeks."
+
+He bent over his friend with concern, and Hartmut, in rising regret for
+his brusque manner, stretched out his hand.
+
+"Forgive me, Egon. You must have patience with me--it will pass off."
+
+"I hope so, for I want to do proud with my poet to-night. But I will go
+now, so that you can rest. Do not let anybody disturb you. We have
+still three hours before we have to go."
+
+The Prince left the room. He had not seen the bitter expression
+trembling around Hartmut's mouth when he spoke of his overwhelming good
+fortune, and yet he had spoken the truth. Fame was happiness--perhaps
+the highest in life--and to-day had confirmed the triumph of yesterday,
+until suddenly, an hour ago, a sharp discord had fallen into the
+flattering tune.
+
+The young poet had scanned the papers which he found upon his table on
+his return. They did not contain explicit remarks about Arivana, but
+recognized unanimously the great success and powerful impression of the
+work, and promised detailed criticism the next day.
+
+Suddenly, in turning to the last page, Hartmut came upon a name, at the
+sight of which intense, anxious surprise overwhelmed him.
+
+The next moment, however, he recognized that he was not the one
+concerned in the article. It stated that the last journey of the
+Prussian Ambassador to Berlin seemed to have been of greater importance
+than was at first supposed. In an audience with the Duke immediately
+after his return, Herr von Wallmoden had apparently brought some very
+important things to light; and now, a high-standing Prussian officer,
+who was the bearer of important messages to His Highness, was expected.
+It doubtless concerned military matters, and Colonel Hartmut von
+Falkenried would arrive in a few days.
+
+Hartmut dropped the paper as if it had suddenly become red-hot iron.
+His father would come to this place and would certainly hear everything
+from Wallmoden--_must_ hear everything. The chance of meeting was then
+very probable.
+
+"When you shall have gained a great, proud future, approach him again
+and ask if he still dares to despise you."
+
+Zalika had whispered it to her son when he struggled against
+flight--against the breaking of his word of honor. Now the beginning of
+his future was made. The name Rojanow already bore the laurel of the
+poet, and with that the whole past was erased. It should be--it must
+be! This conviction flashed in the glance which Hartmut had thrown so
+triumphantly up to the Ambassador's box yesterday.
+
+But now, when it meant the meeting of his father's eyes, the defiant
+one trembled. Those eyes were the only thing upon earth that he feared.
+
+Hartmut was half decided to go to Rodeck and return only when he heard
+through the papers that "the high-standing officer" had left the
+Residenz.
+
+Yet something kept him here--a secret but burning longing. Perhaps the
+hour of reconciliation had now come when the poet's fame rose so
+brilliantly; perhaps Falkenried would see now that such a power needed
+liberty and life to develop, and would pardon the unfortunate, boyish
+folly which, with his views, had hurt him so deeply.
+
+Was he not his child? his only son, whom he had embraced with such
+passionate tenderness that night at Burgsdorf? At this remembrance a
+longing for those all-powerful arms, for the home which should no
+longer be lost to him, for the whole boyhood which, although
+constrained, had yet been so happy, pure and guiltless, flooded
+Hartmut's inmost heart.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+At this moment the door opened and the butler entered, bearing upon a
+waiter a card. He presented it to Hartmut, who refused it with an
+impatient gesture.
+
+"Did I not tell you that I did not wish to see any one else to-day? I
+wish to remain undisturbed."
+
+"I told the gentleman so," replied the servant, "but he begged me to at
+least give you his name--Willibald von Eschenhagen."
+
+Hartmut started suddenly from his reclining position. He could not
+believe that he had heard aright.
+
+"What is the gentleman's name?"
+
+"Von Eschenhagen--here is the card."
+
+"Ah, let him enter, instantly!"
+
+The servant departed, and Willibald entered the next moment, but
+remained standing at the door in uncertainty. Hartmut had sprung up and
+looked toward him. Yes, there were the same familiar features--the
+dear, well-known face, the honest blue eyes of his friend, and with the
+passionate cry, "Willy--my dear old Willy, is it you! You come to me?"
+he threw himself stormily upon his breast.
+
+The young lord, who had no idea how strangely his appearance at this
+moment fitted into his friend's dreams of his youth, was most perplexed
+over this reception. He remembered how domineering Hartmut had always
+been to him, and how he had made him feel his mental inferiority at
+every opportunity. He had thought yesterday that the highly honored
+author of Arivana would be still more imperious and haughty, and now he
+found an overflowing tenderness.
+
+"Are you glad, then, at my coming, Hartmut?" he asked, still somewhat
+doubtful. "I was almost afraid it would not be acceptable."
+
+"Not acceptable, when I see you now after a lapse of ten long years!"
+cried Hartmut reproachfully, and he drew his friend down beside him,
+questioning him and covering him so with affection that Willy lost all
+embarrassment and also returned to the old familiarity. He said that he
+was in town for only three days and that he was on his way to
+Furstenstein.
+
+"Oh, yes; you are betrothed," joined in Rojanow. "I heard at Rodeck who
+was to be the Chief Forester's son-in-law, and have also seen Fraulein
+von Schonan. Let me congratulate you with all my heart."
+
+Willibald accepted the good wishes with a peculiar face, and looked to
+the floor as he replied, half audibly: "Yes, but to tell the truth,
+mamma made the engagement."
+
+"I should have known that," said Hartmut, laughing, "but you have at
+least said 'Yes' without being forced?"
+
+Willy did not answer. He studied the carpet intently and suddenly asked
+quite disconnectedly: "Hartmut, how do you do when you compose poetry?"
+
+"How do I do?" Hartmut with an effort suppressed his laughter. "Really
+that is not easy to tell. I do not believe that I can explain it
+sufficiently."
+
+"Yes, it is a funny condition to make poetry," assented the young man
+with a sad shake of the head. "I experienced it last night when I
+returned from the theatre."
+
+"What! You compose poetry?"
+
+"And such poetry!" cried Willy in high satisfaction, but added in
+somewhat subdued tones: "Only I cannot find rhymes, and it also sounds
+quite different from your verses. To tell the truth, it did not run
+right, and I want to ask you how you do the affair. You know it is not
+to be anything grand like your Arivana--only just a little poem."
+
+"Of course to 'her,'" finished Hartmut.
+
+"Yes, to her," assented the young lord with a deep breath, and now his
+listener laughed aloud.
+
+"You are a model son, Willy, one must confess. It does happen sometimes
+that one is betrothed at paternal or maternal command, but you
+dutifully fall in love with your bride-elect besides, and even compose
+poetry to her."
+
+"But it is not to the right one," exclaimed Willibald suddenly, with
+such a strained expression that Rojanow looked at him in perplexity. He
+really believed that his friend was not in his senses; and Willibald
+must also have felt that he was making a peculiar impression. He
+therefore began an explanation, but anticipated himself so much and was
+so vague, that the affair became only the more tangled.
+
+"In fact, I have had an encounter with a fellow this morning who dared
+to insult a young lady--Fraulein Marietta Volkmar, from the Court
+Theatre. I knocked him to the ground and I would do it again to him or
+to anybody who gets too near Fraulein Volkmar."
+
+He stretched out his arm so threateningly that Hartmut caught it
+quickly and restrained him.
+
+"Well, I do not intend to get near her--you can spare me for the
+present. But what is Marietta Volkmar to you--the little mirror of
+virtue of our opera--who has so far been considered unapproachable?"
+
+"Hartmut, I request that you speak of this lady with reverence. In
+short, this Count Westerburg has challenged me. I am going to exchange
+shots with him, and hope to give him a good reminder."
+
+"Well, you really are making good progress in romance," said Hartmut,
+who listened with ever-increasing interest. "You have been here only
+three days and have commenced with a quarrel which ends in a challenge,
+and are the knight and protector of a young singer--have a duel for her
+sake. Willy, for heaven's sake, what will your mother say?"
+
+"This concerns an affair of honor, and my mother cannot interfere
+here," declared Willy with a really heroic effect, "but now I must get
+a second here, where I am quite a stranger and do not know a soul.
+Uncle Herbert must not hear anything about it, of course, or he would
+interfere with the police. So I decided to come to you and ask you if
+you would render me this service."
+
+"That was what brought you," said Rojanow, in a tone of painful
+disappointment. "I really believed old friendship had done it; but,
+nevertheless, of course, I am at your command. What weapons does the
+challenge demand?"
+
+"Pistols!"
+
+"Well, you know what to do with them. We practiced often enough with a
+target at Burgsdorf, and you were a good shot. I shall look up the
+second of your opponent to-morrow morning and send you word then. I
+have to do that in writing, as I do not enter the house of Herr von
+Wallmoden."
+
+Willy only nodded. He thought Wallmoden's hostility was being
+reciprocated, but deemed it best not to make any inquiries upon this
+point.
+
+"Very well, just write me," he replied. "Arrange things as seems best
+to you; I shall be satisfied with everything; I have no experience in
+such things. Here is the address of the second, and now I must go. I
+have several things to put in order yet, in case the worst happens."
+
+He arose and extended his hand to his friend in farewell, but Hartmut
+took no notice of it. His eyes were fixed on the floor, as he said in
+low, hesitating tones: "One thing more, Willy. Burgsdorf is so near
+Berlin. Perhaps you often see----"
+
+"Whom?" asked Willibald, as Hartmut paused.
+
+"My--my father."
+
+The young lord became visibly embarrassed at the question. He had
+avoided the mention of Falkenried during the conversation, but did not
+seem to be aware of his near arrival.
+
+"No," he said, finally; "we hardly ever see the Colonel."
+
+"But does he not come to Burgsdorf as of old?"
+
+"No, he has become very unsocial. But I happened to see him in Berlin
+when I went to meet Uncle Herbert."
+
+"And how does he look? Has he aged any during these last years?"
+
+Willibald shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Of course he has aged; you would hardly recognize him with his white,
+hair."
+
+"White hair!" Hartmut burst forth. "He is hardly fifty-two years old.
+Has he been ill?"
+
+"Not that I know of. It came quite suddenly--in a few months--at the
+time when he asked for his discharge."
+
+Hartmut blanched, and his eyes were strained fixedly upon the speaker.
+
+"My father sought a discharge? He who is a soldier through, body and
+soul; to whom his vocation---- In what year was it?"
+
+"It did not come to an issue," said Willy, pacifyingly; "they did not
+let him go, but removed him to a distant garrison, and he has been in
+the Ministry of War for three years."
+
+"But he wanted to leave--in what year?" panted Rojanow, in a sinking
+voice.
+
+"Well, at the time of your disappearance. He believed his honor
+demanded it, and, Hartmut, you ought not to have done that to your
+father--not that. He almost died from it."
+
+Hartmut made no answer, no attempt to defend himself; but his breast
+heaved in deep, unsteady breaths.
+
+"We will not speak of it," said Willibald, stopping short; "it cannot
+be changed now. I shall expect your letter to-morrow. Get everything in
+order. Good night."
+
+Hartmut did not seem to hear the words--did not notice the departure of
+his friend. He stood there immovable, with eyes on the floor, and only
+after Willibald had long disappeared did he straighten himself slowly
+and draw his hand across his brow.
+
+"He wished to leave!" he murmured; "to leave the army because he
+thought his honor demanded it. No--no, not yet. I must go to Rodeck."
+
+The honored poet, upon whose brow Fate was pressing the first laurel
+wreath--who only yesterday had challenged the whole world in this
+victorious knowledge--dared not meet the eye of his father. He fled
+into solitude.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+In one of the quieter streets, whose modest but pleasant houses were
+mostly surrounded by gardens, Marietta Volkmar lived with an old
+lady--a distant relative of her grandfather--who was alone, but willing
+and glad to be protection and company to the young singer.
+
+The two ladies led a life about which the ever-busy tongue of gossip
+could find nothing to say, and were much beloved by other members of
+the house. Fraulein Marietta, with her pleasant, happy face, was an
+especial favorite, and when her clear voice rang through the house
+everybody stopped to listen. But the _singvögelchen_ had grown mute in
+the past two days, and showed pale cheeks and eyes red from weeping.
+The people shook their heads and could not understand it until they
+heard from old Fraulein Berger that Dr. Volkmar was sick, and his
+granddaughter was worried about him, but could not obtain leave of
+absence without a more forcible reason.
+
+This was, indeed, no falsehood, for the old doctor had really been
+suffering for several days from a severe cold, but it offered no
+occasion for serious concern. It was only a plausible explanation of
+Marietta's changed demeanor, which was noticed even by her colleagues
+at the theatre.
+
+The singer was standing at the window, gazing steadily out, in her
+plain but cosily furnished sitting room, having just returned from a
+rehearsal, while Fraulein Berger sat at a little table with her
+needlework, casting anxious glances at her protegée.
+
+"But, dear child, do not take this affair so sorely to heart," she
+admonished. "You will wear yourself out with this anxiety and
+excitement. Why anticipate the worst at once?"
+
+Marietta did not turn. She was painfully pale, and a suppressed sob was
+in her voice as she replied:
+
+"This is now the third day, and yet I cannot learn anything. Oh, it is
+awful to have to wait like this, hour after hour, for bad news."
+
+"But why must it be bad news?" the old lady spoke consolingly. "Herr
+von Eschenhagen was still well and bright yesterday afternoon. I
+inquired about him at your special request. He went to drive with Herr
+and Frau von Wallmoden. The affair has probably been settled amicably."
+
+"I should have heard of it," said the young girl, in a heartbroken way.
+"He promised me, and he would have kept his word, I know. If misfortune
+has really happened to him--if he has fallen--I believe I could not
+live!"
+
+The last words were spoken so passionately that Fraulein Berger looked
+at the speaker in dismay.
+
+"Do be reasonable, Marietta," she entreated. "How are you responsible
+for an impertinent man insulting you, or the betrothed of your friend
+stepping in to your rescue? You really could not act more despairingly
+if your own betrothed stood before the pistol."
+
+The cheeks, just now so pale, flushed redly, and Marietta turned to the
+window with a quick gesture.
+
+"You do not understand, auntie," she said, in a low voice; "you do not
+know how much love and kindness have been shown me in the house of the
+Chief Forester--how earnestly Toni begged my forgiveness when she
+learned how deeply her future mother-in-law had offended me. What will
+she think of me when she hears that her betrothed has been in a duel
+for my sake? What will Frau von Eschenhagen say?"
+
+"Well, they will at least be open to the conviction that you are quite
+innocent in this affair, which, if it ends well, they will not hear of.
+I do not recognize or understand you in all this. You used to laugh
+away every care and anxiety, but this time you exaggerate it in a
+really incomprehensible manner. You have scarcely eaten or drunk in two
+days in your excitement; you must not sit at my table to-day as you did
+yesterday and the day before. I tell you that; and now I will look
+after the dinner."
+
+The kind old lady arose and left the room to prepare some extra dainty
+with which to tempt her protegée's fleeting appetite.
+
+She was right; the merry, bright Marietta would not now be recognized.
+Beyond a doubt it gave a painful, depressed feeling to be brought
+before the people of Furstenstein in so bad a light through that
+occurrence in the park, and even here in town her name, so carefully
+protected, might suffer if something of it should be heard; but,
+strange to say, these possibilities remained in the background because
+of a fear which grew with every hour and was hardly to be borne any
+longer.
+
+"With my blood, if it must be."
+
+Unconsciously she whispered Willibald's last words, and pressed her hot
+brow against the window pane. "Oh, my God, not that!"
+
+Suddenly at the street corner a figure appeared, which attracted
+attention on account of its unusual size. He came nearer with rapid
+steps and looked searchingly at the house numbers.
+
+With a suppressed cry of joy, Marietta sprang from the window. She had
+recognized Herr von Eschenhagen. She did not wait until he pulled the
+bell, but hastened to open the door. Tears shimmered yet in her eyes,
+but her voice was jubilant as she cried: "You come at last! God be
+praised!"
+
+"Yes, here I am, well and whole," assured Willibald, whose face lighted
+up at his reception.
+
+Neither knew how they reached the sitting room. To the young man it
+seemed as if a small, soft hand had been laid upon his arm and had
+drawn him along, all unresisting. But when they stood before each
+other, Marietta noticed that a broad, black bandage was around his
+right hand.
+
+"Mon Dieu, you are injured!" she cried in fear.
+
+"A slight scratch--not worth mentioning," Willibald said merrily,
+waving the hand. "I have given the Count a more severe reminder, but it
+is also only a glance shot in the shoulder, and not in the least
+dangerous to his precious life. That man could not even shoot right."
+
+"Then you did have the duel? I knew it."
+
+"This morning at 8 o'clock. But you need fear nothing more, mein
+Fraulein. You see everything has passed off well."
+
+The young singer drew a deep breath, as if relieved of a mountain load.
+
+"I thank you, Herr von Eschenhagen. No--no, do not refuse my thanks.
+You have endangered your life for my sake. I thank you a thousand
+times."
+
+"There is no cause, Fraulein; I did it gladly," said Willibald,
+cordially. "But, since I have stood before the pistol now for your
+sake, you must permit me to bring you a little token of remembrance.
+You will not throw it at my feet again?"
+
+He somewhat awkwardly--because of his left hand--drew out from his
+pocket a white tissue paper, and, opening it, disclosed a full-blown
+rose with two buds.
+
+Marietta dropped her eyes in confusion. Mutely she accepted the flowers
+and fastened one of them at her throat. Then she stretched out her hand
+to the giver just as mutely.
+
+He fully understood the apology.
+
+"Of course you are accustomed to different floral offerings," he said,
+apologetically. "I hear a great deal of the homage people pay you."
+
+The young girl smiled, but with a more pathetic than happy expression.
+
+"You have been a witness to what this homage is at times, and it was
+not the first time it has happened. The gentlemen seem to think they
+are permitted to venture anything when one is on the stage. Believe me,
+Herr von Eschenhagen, it is often hard to bear this lot, for which I am
+envied by so many."
+
+Willibald listened intently to these words.
+
+"Hard to bear? I thought you loved your vocation above everything, and
+would not leave it at any price."
+
+"Oh, surely I love it; but I had not thought that so much bitterness
+and hardship were connected with it. My teacher, Professor Marani,
+says: 'One must rise as on eagle's wings; then all the low and vulgar
+will remain far below.' He may be right, but one must be an eagle for
+that, and I am only a '_singvögelchen_,' as my grandfather calls me,
+which has nothing but its voice and cannot rise so high. The critics
+often tell me that fire and strength are wanting in my rendering. I
+feel myself that I have no real dramatic talent. I can only sing, and
+would rather do that at home in our green forests than here in this
+golden cage."
+
+The voice of the usually bright, cheery girl sounded full of deeply
+suppressed emotion. This last occurrence had shown her again very
+plainly her unprotected position, and now her heart opened to the man
+who had interfered so bravely for her.
+
+He listened in rapt attention and seemed to read the words from her
+lips, but at this truly sad report his face beamed as if something very
+joyful was being related, and now he interrupted vehemently:
+
+"You long to get away from here? You would like to leave the stage?"
+
+Marietta laughed aloud, in spite of her sorrow.
+
+"No, I really do not think of that, for what should I do then? My
+grandfather saved and economized for years to make my education as a
+singer possible, and it would be poor gratitude if I should be a burden
+to him in his old age. He does not know that at times his little
+_singvogel_ longs for its nest, or that life is made hard for her here.
+I am not usually without courage. I persevere and stand strong whenever
+it must be so. Do not let these, my laments, be heard at Furstenstein.
+You are going there?"
+
+A shadow passed over the beaming face of young Eschenhagen, and he was
+the one now to lower his eyes.
+
+"I, indeed, go to Furstenstein this afternoon," he replied, in a
+strangely suppressed tone.
+
+"Oh, I ask this one thing more. You must tell your betrothed
+everything--you hear?--everything. We owe it to her. I shall write her
+to-day about the occurrence, and you will confirm my letter with your
+words--yes?"
+
+Willibald raised his eyes slowly and looked at the speaker. "You are
+right, Fraulein. Toni must hear everything the whole truth. I had
+already decided on that before I came here; but it will be a hard hour
+for me."
+
+"Oh, surely not," said Marietta, encouragingly. "Toni is good and full
+of trust. She will believe your word and my word, that we are both
+innocent in this affair."
+
+"But I am not without guilt--at least toward my bride-elect," declared
+Willibald, earnestly. "Do not look at me in such affright. You must
+hear it later, anyway, and it is perhaps better that I tell you myself.
+I am going to Furstenstein only to ask Toni"--he stopped short and drew
+a deep breath--"to give me back my troth."
+
+"For heaven's sake, why?" cried the young girl, horrified at this
+explanation.
+
+"Why? Because it would be wrong should I offer Toni my hand and
+stand with her at the altar, with my heart as it is now. Because
+only now do I see what the principal thing is for betrothal and
+marriage--because----" He did not finish, but his eyes spoke so plainly
+that Marietta fully understood the rest.
+
+Her face suddenly colored crimson. She drew back and made a violently
+repellent gesture.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen, be silent; do not speak another word."
+
+"But it is not my fault," Willibald continued, in spite of the command.
+"I have struggled manfully and tried truly to keep my promise during
+the whole time I was at Burgsdorf. I believed it would be possible; but
+then I came here and saw you again in 'Arivana' on that evening, and
+knew that the struggle had been in vain. I had not forgotten you,
+Fraulein Marietta--not for an hour--as often as I had tried to make
+myself believe it, and I shall not forget you all my life long. I shall
+confess this to Toni openly, and shall also tell my mother when I
+return to her."
+
+The confession was made. The young lord, who could not manage the first
+proposal at Furstenstein alone, but had to be helped by his mother, now
+spoke as warmly and heartily--as openly and as truly--as a man must
+speak in such an hour. He had learned it suddenly, and with the
+helplessness which he shook off with such decision, there seemed to
+fall off, too, all his awkwardness and ridiculous manner.
+
+He quickly approached Marietta, who had fled to the window, and his
+firm voice grew unsteady as he continued: "And now one question. You
+looked so pale when you opened the door for me, and your eyes spoke of
+tears. The affair may have been painful and mortifying to you; I can
+understand that, but did you also fear a little for my welfare?"
+
+No answer, but low sobs.
+
+"Did you fear for me? Only a little 'yes,' Marietta. You have no idea
+how happy you would make me."
+
+He bent low over the young girl, who now slowly raised the small, bowed
+head. In her dark eyes there glowed a spark as of secret happiness. The
+answer was almost inaudible.
+
+"I? Ach, I have almost _died_ of fear these last two days."
+
+Willibald gave a joyful exclamation and drew her to his breast; but
+only for a moment, then she struggled from his embrace.
+
+"No--not now. Go now, please."
+
+He released her at once and stepped back.
+
+"You are right, Marietta; not yet. But, after I have freed myself, I
+shall come again and ask for another 'yes.' Farewell."
+
+He hastened away before Marietta had scarce recovered control of
+herself. She was aroused by the voice of Fraulein Berger, who,
+unnoticed by the two, had stood upon the threshold of the adjoining
+room for several moments, and who now approached in a state of horror.
+
+"Child, for mercy's sake, what does it mean? Do you not consider----"
+
+The young girl did not let her finish, but threw both arms around her
+neck and wept passionately.
+
+"Ah, now I know why I was so enraged at the time he suffered his mother
+to insult me. It hurt me so inexpressibly to believe him a coward; I
+have loved him from the first."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+In the house of the Prussian Ambassador everything was in a state of
+preparation for the winter festivities. When Wallmoden had entered his
+present position, in the spring, society was already scattered in all
+directions for the summer, and immediately afterward occurred the sad
+event which had put an end to all festivities for them. These causes,
+however, were done with now.
+
+The many halls and apartments of the Ambassador's palace had been
+furnished with such splendor as Herbert's circumstances, made brilliant
+by his marriage, permitted; and it was his intention to have as
+magnificent a home as was possible to obtain. Their first grand
+reception was to take place next week, and in the meantime numerous
+calls were being made and returned.
+
+The Ambassador was also much occupied with his official duties,
+and, besides, there was one thing which ruined his peace of mind
+completely--the success of Arivana. If he had had doubts before about
+opposing Rojanow's publicity, it had now become quite impossible. The
+"adventurer" was raised upon the shield and his poetical spirit was
+being praised everywhere. The Court and society generally could not be
+forced now to drop him without subjecting themselves to mortification,
+and it was questionable, besides, if they would drop him at all, since
+only hints and vague remarks could be given. That grand success had
+made Hartmut almost unapproachable.
+
+To add to the embarrassment of the Ambassador's position, Falkenried's
+arrival was expected in the near future, from whom the truth could not
+be kept, for fear he should hear it from outsiders.
+
+The Colonel, of whose present trip nothing was known when Wallmoden had
+seen him in Berlin a short time ago, would be here in a few days and
+would make his headquarters at the Ambassador's palace, since he was no
+stranger to Adelaide. She and her brother had, in a measure, grown up
+under his eyes.
+
+When, ten years ago, the then Major Falkenried had been removed to the
+distant province, he had been stationed at a post in the small town
+lying in the immediate vicinity of the great Stahlberg works and
+dependent almost entirely upon them. The new Major was considered an
+excellent soldier, but a pronounced man-hater, who enjoyed his duties
+only, occupying all his spare time with military studies, and who hated
+everything that came under the head of society.
+
+As he was alone, he was excused from keeping an open house, and he
+exhibited himself only at houses where his position imperatively
+demanded it. Such consideration had to be shown the great manufacturer,
+who was the leader of the whole vicinity, and who received and
+entertained as guests the first and highest personages.
+
+Stahlberg had been the only one whom the military man approached.
+Although the grave and gloomy reticence of the Major excluded real
+friendship, yet the two men felt the highest esteem for each other, and
+the Stahlberg home was the only place where Falkenried appeared
+occasionally of his own free will.
+
+He had had intercourse there for years and seen the two children grow
+up. Therefore Wallmoden was the more offended that Falkenried did not
+attend his wedding, but excused himself through pressure of official
+duties.
+
+Adelaide knew little or nothing about the life of the Colonel. She
+considered him childless and heard only from her husband that he had
+been married early in life, but had been separated from his wife and
+was now a widower.
+
+It was about a week after the return of the Wallmodens that
+Falkenried's arrival was announced to the young wife as she sat one day
+at her writing table. She threw aside her pen, arose quickly and
+hastened to her friend.
+
+"You are heartily welcome, Colonel Falkenried. We received your
+telegram, and Herbert intended to meet you at the depot, but just at
+this hour he has an audience with the Duke, and is still at the palace,
+so we could only send the carriage."
+
+Her greeting had all the cordiality which an old friend of her father's
+could wish, but Falkenried's response was not of a like kind. Coldly
+and seriously he accepted the offered hand and the invitation to be
+seated, as he thanked her for her welcome.
+
+The Colonel had indeed changed, so much as scarcely to be recognized.
+Were it not for the tall, muscular form and strong, firm carriage, one
+could have taken him for an old man. His hair--the hair of a man barely
+fifty years old--was white as snow, the brow furrowed deeply, and sharp
+lines were buried in the face, making it look ten years older. The
+features, once so expressive, appeared fixed and immovable now; the
+entire appearance and bearing bespoke stern, impenetrable reticence.
+
+Regine's words, "The man is turned to stone," were only too true. One
+involuntarily gained the impression that he had become a total stranger
+to the world, and that all mankind had died off for aught that moved
+him--nothing was left except the duties of his vocation.
+
+"Perhaps I have disturbed you, Ada," he said, using her old home name
+as he glanced at the writing table where lay a half-finished letter.
+
+"There is plenty of time for that," replied the young wife, lightly. "I
+was only writing to Eugene."
+
+"Ah? I am the bearer of love from your brother. I saw him the day
+before yesterday."
+
+"I knew that he intended going to Berlin and to see you. He has not
+seen you for nearly two years now, and I, too, saw but little of you
+during our journey through Berlin. We hoped you would come to
+Burgsdorf, where we stayed for a few days, and I believe that Regine
+felt very hurt that you did not accept her invitation for this time,
+either."
+
+The Colonel looked to the floor; he knew why he avoided Burgsdorf and
+its reminiscences. He had hardly been there twice since his return to
+the Capital.
+
+"Regine knows how economical I have to be with my time," he replied,
+evasively. "But, to return to your brother, Ada; I should like to speak
+to you, and therefore I am glad to find you alone. What is the
+difficulty between Eugene and his brother-in-law? Has something
+happened to alienate them?"
+
+A certain embarrassment was visible in Adelaide's face at the question,
+but she answered lightly:
+
+"Nothing especial; the two are not very congenial."
+
+"Not very congenial? Wallmoden is nearly forty years his senior, and
+his guardian besides. Your brother will not be of age for several
+years. In such case the younger one must submit unconditionally."
+
+"Certainly; but Eugene, although as good as gold, is only too often
+rash and passionate as he has always been."
+
+"Alas, so he is. He will have to change considerably if he wishes to
+fill, half as well as his father did, the important and responsible
+position which awaits him. But something else seems to be the trouble
+here. I made a casual remark about your marriage, Ada--which event, to
+tell the truth, surprised me, although I am on friendly terms with your
+husband--and said that I had not thought you had so much ambition; but
+at this Eugene burst out and defended you in the most passionate
+manner, and spoke of a sacrifice which his sister had made for him. In
+short, he allowed himself to be carried away into words and hints which
+surprised me in the highest degree."
+
+"You should not have paid any attention to it," said Adelaide, with
+visible emotion. "A young, hot head takes everything tragically. What
+did he tell you?"
+
+"In fact, nothing definite. He seems to have given you his word to keep
+silent and not speak without your permission; but he seems to almost
+hate his brother-in-law. What does all this mean?"
+
+The young wife was silent; the conversation seemed painful to her in
+the highest degree.
+
+Falkenried looked at her searchingly as he continued: "You know it is
+not my way to inquire into the secrets of others. I take but little
+interest in the doings of people around me, but my friend's honor comes
+into consideration here; those remarks contain a crimination. Of
+course, I could not allow that, but when I remonstrated with your
+brother and threatened to speak to Wallmoden about it, he said: 'My
+Herr brother-in-law will explain the affair diplomatically to you. He
+has proved a very diplomat in it all. Ask Ada if you wish to learn the
+truth.' I ask you first, therefore; but if you cannot and will not
+answer, then I must speak to your husband, from whom I cannot keep such
+remarks."
+
+He spoke in a cold and measured tone, without any excitement. The
+affair, apparently, caused him no interest whatever. He considered it
+necessary to take it up solely because a point of honor came in
+question.
+
+"Do not speak to Herbert about it, I beg of you," interrupted Adelaide,
+quickly. "I shall have to explain to you, since Eugene allowed himself
+to be carried away so far; but he has taken the matter too hard from
+the beginning. There is nothing dishonorable about it."
+
+"I hope so, since Wallmoden is concerned," said the Colonel, with
+emphasis.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+The young Baroness lowered her voice and evaded the eyes of her
+listener as she commenced.
+
+"You know that my engagement happened a year ago at Florence. My father
+was even then very ailing, and the physicians desired that he should
+remain in Italy during the winter. We went to Florence, intending to
+stay two months, and then make further plans according to the wish of
+the invalid. My brother had accompanied us, but was to return home at
+the beginning of winter.
+
+"We took a villa outside the city, and, of course, lived quite secluded.
+Eugene saw Italy for the first time, and it was so mournful for him to
+sit day after day in the lonely sick room, that I seconded his request
+to go to Rome for a short time. He finally received permission. Oh, if
+I had never done it! But I could not know how deeply his inexperience
+would involve him then."
+
+"That means that he followed up adventures, although his father was at
+death's door."
+
+"Do not judge so harshly. My brother was scarcely twenty years old
+then, and had always lived under the eyes of a loving but very strict
+father. The short freedom proved dangerous to him. The young German,
+who had no knowledge of the world whatever, was enticed into circles
+where high--and as it was afterward proved--false gambling was the
+order of the day, and where a number of bad, but outwardly charming,
+elements met. Eugene, in his ignorance, did not understand it, and lost
+heavily, until suddenly the party was raided by the police. The
+Italians defended themselves, and it ended in a fight, into which
+Eugene, too, was drawn. He only defended himself, but he had the
+misfortune to injure a policeman severely, and was arrested with the
+others."
+
+The Colonel had listened silently, with impassive face, and his voice
+was as harsh as before as he said: "And Stahlberg had to live to see
+this of his son, who had been a model until then?"
+
+"He never heard of it; it was only a momentary losing of one's self--a
+case of one misled, rather than guilty, and it will not happen again.
+Eugene has given me his word of honor for that."
+
+Falkenried laughed so scornfully that his companion looked at him in
+consternation.
+
+"His word of honor! Yes, why not? That is given as easily as it is
+broken. Are you truly so trusting as to believe in the word of such a
+young lad?"
+
+"Yes, that I am," asserted Adelaide, in an injured tone, while her
+eyes, earnest and reproachful, met the gaze of the man whose awful
+bitterness she could not explain. "I know my brother. In spite of this
+escapade, he is the son of his father, and he will keep his word to me
+and to himself--I know it."
+
+"It is well for you if you can still believe and trust. I have long
+forgotten how," said Falkenried, in a low but milder tone. "And what
+happened then?"
+
+"My brother succeeded in being allowed to send me word immediately.
+'Keep it from father, it would be his death,' he wrote. I knew better
+than he did that our desperately ill father could not stand such news.
+But we were alone in a foreign country, without friends or
+acquaintances, and help had to be had instantly. In this extremity I
+thought of Herr von Wallmoden, who at the time was at the embassy at
+Florence. We had known him slightly before, and he had called directly
+after our arrival and placed himself at our command, should we need the
+help of the Ambassador. He had come to our house frequently, and now
+hastened to me immediately upon receiving my request. I told him all,
+and trusted him, beseeching his advice and help--and received it."
+
+"At what price?" demanded the Colonel, with darkly contracted brows.
+
+Adelaide shook her head.
+
+"No, no; it is not as you think--as Eugene also believed. I was not
+forced. Herbert gave me free choice, although he did not hide from me
+that the occurrence was much worse than I feared; that those sums lost
+in play must, nevertheless, be paid if one wished to keep the affair
+from publicity; that, in spite of all, it might get into the courts, on
+account of the injury to the policeman. He explained to me that he
+might be brought into a wrong light if he mixed himself up in such
+affairs. 'You desire me to save your brother,' said he; 'perhaps I can
+do it, but I jeopardize my position--my whole future thereby. One
+makes such a sacrifice, perhaps, only for his own brother, or--his
+brother-in-law."
+
+Falkenried arose suddenly and took a turn through the room. Then he
+stood still before the young wife and said, in angry tones: "And you,
+of course, believed that in your anxiety?"
+
+"Do you mean that it was not so?" asked Adelaide, startled.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders with a half-contemptuous expression.
+
+"Possibly. I do not know these diplomatic reasons. I know only one
+thing; Wallmoden has, indeed, proved himself a great diplomat in the
+whole affair. What did you answer him?"
+
+"I asked for time to think, everything had burst so upon me. But I
+knew, that no moment was to be lost, and that same evening I gave
+Herbert the right to act--for his brother-in-law."
+
+"Of course," muttered the Colonel, with deep disdain; "the wise, shrewd
+Herbert!"
+
+"He obtained leave of absence immediately, and went to Rome," continued
+the young Baroness, "returning in a week, accompanied by my brother. He
+had succeeded in freeing Eugene and withdrawing him from the whole
+affair. Even the newspapers did not mention the name of the young
+German who had been involved in it. I do not know by what means it was
+done. If one has powerful friends and does not need to spare money,
+much is possible. Herbert had spent money lavishly on all sides and had
+brought into use every advantage made possible to him through his long
+years of diplomatic work. He also cancelled the gambling debts,
+although with his own bond. He told me later that he had given half his
+fortune for that purpose."
+
+"It was very magnanimous, since by this sacrifice he won a cool
+million. And what did Eugene say to this--trade?"
+
+"He knew nothing of it, and soon returned to Germany, as had been
+decided at first. From that time Herbert came to our house daily and
+knew how to prepossess my sick father so well, that father finally felt
+a desire for the union himself. Only then did Herbert begin his wooing.
+I was grateful to him for giving it this turn, only Eugene was not
+deceived. He guessed everything, and forced the truth from me. Since
+then he has tortured himself with self-reproach and almost feels
+hostility toward his brother-in-law, in spite of my repeated assurance
+that I have never had cause to rue that step, and that I have in
+Herbert the most attentive and considerate husband."
+
+Falkenried's eyes rested intently upon the face of the young wife, as
+if he wished to read her most secret thoughts.
+
+"Are you happy?" he asked, slowly.
+
+"I am content."
+
+"That is much in this life," said the Colonel in the old, harsh tone.
+"We were not born to be happy. I have done you wrong, Ada. I believed
+the splendor of a high position, the desire to play a first rôle in
+society as wife of the Ambassador, had made you Frau von Wallmoden,
+but--I am glad that t judged you wrongly."
+
+He stretched forth his hand. Some expression was now in the icy gaze
+and an apology in the grasp of the hand.
+
+"You know everything now," concluded Adelaide, with a deep breath, "and
+I beg that you will not touch upon the subject before Herbert. You see,
+there was nothing dishonorable in his dealings. I repeat to you that he
+used neither force nor persuasion. I was forced only by the power of
+circumstances. I could not expect that he would make such sacrifices
+for a stranger."
+
+"If a lady had sought me in such anxiety, I would have made the
+sacrifices--unconditionally," declared Falkenried.
+
+"Yes, you! I would have followed you also with a lighter heart."
+
+The avowal betrayed, unconsciously, how hard had been the struggle
+which the young wife had not mentioned by a word. But she spoke the
+truth.
+
+She would much rather have given herself to the gloomy, reticent man,
+with his harsh and often offensive manner, if the sacrifice had to be
+made, than to the ever polite and attentive husband, who, in the face
+of her extremity--had traded with it.
+
+"You would have had a hard lot then, Ada," said the Colonel, with a
+grave shake of the head. "I am one of the men who cannot give or
+receive anything more in this life. I have finished with it long ago.
+But you are right; it is better to let that subject remain untouched
+between Wallmoden and me, for if I wished to tell him my true opinion
+about it--well, he will always be a diplomat."
+
+Adelaide arose, breaking off the conversation, and tried to assume a
+lighter tone.
+
+"And now let me take you to your rooms at last. You must be exhausted
+by the long trip."
+
+"No, a single night's journey will not tire a soldier. Duty makes
+harsher demands than that on us."
+
+He drew himself up straight and firm; one could see that his physical
+strength was yet unbroken. Those muscles and sinews seemed like steel.
+It was the features alone that bore the mark of age.
+
+The eyes of the Baroness lingered upon them thoughtfully, especially
+upon the brow which was so deeply and heavily furrowed and yet was
+formed so high and powerful under the white hair.
+
+It seemed to her as if she had seen that brow somewhere else, under
+dark locks; but there could not be a sharper contrast than between this
+too early aged, care-lined face and that youthful head with the
+foreign, southern beauty and the uncanny light in the eyes. Yet it had
+been the same brow over which the lightnings had flamed on that lonely
+forest height; the same high, powerful curve; even the blue veins which
+were so pronounced at the temples--a strange, incomprehensible
+likeness!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+After some hours the two friends were alone together in Wallmoden's
+study. The latter had just made the unavoidable as well as painful
+disclosure. He had told the Colonel under what circumstances Rojanow
+was in the city, and had unveiled to him uncompromisingly everything he
+knew of Hartmut's life and that of his mother, finally informing him of
+her death.
+
+He had feared this hour, but the result was quite different from what
+he had expected. Mutely Falkenried leaned against the window with
+folded arms and listened to the long explanations, without interrupting
+by a word or gesture. His face remained cold and impassive; no quiver,
+no motion betrayed that he heard those things which must bring anguish
+to his heart. He was now also "a man of stone."
+
+"I believed I owed these explanations to you," concluded the Ambassador
+finally. "If I have kept what I knew of the fate of the two from you so
+long, it was done solely that you might not be tortured unnecessarily
+with what was hard enough for you to overcome. But you had to learn now
+what has happened, and how matters stand at present."
+
+The Colonel retained his position and his voice betrayed no mental
+excitement as he replied:
+
+"I thank you for your good will, but you could have spared yourself
+these explanations. What is that adventurer to me?"
+
+Wallmoden looked up amazed; he had not expected such a response.
+
+"I thought it necessary to prepare you for the possibility of meeting
+him," he returned. "As you have heard, Rojanow now plays an important
+rôle; he is celebrated everywhere. The Duke is deeply wrapped up in
+him. You might meet him at the castle."
+
+"And what then? I do not know anybody by the name of Rojanow, and he
+will not dare to know me. We should pass each other as strangers."
+
+The Ambassador's gaze rested searchingly upon Falkenried's features as
+if to fathom this real coldness or incomprehensible self-command.
+
+"I thought you would receive the news of the reappearance of your son
+very differently," he said, half aloud.
+
+For the first time he intentionally used this title; hitherto he had
+merely said Rojanow. But now, for the first time also, an emotion was
+visible in the calm figure at the window. But it was an emotion of
+anger.
+
+"I have no son--remember that, Wallmoden. He died to me that night at
+Burgsdorf, and the dead do not rise."
+
+Wallmoden was silent; the Colonel approached him and laid his hand
+heavily upon his arm.
+
+"You said just now that it was your duty to enlighten the Duke, and
+that you had not done so solely out of consideration for me. I
+have, indeed, but one thing to guard in the world--the honor of my
+name--which, through that exposition, would be at the mercy of the
+world's raillery and scorn. Do what you think you must do--I shall not
+hinder you. But--I shall also do what I have to do."
+
+His voice sounded as cold as before, but it contained something so
+awful that the Ambassador started up in affright.
+
+"Falkenried, for heaven's sake, what do you mean? How am I to interpret
+those words?"
+
+"As you like. You diplomats define honor differently at times from us.
+I am very one-sided about it."
+
+"I shall keep silence inviolably, I pledge you my word," assured
+Wallmoden, who did not understand the last bitter hint, for he had no
+idea of Adelaide's confession. "I had decided on that before you came;
+the name of Falkenried shall not be sacrificed by me."
+
+"Enough, and now no more of it. You have prepared the Duke for what I
+bring?" asked Falkenried, passing on to an entirely different subject
+after a short pause. "What has he to say to it?"
+
+Here again was the old iron, unbending will, which put aside all
+questioning; but the sudden change seemed to be acceptable to the
+Ambassador. He was, here as well as elsewhere, the wise diplomat who
+dreaded nothing so much as public exposure, and who would never have
+thought of exposing Hartmut, had he not feared that by a possible
+leaking out of the truth later and of his knowledge of it, it might be
+counted against him. Now, in the worst case, he could cover himself
+with the promise he had given the father. Even the Duke must
+acknowledge that he--Wallmoden--had had to spare his friend. The shrewd
+Herbert knew how to calculate here, too.
+
+The stay of Colonel Falkenried was only of short duration, and during
+the time he had no rest. Audience with the Duke--conferences with high
+military dignitaries, communications with his own embassy--all were
+crowded within a few days.
+
+Wallmoden was hardly less occupied, until finally everything was
+settled. The Ambassador, and especially Colonel Falkenried, had reason
+to be satisfied with the results, for everything had been successful
+that was expected and desired by their government, and they could be
+sure of the highest appreciation at home.
+
+Only the most nearly connected circles knew that something important
+was going on, and even in these circles only a few knew the full
+importance of the conferences. Scarcely anything was noticed in public,
+which, therefore, occupied itself only the more with its present
+favorite, the poet of Arivana, whose incomprehensible behavior made him
+so much more interesting in the Residenz.
+
+Almost immediately after that brilliant triumph of his work he had
+withdrawn from all praise and homage, and had gone into "forest
+solitude," as Prince Adelsberg laughingly informed all questioners.
+Where this solitude was, nobody learned. Egon assured them that he had
+given his word not to betray the place of his friend's seclusion, for
+he needed rest after all his excitement, but would return in a few
+days. Nobody knew that Hartmut was at Rodeck.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+Within the week, one cold winter morning, the carriage of Herr von
+Wallmoden stood at his palace door. It seemed to be preparing for a
+long excursion, for servants were carrying furs and travelling rugs to
+it, while upstairs in the room where they had just breakfasted, the
+Ambassador was taking leave of Colonel Falkenried.
+
+"Until to-morrow evening, _auf wiedersehen_," he was saying as he shook
+hands. "We shall be back by that time without fail, and you will surely
+remain a few days longer?"
+
+"Yes, since the Duke wishes it so particularly," answered the Colonel.
+"I have so reported it to Berlin, and my report left on the same train
+that carried yours."
+
+"Yes, I believe they will be satisfied with these reports; but it
+has been a hot time. We had no rest all those days. Now, fortunately,
+everything is arranged, and I can afford to absent myself for
+twenty-four hours to drive to Ostwalden with Adelaide."
+
+"Ostwalden is the name of your new country home? I remember that you
+spoke of it yesterday. Where is it situated?"
+
+"About two miles from Furstenstein. Schonan drew my attention to it
+while we were with him and I looked at the place at that time. It is
+rather an extensive possession in the famous Wald, beautifully
+situated, but the price was too high at first, which has delayed the
+settlement. We have but now come to a final understanding."
+
+"I believe Ada is not quite satisfied with your selection. She seems to
+have something against the vicinity of Furstenstein," interrupted
+Falkenried, but the Ambassador only shrugged his shoulders carelessly.
+
+"A caprice, nothing more. At first Adelaide was quite delighted with
+Ostwalden, but later she raised all sorts of objections--but I cannot
+pay any attention to that. I shall probably remain there for
+considerable periods, as I no longer like to travel far in the summer.
+A country seat which is only four hours removed from town is therefore
+of great value to me. The castle itself is in rather a dilapidated
+condition at present, but something can be made of it. With appropriate
+changes and additions it can be made a really superb residence, and I
+intend doing that. I shall therefore look it over carefully, so that
+the plans can be finished as soon as possible. I have not been there as
+yet since I bought it."
+
+He made his statements with much evident satisfaction over his plans.
+Herbert von Wallmoden, who had originally possessed only a limited
+fortune, and was compelled to expend it with great care, had suddenly
+found it necessary to buy a sumptuous place in town, where he lived
+only temporarily, and to have a princely villa for his summer
+residence. But he did not find it necessary to consider the wishes
+of his wife, whose wealth made it possible to him to play the great
+land-owner.
+
+Falkenried may have had such ideas while listening, but he did not
+speak of them. He had turned graver and stonier, if possible, in the
+last few days, and if he really asked a question or made a remark
+during the conversation, one could see it was but mechanical, and
+because he had to say something.
+
+Only when Adelaide entered, perfectly equipped for the journey, he
+arose promptly and offered his arm to lead her to the carriage. He
+lifted her in, and Wallmoden, who followed her, leaned once more from
+the carriage door. "We shall assuredly return to-morrow. Au revoir."
+
+Falkenried bowed and stepped back; It was indifferent to him whether he
+saw the friend of his youth again. This, too, had lost its interest;
+but when he ascended the steps, he murmured half aloud; "Poor Ada, she
+deserved a better fate!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+In the meanwhile everything pursued its usual course at Furstenstein.
+Willibald had been there a week. He had arrived two days later than had
+been expected, but the injury to his hand was the cause of that.
+According to his explanation it had happened through his own
+carelessness, and the hand was already rapidly getting well.
+
+The Chief Forester found that his future son-in-law had changed much
+for the better during the short intervening time of his absence, and
+that he had become much more earnest and decided; and he remarked to
+his daughter with the highest satisfaction: "I believe that Willy is
+only now commencing to be human. One notices directly when his lady
+mamma is not standing commandingly at his side."
+
+But Herr von Schonan did not have much time at his disposal to notice
+the engaged couple, as he was at present overwhelmed with official
+duties. The Duke had ordered several changes in the forest government
+to be made according to the suggestions of the Chief Forester, who was
+now zealously occupied in executing all of them.
+
+He saw and heard daily that Antonie and Willy were on the best terms,
+so he left them mostly to themselves.
+
+Meanwhile in the house of the doctor at Waldhofen care and anxiety had
+made their appearance. The sickness of the doctor, which at first had
+given no cause for fear, suddenly took a dangerous turn, which was
+augmented greatly by the age of the patient. He had called persistently
+for his granddaughter, and she had been telegraphed for. She had at
+once obtained leave of absence--her rôle in Arivana was filled by
+another--and she hastened without delay to Waldhofen.
+
+Antonie showed a touching fidelity to her friend at this time. Day
+after day found her at the home of the Volkmars to console and cheer
+Marietta, who clung to her grandfather with her whole soul.
+
+Willibald seemed to be likewise necessary at these consolations, for he
+accompanied Toni regularly, and the Chief Forester thought it quite
+natural that "the poor little thing" was being consoled and helped to
+the best of their ability, more especially as she had suffered so
+unmerited an insult in his house, for which he could not to this day
+forgive his sister-in-law.
+
+Finally, after three long, sorrowful days and nights, the doctor's
+strong constitution conquered; the danger was passed, and hopes of a
+full recovery were entertained.
+
+Herr von Schonan, who was cordially attached to the doctor, was
+heartily glad of it, and so everything seemed to have come into the
+best of order.
+
+But threatening weather arose from the north. Without a word of warning
+Frau von Eschenhagen suddenly appeared at Furstenstein. She had not
+taken time to stop in town where her brother lived, but came directly
+from Burgsdorf, and burst like a hurricane upon her brother-in-law, who
+sat in his room very comfortably reading the paper.
+
+"All good spirits--is it you, Regine?" he cried, amazed. "This is what
+I call a surprise; you ought to have sent us word."
+
+"Where is Willibald?" demanded Regine in a dangerous tone, by way of
+answer. "Is he at Furstenstein?"
+
+"Of course, where else should he be? I believe he has announced his
+arrival here to you."
+
+"Let him be called--immediately."
+
+"But what is the matter?" asked Schonan, noticing now for the first
+time his sister-in-law's excitement. "Is there a fire at Burgsdorf,
+or what? I cannot call Willy to you this moment, for he is at
+Waldhofen----"
+
+"Probably at Dr. Volkmar's--and she is probably there, too."
+
+"Who is 'she'? Toni has, of course, gone with him. They visit that poor
+little thing daily--Marietta--who was quite despairing at first. I must
+speak a word with you on this point, Regine. How could you offend the
+dear girl so deeply, and in my house besides? I only heard of it
+afterward, or----"
+
+A loud, angry laugh interrupted him. Frau von Eschenhagen had thrown
+hat and cloak upon a chair and now drew close to her brother-in-law.
+
+"Are you to reproach me because I tried to avert the evil which you
+have brought upon yourself? Of course you have always been blind and
+would never listen to my warnings--now it is too late."
+
+"I believe you are not in your right mind, Regine," said the Forester,
+who really did not know what to think of it all. "Will you be so kind
+as to tell me what you mean?"
+
+Regine drew forth a newspaper and handed it to him, pointing with her
+finger to a paragraph.
+
+"Read!"
+
+Schonan obeyed, and now his face also grew red in angry surprise. The
+article, which was dated from the South German Residenz, read as
+follows:
+
+
+"We have just learned that a duel with pistols took place last Monday,
+very early in the morning, in a remote part of our park. The opponents
+were a well-known resident, Count W--, and a young North German
+landowner, W--v. E--, who is visiting his relative here--a high and
+distinguished diplomat. The cause of the duel is reported to be a
+member of our Court Theatre, a young singer who bears the best of
+reputations. Count W-- was injured in the shoulder. Herr v. E-- carried
+off a slight wound in the hand, and departed immediately."
+
+"Thunder and lightning!" burst forth the Chief Forester, violently.
+"The betrothed of my Toni has a duel for Marietta's sake! So this is
+the cause of the injured hand which he brought with him! This is
+charming, indeed! What else do you know about it, Regine? My paper did
+not notice it."
+
+"But mine did; it was copied from one of your papers, as you see. I
+read it yesterday and hastened here at once. I did not even stop to see
+Herbert, who cannot have known anything about it, or he would have
+notified me."
+
+"Herbert will be here at noon," said Schonan, throwing the paper
+angrily upon the table. "He is at Ostwalden with Adelaide, and has
+written that he will return by Furstenstein and stop over a few hours.
+Perhaps he is coming on this account, but that does not change anything
+in the matter. Has that boy--that Willibald--gone crazy?"
+
+"Yes, that he has," assented Frau von Eschenhagen in like anger. "You
+made fun of me, Moritz, when I exhorted you not to let your child
+associate with an actress. Indeed, I had no idea that matters could
+take such a turn until the moment I discovered that Willy--that my
+son--was in love with Marietta Volkmar. I snatched him instantly from
+the danger and returned to Burgsdorf. This was the reason of our sudden
+departure, which I kept from you, because I considered Willy's
+condition as a passing fancy. The boy seemed to have returned to his
+senses completely. I would not otherwise have permitted him this
+journey; and to be surer still, I placed him under the protection of my
+brother. He cannot have been more than three or four days in town, and
+now we must live to see this!"
+
+Quite exhausted, she threw herself into an arm-chair. The Chief
+Forester began to stride about the room vehemently. "And this is not
+the worst yet," he cried. "The worst is the farce which the boy is
+playing with his betrothed here. My child goes to Waldhofen day after
+day, consoling and helping wherever she can, and the Herr Willy always
+runs along, and uses the opportunity as a rendezvous. That is too
+outrageous! You have raised something nice in that son, Regine."
+
+"Do you think I make excuses for him?" demanded Regine. "He shall
+answer to us both--I have come for that. He shall learn to know me."
+
+She lifted her hand as if making a vow, and Schonan, who was still
+racing through the room, repeated angrily: "Yes, he shall learn to know
+us."
+
+Then and there the door opened, and the betrayed bride-elect entered
+into this wild excitement--calm and serene as usual, and saying in the
+most innocent way: "I have just heard of your arrival, dear aunt; you
+are very welcome."
+
+She received no answer, but from both sides instead sounded the
+question: "Where is Willibald?"
+
+"He will be here directly; he has gone to the castle gardener for a few
+moments, as he did not know of his mother's arrival."
+
+"To the gardener! Perhaps to get roses as before," burst forth Frau von
+Eschenhagen; but the Chief Forester opened his arms and cried in
+pathetic tones:
+
+"My child! my poor betrayed child! Come to me come into your father's
+arms."
+
+He attempted to draw his daughter to his heart, but Regine came upon
+the other side and also attempted to draw her to her breast, crying out
+in just as pathetic tones: "Compose yourself, Toni. An awful blow
+confronts you, but you must bear it. You must show your betrothed that
+he and his betrayal are an abomination to your deepest soul."
+
+This stormy sympathy was rather startling, but fortunately Antonie had
+strong nerves. So she freed herself from the double embrace, stepped
+back, and said with calm decision: "I do not think it so. I begin only
+now to really like Willy."
+
+"So much the worse," said Schonan. "Poor child, you do not know yet;
+you have no idea of anything! Your betrothed has had a duel for
+another's sake."
+
+"I know that, papa."
+
+"For Marietta's sake," explained Frau von Eschenhagen.
+
+"I know it, dear aunt."
+
+"But he loves Marietta!" cried both in accord.
+
+"I know that, too," replied Toni, with superior mien. "I have known it
+for a week."
+
+The effect of this explanation was so crushing that the two furious
+people became silent and looked at each other in consternation. Toni
+continued with imperturbable composure:
+
+"Willy told me everything directly upon his arrival. He spoke so
+beautifully and truly that I wept with emotion. At the same time a
+letter arrived from Marietta, in which she begged my pardon, and that
+was still more touching. So nothing was left to me but to give back to
+Willy his promise and freedom."
+
+"Without asking us?" exclaimed Regine.
+
+"The asking would not have been of any use here," said Toni, calmly,
+"for I could not marry a man who tells me that he loves another. We
+have therefore quietly dissolved our engagement."
+
+"So? And I learn it only now? You have become very independent
+suddenly," cried her father angrily.
+
+"Willy intended to speak to you the next day, papa, but he could not
+have remained here any longer after such an explanation, and just then
+occurred the serious illness of Dr. Volkmar and Marietta's arrival. She
+was in despair poor Marietta! and Willy's heart almost broke at the
+thought of leaving her alone in this anxiety and of going away without
+knowing what turn the illness would take; so I proposed to him to keep
+quiet for the present, until the danger should be past; but I went with
+him to Waldhofen daily, so that he could see and console Marietta. They
+have been so grateful to me--those two. They have called me the
+guardian angel of their love."
+
+The young lady seemed to find this very touching, too, for she carried
+her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen stood stiff and rigid as a statue, but Schonan
+folded his hands and said with a resigned sigh: "May God bless your
+kindness, my child! but such a thing has never happened before. And you
+have arranged the affair very smoothly, I must confess. You have sat
+and looked quietly on while your betrothed made love to another girl."
+
+Antonie shook her head impatiently. Apparently she liked the rôle of
+guardian angel, and found her position one she could fill without any
+great exertion, since her affection for her betrothed had always been a
+very cool one.
+
+"There was no sign of love-making, as the doctor was too seriously
+ill," she returned. "Marietta cried incessantly and we had plenty to do
+to console her. Now you see and understand that I am not at all
+betrayed, and that Willy has acted openly and honestly. I asked him
+myself to be silent to you, and, in fact, the matter concerns us
+only----"
+
+"Do you think so? It is therefore of no concern to us?" interrupted the
+Chief Forester furiously.
+
+"No, papa. Willy is of the opinion that we need not mind our parents in
+this matter at all."
+
+"What does Willibald mean?" demanded Frau von Eschenhagen, who regained
+her speech at this unheard-of assertion.
+
+"That each must love the other before marrying, and he is right,"
+declared Toni, with unusual vivacity. "It was not in our engagement at
+all--in fact, we were not even consulted--but I shall not permit it
+another time. I see now what it means for two people to love each other
+with all their heart, and how remarkably Willy has changed through it.
+I, too, want to be loved as Marietta is loved, and if I do not find a
+man who loves me exactly like that--then I shall not marry at all."
+
+And after this remark Fraulein Antonie walked out of the room with much
+decision and a highly elevated head, leaving father and aunt in an
+indescribable condition.
+
+The Chief Forester was the first to regain composure, but suppressed
+vexation was still in his voice as he turned to his sister-in-law and
+said: "Your boy has managed nicely, I must confess, Regine. Now Toni
+wants to be loved also, and begins to get romantic ideas in her head,
+and Willy seems to be far gone already in that respect. I actually
+believe he has managed to make this second proposal by himself."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen paid no attention to this bitter hint of her
+interference at the former time. Her face bore an expression which
+promised nothing good.
+
+"You seem to look upon this affair from a comic standpoint," she said.
+"I take it differently."
+
+"That will not help you any," returned Schonan. "When such a model son
+commences to rebel, the affair is usually hopeless, especially when he
+is in love. But I am curious to know how Willy behaves himself as a
+lover--it must be a remarkable sight!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+Herr von Schonan's curiosity was to be immediately satisfied, for Willy
+now appeared. He had heard of the arrival of his mother and was
+therefore prepared for anything, for that there must be something
+especial to bring her to Furstenstein so unexpectedly, he knew. But the
+young lord did not shrink back this time as he did two months ago, when
+he timidly concealed the rose in his pocket. His bearing betrayed that
+he was determined to take up the unavoidable contest.
+
+"Here is your mother, Willy," commenced the Chief Forester. "I suppose
+you are very much surprised to see her here?"
+
+"No, uncle, I am not," was the answer, but the young man made no
+attempt to approach his mother, for she stood there like a threatening
+storm cloud, and her voice rumbled like distant thunder as she said:
+"So you know why I have come?"
+
+"I at least guess it, mamma, even if I cannot understand how you have
+heard----"
+
+"The papers have told all--there it lies," interrupted Frau von
+Eschenhagen, pointing to the table, "and, besides, Toni has told us
+everything--do you hear? everything!"
+
+She pronounced this last word in an annihilating tone. Willy was not
+moved from his composure, but replied tranquilly:
+
+"Well, I shall not have to tell you, then. I should have spoken to
+uncle to-day about it."
+
+This was too much. The storm cloud burst now with thunder and
+lightning; it loaded and discharged with such vehemence over the head
+of the young lord that really nothing seemed left for him to do but to
+disappear quickly under the ground, which could not bear a person of
+his kind any longer.
+
+But he did not disappear; he only bowed his head to the storm, and when
+it finally subsided--for Frau Regine had necessarily to draw breath
+some time--he drew himself up and said: "Mamma, please let me talk."
+
+"You want to talk? that is remarkable," declared Schonan, who was not
+used to such efforts from his daughter's betrothed; but Willibald
+actually began, hesitatingly and uncertainly at first, but he gradually
+acquired firmness in speech and bearing.
+
+"I am sorry that I have to offend you, but it could not be helped. I am
+just as innocent about the duel as Marietta is. She was being followed
+by an impertinent fellow persistently. I protected her and chastised
+the offender, who sent me a challenge, which I never could nor would
+decline. I have to beg Toni's pardon alone for loving Marietta, and I
+did that immediately upon my arrival. She heard everything and gave me
+back my pledge. Indeed, we have broken our engagement much more
+independently than we formed it."
+
+"Oh, ho, is that meant for us?" cried the Forester angrily. "We did not
+force you--both of you could have said no if you had wished."
+
+"Well, we do that now as a supplement," returned Willibald, so quickly
+that Schonan looked at him amazed. "Toni came to the same conclusion
+that custom alone is not sufficient for marriage, and if one has
+learned to know happiness, one wants to possess it also."
+
+Fran von Eschenhagen, who had not yet quite regained her breath,
+started at these words as if bitten by a snake. It had never entered
+her mind that a second engagement would follow the first, now broken.
+She had never contemplated this most awful of possibilities.
+
+"Possess it," she repeated. "What do you wish to possess? Does that
+mean perhaps that you want to marry this Marietta--this creature----"
+
+"Mamma, I beg you to speak in a different tone of my future wife," her
+son interrupted her, so gravely and decidedly that the angry mother
+stopped indeed. "Toni has given me freedom; therefore there is no wrong
+in my love for Marietta, and Marietta's reputation is blameless--I am
+convinced of that. Whoever hurts or offends her has to answer to me,
+even if it should be my own mother."
+
+"Hear, hear! the boy is coming out," murmured the Chief Forester, with
+whom the sense of justice overpowered his vexation, but Frau von
+Eschenhagen was far from listening to justice.
+
+She had thought to crush her son with her appearance, and now he
+offered her resistance in this never before heard of manner.
+
+His manly behavior tried her most, as she recognized by it how deep and
+powerful was the feeling which could change him so completely.
+
+"I will spare you the enforcement of it toward your mother," she said
+with boundless bitterness. "You are of age, and master of Burgsdorf. I
+cannot prevent you, but if you really bring this Marietta Volkmar there
+as your wife--then I leave."
+
+This threat did not miss its aim. Willibald started and drew back.
+
+"Mamma, you speak in anger."
+
+"I speak in deepest earnestness. As soon as an actress enters the house
+where I have lived and worked for thirty years--where I had hoped to
+lay my head down for its final rest--I shall leave the house forever.
+She may reign there then. You have the choice between her and your
+mother."
+
+"But, Regine, do not force it to such a conclusion," Schonan tried to
+pacify her. "You torture the poor boy with this cruel 'either--or.'"
+
+Regine did not listen to the exhortation. She stood there white to the
+lips, her eyes immovably fixed upon her son, and she repeated
+unyieldingly:
+
+"Decide for yourself--this girl or me."
+
+Willibald had also turned pale, and his lips quivered painfully and
+bitterly as he said in a low tone:
+
+"That's hard, mamma; you know how I love you, and how you hurt me with
+your going away; but if you really are so cruel as to force me to
+choose, well then"--he straightened himself with decision--"then I
+choose my betrothed."
+
+"Bravo!" cried the Chief Forester, forgetting entirely that he was one
+of the offended ones. "Willy, I feel like Toni. I begin only now to
+really like you. I am positively sorry now that you will not be my
+son-in-law."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen had not expected such a turn of affairs. She had
+trusted in her old power, which she now saw fall into fragments, but
+she was not the woman to give in. She would not have bent her obstinate
+will even if her life had depended upon it.
+
+"Good! then we have finished with each other," she said curtly, and
+turned to go without heeding her brother-in-law, who followed her,
+trying to pacify her; but before they reached the door it was opened
+and a servant entered with a hasty announcement:
+
+"The steward of Rodeck is outside and begs----"
+
+"I have no time now," stormed the impulsive Schonan. "Tell Stadinger I
+cannot speak with him at present. I have important family affairs----"
+
+He did not finish, for Stadinger already stood upon the threshold,
+having followed the servant closely, and said in a peculiarly
+suppressed tone: "I come about a family affair also, Herr Chief
+Forester, but it is a sad one. I cannot wait, but must speak to you
+immediately."
+
+"But what is it?" asked Schonan, mystified. "Has something happened?
+The Prince is not at Rodeck so far as I know."
+
+"No, mein Herr. His Highness is in town, but Herr Rojanow is there and
+sends me. He begs you and Herr von Eschenhagen to come to Rodeck
+immediately, and you, gracious lady"--he glanced at Frau von
+Eschenhagen, whom he knew from her former visits to Furstenstein--"you
+would do well to come likewise."
+
+"But why? What has happened?" cried Schonan, now really disturbed.
+
+The old man hesitated; he had apparently been charged to break the news
+gradually. Finally he said: "His Excellency, Herr von Wallmoden, is at
+the castle, and the Frau Baroness also."
+
+"My brother!" interrupted Regine with apprehension.
+
+"Yes, gracious lady. His Excellency fell out of the carriage, and now
+he lies there unconscious, which means to the physician we called in
+great haste that the matter is dangerous."
+
+"In God's name! we must go at once, Moritz," cried the frightened lady.
+
+Herr von Schonan had already grasped the bell rope and pulled it.
+
+"The carriage as quick as possible!" he cried to the servant. "How did
+it happen, Stadinger? Tell us what you know."
+
+"The Herr Baron was coming from Ostwalden with the gracious lady,
+intending to come to Furstenstein," responded Stadinger. "The road, you
+know, leads through the Rodeck tract not far from the castle. Our
+Forester, who was with some of his subordinates in the Wald, fired a
+few shots, and a wounded deer dashed across the road in wild flight
+just by the carriage. The horses took fright and ran--the driver could
+not hold them. The two Foresters who saw it ran after them. They heard
+the Frau Baroness beg her husband: 'Remain seated. Herbert! for God's
+sake, no, do not jump,' but His Excellency seemed to have lost his head
+entirely. He tore the door open and jumped. At the wild pace they were
+going he fell, of course, with full force, and against a tree. The
+driver succeeded in bringing his horses to a standstill not far at a
+bend of the road. The Frau Baroness, who was not hurt, hastened to the
+place of misfortune as quickly as possible, and she found the poor
+gentleman there seriously injured and unconscious. The Forester's
+people carried him to Rodeck, which was near by. Herr Rojanow has
+looked after everything that could be done at the moment, and now he
+sends me to bring you the news."
+
+It was natural that under the pressure of this heart-rending news the
+recent bitter family quarrel should cease instantly. In great haste
+they made ready for departure. Antonie was called and informed, and as
+soon as the carriage drove up the Chief Forester and his sister-in-law
+hastened downstairs.
+
+Willibald, who followed with Stadinger, detained him on the steps for a
+moment and asked in a low tone: "Has the doctor given his opinion? Do
+you know anything more about it?"
+
+The old man nodded sadly, and answered also in low tones: "I stood near
+when Herr Rojanow asked him in the ante-room. There is no hope--the
+poor Excellency will not live through the day."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+The little hunting castle of Rodeck, which lay so cold and lonely in
+the first December snowy days, had seldom seen such excitement as
+to-day.
+
+It was about noon when the two Foresters, whose firing was the innocent
+cause of the disaster, brought the injured Ambassador to the house.
+They had known that the longer march to Furstenstein was impossible, so
+they turned toward Rodeck, which lay scarcely a quarter of an hour's
+walk from the place of the accident.
+
+Hartmut Rojanow, who was at the castle, was immediately called, and had
+made the necessary arrangements with quick decision. The rooms which
+Prince Adelsberg usually occupied were put at the disposal of the
+Baroness, and a messenger was despatched on horseback for the nearest
+physician, who, fortunately, was easy to reach.
+
+When the doctor's statement allowed no hope, Stadinger was sent to
+Furstenstein to summon the relatives, who soon arrived, but only to
+find Herr von Wallmoden dying. He did not regain the consciousness
+which he had lost in that awful fall; he lay there immovable,
+recognizing no one; and when the day drew to a close all was over.
+
+The Chief Forester, with Willibald, returned to Furstenstein toward
+night. He had sent a telegram before leaving Furstenstein, to notify
+the Embassy of the sad accident which had befallen its chief, and now
+had to follow it with the announcement of his death.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen had remained at Rodeck with her brother's widow.
+To-morrow preparations would be made to carry the body to the Residenz,
+and the two ladies wished to remain at his side until then.
+
+Adelaide, who had proved so courageous during the danger, and who had
+done her full duty at the bedside of her husband, seemed, now that this
+duty was over, to give way entirely under the sudden and prostrating
+blow. She was stunned and dazed by the awful accident.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+At the window of his room, which was in an upper story, stood Hartmut,
+gazing out into the desolate forest, which glittered so ghostly in the
+dim starlight. Yesterday had brought the first snow, and now everything
+was stiff in its cold embrace. The large lawn in front of the castle
+was deeply covered; the trees bent heavily under their white burden,
+and the broad branches of the firs were bowed to the ground.
+
+Up there in the dark night sky, star after star shone in calm splendor,
+and far off on the northern horizon dawned a slight rosy light, like
+the first greeting of the dawn. And yet it was night cold, icy cold,
+winter night, in which as yet no ray of the coming day could fall.
+
+Hartmut's eyes were riveted upon the mysterious glow. In his heart,
+too, it was dark, and yet something dawned there, fair and low,
+like the dawn of the morn. He had not seen Adelaide von Wallmoden
+since that fatal hour upon the forest height, until he met her
+to-day at the side of her husband, who had been borne, bleeding and
+unconscious--dying--into the castle.
+
+This sight forced back every remembrance, and demanded assistance to
+the extent of his power. He had not entered the death chamber, and had
+only received the doctor's report; neither had he appeared upon Frau
+von Eschenhagen's arrival, but later on had spoken with the Chief
+Forester and Willibald. Now everything was decided. Herbert von
+Wallmoden was no longer among the living, and his wife was a widow--was
+free.
+
+A deep breath agitated Hartmut's breast at the thought, and yet nothing
+joyful was in it, although his feelings had undergone a change since
+the hour he ventured his highest stake and--lost.
+
+But that hour had proved to him the deep abyss which was open between
+them even now that the bond of Adelaide's marriage was broken. She had
+"shuddered" before the man who believed in nothing--to whom nothing was
+sacred, and he was the same man he had been then.
+
+He had offered an apology without words in the creation of the added
+portion of Arivana which bore her name, but Ada had floated back to the
+heights from which she had come with her cry of warning, and mankind,
+with their glowing hate and love, remained upon earth.
+
+Hartmut Rojanow could not force the hot, wild blood which flowed in his
+veins into a quiet movement; he could not bow to a life full of strict
+obedience and duty--neither did he wish to. For what had the genius
+which won his way everywhere been given him, if it could not lift him
+over the duties and barriers of every-day life?
+
+And yet he knew that those large, blue eyes pointed inexorably to the
+hated path--that would never do.
+
+The red glimmer over the forest yonder had turned darker and risen
+higher. It looked like the reflection of a powerful fire; but that
+calm, steady light came from no fire. Immovable it stood in the north;
+mysterious, high, and far removed--an aurora in approaching splendor.
+
+The rolling of a carriage coming near in great haste broke Hartmut from
+his revery. It was past nine o'clock; who could arrive at such an hour?
+Perhaps it was the second physician who had been sent for in the
+afternoon, but who had been away from home; perhaps some one from
+Ostwalden, where the news may have already been carried.
+
+Now the carriage turned the corner of the lawn; the wheels crunched
+upon the hard, frozen ground, and the vehicle reached the main entrance
+of the castle.
+
+Rojanow, who to-day represented the master of the house, left his room
+and started to meet the new arrival. He had reached the stairs which
+led down to the entrance hall, and put his foot upon the first step,
+when he suddenly shuddered and remained rooted to the spot.
+
+Down there a voice spoke which he had not heard for ten long years; it
+was suppressed, and yet he recognized it at the first moment.
+
+"I come from the Embassy. We received a dispatch this afternoon, and I
+took the first train to hasten here. How is he? Can I see Herr von
+Wallmoden?"
+
+Stadinger, who had received the newcomer, replied in such low tones
+that the import of his words was lost to Hartmut, but the stranger
+asked hastily: "I do not come too late?"
+
+"Yes, mein Herr. Herr von Wallmoden died this afternoon."
+
+A short pause followed, then the stranger said, huskily but firmly:
+"Lead me to the widow--announce Colonel von Falkenried."
+
+Stadinger turned to go, followed by a tall figure in a military cloak,
+of which one could see only the outlines in the dimly-lighted hall.
+
+The two figures had long ago disappeared in the lower rooms, and still
+Hartmut stood leaning on the baluster, looking downward. Only when
+Stadinger returned alone did he collect himself and retire to his room.
+
+Here he walked restlessly for a quarter of an hour. It was a hard,
+silent conflict which he waged. He had never been able to bend his
+pride; had never humbled himself, but he had to bow low before his
+deeply offended father--he knew that. But again a burning, absorbing
+longing overcame him, becoming all-powerful and finally conquering. He
+drew himself up resolutely.
+
+"No, I will not shrink like a coward now. We are under one roof; the
+same walls surround us; now it shall be ventured. He is my father and I
+am his son."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+
+The castle clock struck twelve in slow, hollow strokes. Deathlike
+stillness lay over the forest outside, and it was as still in the house
+where a corpse lay. The steward and servants had retired, as had Frau
+von Eschenhagen. Exhausted nature demanded its due. She had made the
+long, tedious journey from Burgsdorf without stop, and had lived
+through the hard, trying day.
+
+Only a few windows were dimly lighted; they belonged to the rooms which
+had been appointed to Frau von Wallmoden and Colonel Falkenried, which
+lay near together, separated only by an ante-room.
+
+Falkenried intended to accompany the widow back to the Residenz on the
+morrow. He had spoken with her and Regine, and had stood for a long
+time beside the body of his friend, who only yesterday had called to
+him so confidently, "_auf wiedersehen_"--who had been so full of his
+projects and plans for his future and his newly acquired possessions.
+Now all this had come to an end. Cold and stiff he lay upon his bier,
+and cold and gloomy Falkenried now stood at the window of his room.
+Even this awful accident was not able to shake his stony composure, for
+he had long ago forgotten to consider death a misfortune. _Life_ was
+hard--but not death.
+
+He looked silently out into the winter night and he, too, saw the
+ghostly glimmer which lighted the darkness out there. Dark-red it now
+glowed upon the distant horizon, and the whole of the northern sky
+seemed penetrated by invisible flames.
+
+Redlike, as through a purple veil, twinkled the stars. Now a few
+distant rays shot up, growing more numerous, and rising always higher
+to the zenith.
+
+Beneath this flaming sky the snow-covered world lay cold and white. The
+aurora was shining in the fulness of its splendor!
+
+Falkenried was so lost in the glory of the sight that he did not hear
+the opening and closing of the door of the ante-room. Carefully the
+partly closed door of his own room was now opened, but the one entering
+did not bring himself into view, but remained motionless upon the
+threshold.
+
+Colonel Falkenried still stood at the window half-averted, but the
+flickering light of the candles which burned upon the table lighted his
+face distinctly; the strong, deep lines of the features, and the
+gloomy, careworn brow beneath the white hair.
+
+Hartmut shivered involuntarily; he had not anticipated such a deep and
+awful change. The man standing in his prime, looked aged, and who had
+brought this premature age upon him?
+
+A few moments passed in this deep silence, then a voice vibrated
+through the room half-audible, beseeching, and full of a tenderness
+suppressed with difficulty--a single word pregnant with meaning.
+
+"Father!"
+
+Falkenried started as if a spirit voice had reached his ear. Slowly he
+turned as if really believing he heard a spirit-haunting voice.
+
+Hartmut quickly approached a few steps, then stood still.
+
+"Father, it is I--I come----"
+
+He stopped short, for now he met his father's eyes; those eyes which he
+had feared so much, and what they now expressed robbed him of the
+courage to speak further. He bowed his head in silence.
+
+Every drop of blood seemed to have left the face of Colonel Falkenried.
+He had not known--he had no idea that his son was under the same roof
+with him; the meeting found him totally unprepared, but it did not tear
+from him one exclamation, nor sign of anger or weakness. Rigid and mute
+he stood there and looked upon him who had once been his all. At last
+he raised his hand and pointed to the door.
+
+"Go!"
+
+"Father, listen to me----"
+
+"Go, I say." The command now sounded threatening.
+
+"No, I shall not go!" cried Hartmut passionately. "I know that
+reconciliation with you depends upon this hour. I have offended
+you--how deeply and seriously I feel only now--but I was a boy of
+seventeen, and it was my mother whom I followed. Think of that, father,
+and pardon me--grant pardon to your son."
+
+"You are the son of the woman whose name you bear--not mine!" said the
+Colonel with cutting scorn. "A Falkenried has no son without honor."
+
+Hartmut was about to burst forth at this awful word; the blood rose hot
+and wild to his brow, but he looked upon that other brow beneath the
+hair bleached like snow, and with superhuman effort controlled himself.
+
+The two believed themselves alone during this interview in the
+stillness of the night--surely everything was sleeping in the castle.
+They had no idea that a witness was there.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden had not retired to rest. She knew that she could
+find no sleep after this day which had so suddenly and disastrously
+made her a widow. Dressed still in the dark traveling suit which she
+had worn on the unfortunate drive, she sat in her room, when suddenly
+Colonel Falkenried's voice reached her ear.
+
+With whom could he be speaking at such an hour? Was he not a total
+stranger here? And the voice sounded so strangely hollow and
+threatening.
+
+She arose in alarm and entered the ante-room which separated the two
+sleeping apartments--for only a moment, she thought--only to see
+that nothing had happened; then she heard another voice which she
+knew--heard the word "Father," and like lightning the truth flashed
+upon her, which the next words confirmed. As if paralyzed, she remained
+standing there, every word reaching her through the partly closed door.
+
+"You make this hour hard for me," said Hartmut with painfully sustained
+composure. "Be it so--I have not expected it otherwise. Wallmoden has
+told you everything. I might have known it, but then he could not keep
+from you what I have sought and won. I bring to you the laurel of the
+poet, father--the first laurel which has come to me. Learn to know my
+work; let it speak to you, then you will feel that its creator could
+not live and breathe in the constraint of a vocation which kills every
+poetical emotion; then you will forget the unfortunate error of the
+boy."
+
+Here again it was Hartmut Rojanow who spoke thus with his overweening
+self-consciousness and pride, which did not leave him even in this
+hour; the poet of Arivana, for whom there existed no duties--no
+barriers; but he encountered a rock here, upon which he shattered.
+
+"The boy's error!" repeated Falkenried, just as harshly as before.
+"Yes, they called it so to make it possible for me to remain in the
+army. I name it differently, and so does every one of my comrades. You
+were to have been an ensign. In a few weeks it would have been
+desertion of the standard by law also. I have never considered it
+anything else. You had been raised in the strict discipline of honor of
+our caste, and knew what you did, for you were no longer a boy. _He who
+flees secretly from the military service which he owes his fatherland
+is a deserter; he who breaks a vow--a given word--is without honor. You
+did both!_ But of course you and your kind pass over such things
+easily."
+
+Hartmut clenched his teeth; his whole body trembled at these merciless
+words, and his voice sounded hollow, choked, as he answered:
+
+"Enough, father. I cannot bear it. I wished to bow before you--wished
+to submit--but you yourself drive me from you. This is the same cruel
+sternness with which you drove my mother from you. I know it from her
+own lips. Whatever her later life was, and however through it my own
+has developed--this severity alone has been the cause of it."
+
+The Colonel folded his arms, and an expression of unspeakable disdain
+quivered around his mouth.
+
+"From her own lips you know? Possibly. No woman has sunk so deeply but
+she would try to veil such a truth from her son. I did not wish to
+pollute your ears at that time with this truth, for you were innocent
+and pure. Now you will probably understand me when I tell you that the
+separation was a demand of honor. The man who stained my honor fell by
+my bullet, and she who betrayed me--I pushed from me."
+
+Hartmut became white as death at this disclosure. He had never thought
+that. He had fully believed that only the harshness which lay in his
+father's character had caused the separation. The remembrance of his
+mother fell lower and lower; he had loved her just as ardently as she
+had loved him, even when he felt at times that she was his ruin.
+
+"I wished to protect you from the poisonous breath of this presence and
+influence," continued Falkenried. "Fool that I was! You were lost to me
+even without the coming of your mother. You bear her features; it is
+her blood that courses through your veins, and it would have demanded
+its dominion sooner or later. You would have become anyway what you are
+now--a homeless adventurer, who does not recognize his fatherland and
+his honor."
+
+"This is too much!" burst forth Hartmut wildly. "I shall not permit
+myself to be so abused, even by you. I see now that no reconciliation
+between us is possible. I go, but the world will judge differently from
+you. It has already crowned my first work, and I shall force from it
+the appreciation which my own father keeps from me."
+
+The Colonel looked at his son--something awful was in the glance; then
+he said icily and slowly, emphasizing each word: "Then take care also
+that the world does not learn that the 'crowned poet' did a spy's
+service two years ago at Paris."
+
+Hartmut shrank as if hit by a bullet.
+
+"I? In Paris? Are you out of your senses?"
+
+Falkenried shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
+
+"Acting besides? Do not trouble yourself--I know all. Wallmoden proved
+to me what rôle Zalika Rojanow and her son played at Paris. I know the
+origin of the means by which they continued the life they were
+accustomed to when their wealth was lost. They were very much sought
+after by the commissioners, for they were exceedingly apt, and they who
+bought their services received them."
+
+Hartmut stood as if lifeless. So this was the awful solution of the
+problem which Wallmoden had given him that night in his hint. He had
+not understood its meaning then, but sought the solution in another
+direction. This was it, then, which his mother kept from him--from
+which she had diverted him with caresses and coaxings whenever he
+put a suspicious question. She had sunk to the last, most disgraceful
+lot--and her son was branded with her.
+
+The silence which now ensued was awful; it lasted for minutes, and when
+Hartmut finally spoke again his voice had lost its sound--the words
+came brokenly, almost inaudibly, from his lips:
+
+"And you believe--that I--that I knew about this?"
+
+"Yes," said the Colonel, coldly and firmly.
+
+"Father, you cannot--must not do that. The punishment would be too
+terrible. You must believe me when I tell you that I had no idea
+of this disgrace--that I believed a part of our wealth had been
+saved--that--you will believe me, father?"
+
+"No." Falkenried remained rigid and unbending as before.
+
+Beside himself with anguish, Hartmut fell upon his knees.
+
+"Father, before everything that is sacred to you in heaven or in
+earth--oh, do not look at me so terribly. You drive me frantic with
+that look! Father, I give you my word of honor----"
+
+An awful, wild laugh from his father interrupted him.
+
+"Your word of honor as at that time at Burgsdorf. Get up--abandon
+acting; you do not deceive me by it. You went from me with a breaking
+of your word--_you return with a lie_. Go your own way--I go mine. Only
+one thing I request of you--command you. Do not dare to use the name of
+Falkenried by the side of the branded one of Rojanow. Never let the
+world know who you are. When that happens my blood will be upon you,
+for then--I end with life!"
+
+With a loud cry Hartmut sprang to his feet and approached his father,
+but Falkenried repelled him by a commanding gesture.
+
+"Do you think that I still love life? I have borne it because I had
+to--perhaps I considered it my duty; but there is one point where this
+duty ends; you know it now--act accordingly."
+
+He turned his back upon his son and walked to the window. Hartmut did
+not speak another word. Mutely he turned to go.
+
+The ante-room was not lighted, yet it was filled with the glow
+of the blazing skies outside, and in this glow stood a woman--deathly
+pale--with eyes fixed with an indescribable expression upon the one
+approaching.
+
+He glanced up and a single look showed him that she knew all. This was
+the last. He had received his mortal humiliation before the woman he
+loved--had been thrown into the dust before her!
+
+Hartmut did not know how he left the castle, how he reached the open
+air. He only felt that he should stifle in those walls--that he was
+driven forth with fury and power. He found himself at last under a fir
+tree, which bowed its snow-covered limbs over him. It was night in the
+forest--cold, icy winter night, but up there in the sky the mysterious
+light shone on and on with purple power, with quivering rays, which
+united at the zenith into a crown.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+
+It was summer again. July had commenced, and in the hot, sun-parched
+days the forest mountains beckoned irresistibly with their cool
+shadows, and the green, airy splendor of their dales and heights.
+
+Ostwalden, the estate which Herbert von Wallmoden had purchased
+immediately before his death, and had not been permitted to live in for
+even one summer, had since then rested in solitude. But a few days ago
+the young widow had arrived there in company with her sister-in-law,
+Frau von Eschenhagen.
+
+Adelaide had left the South German Residenz shortly after the death of
+her husband and returned home with her brother, who had hastened to her
+side at the news of her husband's death. Her short married life had
+lasted but eight months, and now the wife, not yet twenty years old,
+wore the widow's veil.
+
+Regine had been easily persuaded to accompany her sister-in-law. The
+once absolute mistress of Burgsdorf had stood to her "either--or," and
+as Willibald proved just as obstinate, she had made her threat true,
+and had moved to town even during the first period of mourning for her
+brother.
+
+But Frau von Eschenhagen deceived herself if she thought to gain her
+end by this last move. She had hoped that her son would not let it come
+to a real separation, but it was in vain that she let him feel the full
+bitterness of the separation. The young master had had full opportunity
+to prove that his newly awakened independence and love were not mere
+momentary feelings.
+
+He tried everything to make his mother reconsider, but when he did not
+succeed, he showed a like stubbornness, and mother and son had not seen
+each other for months.
+
+However, his engagement with Marietta had not been made public as yet.
+He believed he owed his former fiancée and her father too much respect
+to allow a second betrothal to follow too soon upon the heels of the
+first. Besides, Marietta was bound by contract to the theatre for fully
+six months, and as her betrothal was to remain a secret for the
+present, she could not obtain an earlier release. Only now had the
+young girl returned to her grandfather at Waldhofen, where Willibald
+was also expected.
+
+Of course Frau von Eschenhagen knew nothing about this or she would
+hardly have accepted the invitation which brought her into the
+neighborhood.
+
+The day had been so warm and sunny that only late afternoon brought
+cooler air, but the road to Ostwalden was mostly shady, as it lay
+through the forests of Rodeck.
+
+Two horsemen were now on this road; one in gray hunting jacket and
+hat--the Chief Forester, von Schonan; the other a slender, youthful
+form clad in a distinguished looking summer suit--Prince Adelsberg.
+They had met by chance and learned that both were bound for the same,
+destination.
+
+"I should not have dreamed of meeting you here, Your Highness," said
+Schonan. "It was said that you would not visit Rodeck at all this
+summer, and Stadinger, with whom I spoke the day before yesterday, did
+not know a syllable of your near arrival."
+
+"No; and he cried Ach! and Weh! when I fell upon the house so
+unexpectedly," replied Egon. "It would not have needed much to make him
+show me from my own door, because I followed my dispatch instantly, and
+nothing was prepared for me. But the heat at Ostend was well-nigh
+unbearable. I could not stand the glowing sands of the beach any
+longer, and was overcome by an irrepressible longing for my cool, quiet
+forest nook. God be thanked that I have gotten away from the heat and
+fuss of a watering place!"
+
+His Highness was pleased not to tell the truth in this case. He had
+hastened here from the beach of the North Sea to enjoy a certain
+"neighborhood" of which he happened to hear. Stadinger had mentioned in
+a report, in which he asked for permission to make some changes at
+Rodeck, that these same arrangements had already been made at
+Ostwalden, where Frau von Wallmoden dwelt at present.
+
+To his surprise, instead of the expected permission, his young master
+arrived in person after three days. The Prince had not known anything
+better after this news than to throw over all his summer plans.
+
+The Chief Forester did not seem to believe the pretext, for he remarked
+somewhat sarcastically: "It surprises me, indeed then, that our Court
+stays at Ostend so long. The Duke and Duchess are there; also Princess
+Sophie, with a niece--a relative of her late husband, I hear."
+
+"Yes, a niece." Egon turned suddenly and looked at the speaker. "Herr
+Chief Forester, you, too, want to deliver congratulations to me--I see
+it in your face--but if you do that I shall challenge you instantly
+here in the midst of the forest."
+
+"Well, Your Highness, I do not intend to bring a duel upon myself,"
+laughed Schonan, "but the newspapers already speak quite openly of an
+approaching or already consummated engagement, which suits the wishes
+of the princely ladies."
+
+"My most gracious aunts wish many things," said Egon coolly. "Their
+most obedient nephew, though, is often of a different opinion, alas;
+and it has been the case this time also. I went to Ostend upon the
+invitation of the Duke, which I could not refuse, but the air did not
+agree with me at all, and I cannot risk my health so recklessly. I felt
+the first symptoms of sunstroke, which would certainly have taken me
+off, so I decided, then, in good time----"
+
+"To take yourself off," finished Schonan. "This is like Your Highness,
+but now you can count upon a three-fold displeasure."
+
+"Possibly. I shall bear it in solitude and self-banishment. I intend,
+besides"--here the young Prince drew a very solemn face--"to give all
+my attention this summer to my estates--especially Rodeck. A change in
+the building shall be made there--Stadinger has already written me
+about it, but I considered a personal surveillance necessary."
+
+"On account of the chimneys?" asked Schonan dryly. "Stadinger thought
+that as the chimneys smoked last winter, he would like to have new ones
+built."
+
+"What does Stadinger know about it?" cried Egon, vexed that his old
+"Waldgeist" had again gotten ahead of him with his most uncomfortable
+love for truth. "I have very grand plans for beautifying---- Ah, here
+we are!"
+
+He started his horse into a quicker gait and the Chief Forester
+followed his example, for Ostwalden indeed lay before them.
+
+The extensive changes with which the late Wallmoden had intended to
+convert Ostwalden into a splendid show place had not been made; but the
+old ivy-covered castle, with its two side turrets, and the shady,
+although somewhat neglected park, possessed a picturesque charm. It was
+understood that the present mistress intended neither changes nor a
+sale of the property, for to the heiress of the Stahlberg wealth a
+villa more or less was of no consequence.
+
+Upon their arrival the gentlemen learned that Frau von Wallmoden was in
+the park; but Frau von Eschenhagen was in her room. The Prince allowed
+himself to be announced to the lady of the house, while the Chief
+Forester first looked up his sister-in-law, whom he had not seen since
+the previous winter. He went to her apartments and entered without more
+ado.
+
+"Here I am," he announced in his usual unceremonious manner. "I don't
+need to be announced to my Frau sister, even if she seems to hold me at
+arm's length. Why did you not come along, Regine, when Adelaide drove
+to Furstenstein the day before yesterday? Of course, I do not believe
+the excuse which she brought me in your name, and have now come two
+hours' riding on horseback to ask for an explanation."
+
+Regine offered him her hand. She had not changed outwardly in these six
+or seven months. She still bore the same strong, self-reliant
+appearance and decided way, but her former serenity and cheerfulness,
+which, in spite of her brusquerie, were so winning, had disappeared
+from her manner. If she never acknowledged it under any circumstances,
+it was plainly to be seen that she suffered because her only son grew
+strange to her--the son to whom once his mother's love and will had
+been all things.
+
+"I have nothing against you, Moritz," she replied. "I know that you
+have retained the old friendship for me in spite of all that has been
+done to you and your daughter; but you ought to understand how
+embarrassing it is to me to visit Furstenstein again."
+
+"On account of the dissolved engagement? You ought to be consoled about
+it at last. You were present and saw and heard how easily Toni took
+matters. She was decidedly better pleased with her rôle of 'guardian
+angel' than with that of fiancée; and she has tried several times to
+change your mind by her letters, just as I have; but we both have been
+unsuccessful."
+
+"No; I know how to value your rare magnanimity."
+
+"Rare magnanimity!" repeated Schonan, laughing. "Well, yes, it might
+not happen often that the former fiancée and prospective father-in-law
+put in a good word for the recreant betrothed, so that he and his
+sweetheart may gain the maternal blessing. But for once we are thus
+superior in our frankness; and besides, both of us came to the
+conclusion that Willy, in fact, has only now become a sensible person,
+and this has been accomplished solely and alone by--yes, I cannot help
+it, Regine--by the little Marietta."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen frowned at this remark. She did not consider it
+best to answer it, but asked in a tone that plainly betrayed her wish
+to change the subject: "Has Toni returned? I learned through Adelaide
+that she had been at the Residenz, but was daily expected home."
+
+The Chief Forester, who had accepted a seat in the meantime, leaned
+back comfortably in his chair.
+
+"Yes, she returned yesterday, but with a second shadow, for she brought
+some one along, who she insists must and shall be her future husband,
+and he insists upon it likewise with such emphasis, that really nothing
+is left for me to do but to say Yes--Amen!"
+
+"What! Toni engaged again?" asked Frau von Eschenhagen in surprise.
+
+"Yes, but this time she managed it all by herself; I did not have an
+inkling of it. You will remember that she took it into her head at that
+time that she, too, wanted to be loved in a surpassing manner, and
+enjoy the usual romance of it. Herr Lieutenant von Waldorf seems to
+have attended to that. He has, as she told me with highest
+satisfaction, sunk on his knees before her, and declared he could not
+and would not live without her, while she gave him a similar touching
+assurance, and so forth. Yes, Regine, it will not do any longer to lead
+the children by the apron strings when they become of age. They imagine
+that marriage is solely their affair, and really they are not so far
+wrong about it."
+
+The last remark sounded very suggestive, but Regine overlooked it
+completely. She repeated thoughtfully:
+
+"Waldorf? the name is quite strange to me. Where did Toni get
+acquainted with the young officer?"
+
+"He is my son's friend and he brought him home with him at his last
+visit. In consequence of that an acquaintance with his mother was
+begun, which ripened until she invited Toni to visit her some weeks,
+and there and then the falling in love and engagement took place. I
+have nothing to say against it. Waldorf is handsome, jolly, and in love
+up to his ears. He does seem to be a little volatile, but he will
+settle down when he gets a sensible wife. The model boys are not after
+my taste; they are the very worst when they do get wild, as we have
+seen in your Willy. Waldorf will get his discharge in the fall, for my
+daughter is not suited for a lieutenant's wife. I will buy an estate
+for the young couple, and the wedding will occur at Christmas."
+
+"I am so glad for Toni's sake," said Frau von Eschenhagen, cordially.
+"You take a burden from my heart by this news."
+
+"I am glad, too," nodded the Chief Forester, "but now you ought to
+follow my example and take a burden from the hearts of a certain
+other couple. Be reasonable, Regine, and give in! The little Marietta
+has remained true, although she was on the stage. Everybody praises
+her blameless conduct. You do not need to be ashamed of your
+daughter-in-law."
+
+Regine arose suddenly and pushed her chair back.
+
+"I beg you once for all, Moritz, to spare me such requests. I shall
+stand firm at my word. Willibald knows the condition under which alone
+I will return to Burgsdorf. If he does not fulfil it--the separation
+remains."
+
+"He knows better," said Schonan dryly, "than to give up his bride-elect
+and marriage solely because she does not suit his Frau mamma. Such
+conditions are never fulfilled."
+
+"You express yourself very amiably indeed," returned Frau von
+Eschenhagen angrily. "Of course, what do you know of the love and
+anxiety of a mother, or of the gratitude her children owe her? All of
+you are ungrateful, inconsiderate, selfish----"
+
+"Oho! I beg you, in the name of my sex, to refrain from such
+vituperations," interrupted the Chief Forester hotly; but suddenly he
+reconsidered and said: "We have not seen each other for seven months,
+Regine; we really ought not to quarrel the first day again--we can do
+that later on. Let us therefore leave your refractory son alone for the
+present, and speak of ourselves. How do you like it in town? You do not
+exactly look so very well satisfied."
+
+"I am exceptionally satisfied," declared Regine with great decision.
+"What I need only is work. I am not used to idleness."
+
+"Then create work for yourself. It rests solely with you to again step
+to the head of a large household."
+
+"Are you commencing again----"
+
+"I did not mean Burgsdorf this time," said Schonan, playing with his
+riding whip. "I only meant--you sit all alone in town, and I shall sit
+all alone at Furstenstein when Toni marries--that is very tiresome! How
+would it be--well, I have already explained it to you once before, but
+you did not want me then. Perhaps you have bethought yourself better
+now. How would it be if we should make the third couple at this double
+wedding?"
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen looked gloomily to the floor and shook her head.
+
+"No, Moritz. I feel less like marrying now than ever."
+
+"Already a 'No' again!" shouted the Chief Forester wrathfully. "Is this
+a second refusal you give me? At first you did not want me because your
+son and your beloved Burgsdorf had grown too near your heart, and now
+when you see that both get along very well without you, you do not want
+me because you do not '_feel like it_.' Feeling does not belong to
+marrying, anyhow only some sense is wanted; but if one is
+unreasonableness and obstinacy personified----"
+
+"You woo me in a very flattering manner, indeed," interrupted Regine,
+now wrathful also. "It would be an exceedingly peaceful marriage if you
+act like this as a suitor."
+
+"It would not be peaceful, but neither would it be tiresome," declared
+Schonan. "I believe we could both stand it. Once more, Regine, do you
+want me or do you not want me?"
+
+"No; I do not care to '_stand_' a married life."
+
+"Then let it alone!" cried the Chief Forester furiously, jumping up and
+snatching his hat. "If it gives you so much pleasure to say 'No'
+forever, then say it. But Willy will marry in spite of you, and he is
+right; and now I shall be the best man at the wedding just to spite
+you."
+
+With which he rushed off, quite beside himself at this second jilting,
+and Frau von Eschenhagen remained behind in a similar frame of mind.
+They had really quarrelled again at the first _Wiedersehen_, and even
+the second refusal could not be left out of this friendly habit.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+Meantime Prince Adelsberg was with Frau von Wallmoden in the park. He
+had begged her not to interrupt her outing, and so they both walked in
+the shade of the huge trees in the cool, green twilight, while out on
+the meadow lay still the glaring sunlight.
+
+Egon had not seen the young widow since the death of her husband. The
+formal visit of condolence, which he had made after the accident, had
+been received by Eugene Stahlberg in the name of his sister, and then
+they had left the city immediately.
+
+Adelaide wore, of course, the widow's mourning; but her companion
+thought he had never seen her so beautiful as to-day in the deep,
+sombre black and crepe veil, beneath which the blonde hair glimmered.
+His glance passed repeatedly over this beautiful blonde head, and
+always the question recurred: What has really happened to these
+features that they look so entirely different?
+
+Egon had only known the lady at whose side he now walked in that cool,
+haughty composure which had made her so unapproachable to him and the
+world. Now this coldness had disappeared, and he saw and felt but could
+not decipher the strange change which had taken its place.
+
+The young widow could not possibly mourn so deeply and seriously for a
+husband who was so far removed from her in age, and who, even had he
+been young, could never have given her the love youth demands, with his
+practical, coldly calculating nature. And yet there lay over her whole
+appearance the expression of secret suffering--of a sorrow which was
+mutely but painfully borne.
+
+Where did this mysterious line come from, this soft light of the eyes
+which seemed to have learned but now to know tears?
+
+"It always seems to me as if life and fire could glow there and
+transform the snow region into a blooming world," Prince Adelsberg had
+once exclaimed in jest. Now this transformation had taken place,
+slowly, almost imperceptibly. But this soft, half-painful expression
+which replaced the former seriousness, this dreamy look, gave a charm
+to the young woman which, with all her beauty, had been missing
+before--a charming, gentle grace.
+
+At first the conversation touched upon indifferent things only, the
+questions and answers that were customary and formal. Egon narrated
+incidents of happenings during the winter at Court and in town, and
+then offered the same explanation of his sudden arrival which he had
+given the Chief Forester, speaking of the unendurable heat at Ostend
+and of his longing for the cool, still forest solitude.
+
+A fleeting smile which quivered over the lips of his companion told him
+that she believed this pretext as little as had the Chief Forester, and
+that the notice in the papers had also been seen by her. He grew
+unaccountably vexed about it and studied how he could remedy the
+mistake, here where he could not be so plain-spoken, when Adelaide
+suddenly asked: "Shall you remain alone at Rodeck, Your Highness? Last
+summer you had a--guest with you."
+
+A shadow passed over the face of the young Prince. He forgot the rumor
+of his engagement and his anger about it at this remark.
+
+"You mean Hartmut Rojanow?" he asked, gravely. "He will hardly come, as
+he is in Sicily at present, or at least was there two months ago. I
+have had no news from him since, and do not even know where to write
+him."
+
+Frau von Wallmoden bent down and picked some flowers growing at the
+wayside as she remarked: "I thought you were in lively correspondence
+with each other."
+
+"I hoped so at the beginning of our separation, and it is not my fault;
+but Hartmut has become a perfect mystery to me lately. You were witness
+of the brilliant success of his 'Arivana' at our Court Theatre; it has
+since then been reproduced at several other theatres. The play is
+conquering by storm wherever it appears, and the author withdraws from
+all these triumphs--almost flees from his rising fame--hides from all
+the world, even from me. Let who can comprehend it!"
+
+Adelaide had regained her former erect carriage, but the hand which
+held the flowers trembled slightly, while her eyes were directed upon
+the Prince in breathless expectancy.
+
+"And when did Herr Rojanow leave Germany?" she asked.
+
+"At the beginning of December. Shortly before that he had gone to
+Rodeck for a few days immediately after the first appearance of his
+drama. I considered it a caprice and yielded. Then he suddenly returned
+to my house, in town, in a condition of mind and body which really
+frightened me, and announced his departure; listened to no entreaties,
+answered no questions, but remained firm about going, and really left
+like a whirlwind. Weeks passed before I heard of him; then he sent me
+occasional letters, which, if rare enough, at least kept me aware of
+his whereabouts, and I could answer him. He went to Greece, where he
+strayed now here, now there. After that he went to Sicily, but now all
+information has stopped, and I am in the greatest alarm."
+
+Egon spoke with suppressed excitement. One could see how deeply the
+separation from his passionately loved friend hurt him. He did not
+dream that the young widow at his side could have given him an
+explanation of the mystery. She knew what drove Hartmut to wander
+restlessly from land to land; what made him shudder before the famous
+poet's name which bore that secret but awful stain. But it was the
+first news she had heard of him since that disastrous night at Rodeck,
+which had discovered everything to her.
+
+"Poets are sometimes differently constituted from common mortals," she
+said, slowly plucking to pieces one of her flowers. "They have the
+right sometimes to be incomprehensible."
+
+The Prince shook his head, incredulously and sadly.
+
+"No, it is not that; this comes from an entirely different source. I
+felt long ago that something dark--mysterious--lay in Hartmut's life,
+but I never inquired into it, for he would not suffer the slightest
+touch on this point, and he kept silent persistently. It is as if he
+stands under a doom, which gives him no peace or rest anywhere, and
+which springs upon him suddenly when one thinks it buried and
+forgotten. I received this impression anew when he took leave of me in
+wild agitation; it was impossible to hold him. But you cannot imagine
+how I miss him! He has spoiled me with his presence for over two years
+and with all the advantages of his rich, fiery nature which he gave
+lavishly. Now everything has become desolate and colorless to me, and I
+do not know at times how I can bear life without him."
+
+They came to a standstill, for they had reached the limit of the park.
+Green meadows lay before them in the sunlight, and over yonder rose the
+heights of the forest mountains. Adelaide had listened in silence,
+while her gaze was lost in the far distance; but now she turned
+suddenly and stretched out her hand to her companion.
+
+"I believe you can be a very sacrificing friend, Your Highness. Herr
+Rojanow ought not to have left you; perhaps you could have saved him
+from this--doom."
+
+Egon could not believe his senses; the warmth of the heartfelt
+tone--the eyes in which a tear glimmered--the whole, almost passionate,
+sympathy with his sorrow surprised as much as it delighted him. He
+grasped the hand fervently and pressed his lips upon it.
+
+"If anything can console me for Hartmut's departure, it is your
+sympathy!" he cried. "You will permit me to use the privilege of a
+neighbor and come occasionally to Ostwalden? Do not deny me this, as I
+am so lonely at Rodeck, and I came here only and solely----"
+
+He checked himself suddenly, for he felt that such a confession was not
+appropriate but an offense, as he saw plainly.
+
+The young widow withdrew her hand quickly and drew back. It had
+required only this moment to transform her again into "Aurora."
+
+"To flee from the heat and noise of a watering place like Ostend," she
+finished coolly. "You said so, at least, a little while ago, Your
+Highness."
+
+"It was a pretext," declared the Prince, gravely. "I left Ostend only
+to put an end to certain rumors which were connected with my stay
+there, and which even found their way into the papers. They were
+positively without foundation so far as I am concerned, I give you my
+word, Your Excellency."
+
+He had quickly embraced the opportunity to dispel the error which he
+did not wish to suffer at this place at any price, but the result did
+not come up to his expectation. Frau von Wallmoden had again wrapped
+herself up in her old, unapproachable manner and made him suffer for
+his premature haste.
+
+"Why this solemn explanation, Your Highness? As it was only a rumor, I
+understand just as fully as your other neighbors that you wish to
+retain the privilege of choice. But I believe we must return to the
+castle, as you said that my brother-in-law had come with you, and I
+should like to see him before he leaves."
+
+Egon bowed assent, and tried obediently to accept the indifferent and
+every-day tone by which he was made aware that he should not be
+anything more here than a "neighbor." He took the first favorable
+moment at the castle to make his excuses, which were immediately
+accepted, but not without an invitation to come again had been given,
+and that was at present the most important thing.
+
+"Blamed haste!" he muttered as he galloped away. "Now I shall be kept
+as distant as ever, perhaps for weeks. As soon as one tries to approach
+the woman a little nearer--the ice stares into one's face. But"--and
+here the face of the Prince lit up--"but at last the ice commences to
+melt. I saw and felt it in that tone and look. I must be patient
+here--the prize is worthy one's perseverance."
+
+Egon von Adelsberg did not dream that this look and tone, upon which he
+built his hopes, were for another, and that she wished only to hear
+from that other when the permission to call again had been given.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+
+July had only half gone when the world, which seemed but now to repose
+in deepest calm, was suddenly startled from this peace. A lightning had
+flamed up on the Rhine, the glare and uncanny light of which reached
+from ocean to the Alps. A war-cloud stood heavy and threatening in the
+west, and soon the cry of war resounded through the land.
+
+It broke over Southern Germany like a whirlwind--tore men from their
+field of action, changed all conditions and overthrew all plans. Where
+a week ago comfort and security reigned, men were now grasped and
+carried away by storm.
+
+At Furstenstein the daughter of the house was celebrating her
+betrothal, but she had to take leave of her betrothed, who hastened to
+his regiment.
+
+At Waldhofen, where Willibald was expected for a long visit, he
+appeared suddenly in stormy haste to see Marietta once more in the few
+days which remained before he, too, should be called away.
+
+At Ostwalden, Adelaide prepared for departure, to once more embrace the
+brother who had hastened to join the standard.
+
+Prince Adelsberg had left Rodeck at the first news of war, and hurried
+to the Residenz, which he reached at the same hour as the Duke. The
+world seemed all at once to have gotten an entirely changed face, and
+the people with it.
+
+In the little garden of Dr. Volkmar's house stood Willibald von
+Eschenhagen, talking earnestly and impressively with the grandfather of
+his fiancée, who sat before him upon a bench, and did not seem to be
+acquiescent to what Willy was explaining.
+
+"But, my dear Willy, this is precipitation without an equal," the good
+doctor said, shaking his head. "Your engagement with Marietta has not
+yet been made public, and now you want to be married heels over head.
+What will the world say to it?"
+
+"The world finds everything explained under the present circumstances,"
+returned Willibald; "and we cannot go after outside considerations. I
+have to go to war, and it is my duty to secure Marietta's future in any
+case. I cannot bear the thought that she should have to return to the
+stage after my death, or should be dependent upon my mother's mercy.
+The fortune to which I am heir is in my mother's hands, who disposes of
+it exclusively. I possess as yet only the entailed estates which, in
+case I die, go over to a side branch of the family; but our family law
+secures the widow of the lord of the estates a rich dowry. If it should
+not be granted me to return from battle, I want to give my fiancée at
+least the name and position in life to which she has a right. I cannot
+go to the war contentedly until this has been arranged first."
+
+He spoke quietly, but with much decision. The awkward, timid Willibald
+could not be recognized in this young man, who overlooked the situation
+so clearly and pleaded so earnestly for his wishes to be granted.
+
+He had had, however, a school of independence in those last six months,
+when he had been put entirely upon his own resources, and had his
+firmness continually tried in the contest with his mother; and one
+could see that he had learned something in this school.
+
+His outward appearance was also more prepossessing; in fact, as the
+Chief Forester expressed it, he had only now become a man.
+
+Dr. Volkmar could not resist these arguments. He well knew that if the
+war took away her betrothed, Marietta would again be without means and
+without protection; and a burden fell from his heart at the thought of
+her secure future. Therefore he gave up all argument and only asked:
+"What does Marietta say to it? Has she given her consent?"
+
+"Yes; we decided on it last night, directly after my arrival. Of
+course, I did not speak to her about security and widowhood, for she
+would have been beside herself if I had dwelt at length upon the case
+of my death; but I told her that in case of my being wounded, she, as
+my wife, could hasten to me without preliminaries or companions, and
+could remain with me, and this decided her. We should have had but a
+quiet wedding, anyway."
+
+His face clouded at the last words, and the doctor said, with a sigh:
+"Yes, indeed, none of us would have been inclined to celebrate the
+wedding with festivities if the couple had to go to the altar without
+the blessing of the mother. Have you really tried every way with her,
+Willy?"
+
+"Everything," replied the young lord, solemnly. "Do you think it will
+be easy for me to miss my mother on such a day? But she has left me no
+choice, therefore I must bear it. I shall now take the necessary steps
+instantly, and in anticipation thereof have brought my papers with me."
+
+"And do you believe that a marriage can be possible on such short
+notice?" asked the doctor, doubtfully.
+
+"At this time, yes. The formalities have been reduced to the
+necessities, and all preliminaries are dispensed with where a hasty
+marriage is desired. As soon as Marietta is my wife, she will accompany
+me to Berlin, where she will remain until my regiment leaves. Then she
+will return to you until the close of the war."
+
+Volkmar arose and gave Willibald his hand.
+
+"You are right; it is perhaps best so under the present circumstances.
+Well, my little _singvogel_, so you will really marry as quickly as
+your betrothed wishes?"
+
+The question was addressed to Marietta, who now entered the garden. Her
+pale cheeks showed the trace of tears, but it was with an exceedingly
+happy look that she flew into Willibald's open arms.
+
+"I am ready at any time, grandpapa," she said, simply. "The
+leave-taking will be easier to us after we belong to each other and you
+give your blessing."
+
+The old gentleman looked half sadly, half happily upon the young
+couple, who wished to be united before their sad separation should so
+quickly take place. Then he said, with emotion: "Well, so be it: marry
+then with my blessing. I give it to you from my inmost heart."
+
+Everything necessary was then quickly discussed. The marriage was to
+take place as soon as possible, and, of course, quietly and simply.
+Willibald intended to go to Furstenstein to-day to notify the Chief
+Forester of the settled plan.
+
+Dr. Volkmar left them to make a call upon a patient, and Willibald
+remained alone with his fiancée. They had not seen each other for so
+long, and now the future lay dark and threatening before them. But the
+next few days belonged to them, and they were happy in this thought, in
+spite of everything.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+Engaged in their subdued chatting, they did not notice that the house
+door was opened, and some one came with slow, rather hesitating steps
+along the hall, until the rustle of a woman's dress upon the gravel
+path made them listen, and suddenly both sprang to their feet.
+
+"My mother!" cried Willibald, in joyful surprise; but at the same time
+he put his arm around Marietta as if he wished to protect her from a
+renewed attack, for Frau von Eschenhagen's face seemed hard and gloomy,
+and her bearing did not look like reconciliation.
+
+Without noticing the young girl, she turned to her son:
+
+"I learned through Adelaide that you were here," she began in a rather
+harsh tone, "and I only wanted to ask how everything is at Burgsdorf.
+Have you looked for a steward during your absence? One does not know
+how long the war will last?"
+
+The joyous expression on the face of the young lord vanished. He had
+really hoped for a different greeting at this unexpected appearance of
+his mother.
+
+"I have arranged everything to the best of my ability," he replied.
+"The greater part of my people have been called to enlist; even the
+inspector has to leave in a few days, and a substitute cannot be had
+now. Work must therefore be reduced to the necessities, and old Martens
+will overlook everything."
+
+"Martens is a goose," said Regine, in her old, terse way. "If he takes
+the reins, everything at Burgsdorf will go topsy-turvy. Nothing else is
+left for me to do but to go there myself and look after things right."
+
+"How? You would?" cried Willibald. But his mother cut him short.
+
+"Do you think I would let your possessions go to nothing while you are
+in the war? It will be securely cared for in my hands--you know that. I
+have held the reins there long enough and will do it again--until you
+return."
+
+She still spoke in the hard, cold tones, as if she wished to exclude
+every warmer feeling. But now Willy stepped up to her, with his arm
+still around his bride-elect.
+
+"You will take care of my worldly possessions, mamma," he said,
+reproachfully; "you will take them under your protection. But for the
+best and dearest thing that belongs to me you have no word nor look.
+Have you really only come to tell me that you will go to Burgsdorf?"
+
+Fran von Eschenhagen's harsh reticence could not hold fast at this
+question. Her lips trembled.
+
+"I came to see my only son once more before he goes to war--perhaps to
+death," she said, with painful bitterness. "I had to hear from others
+that he had come to say farewell to his bride. He did not come to his
+mother, and that--that I could not bear."
+
+"We should have come," cried the young lord; "we should have made one
+more attempt to win your heart before leaving. See, mother, here is my
+bride-elect--my Marietta. She is waiting for a friendly word from you."
+
+Regine threw a long look upon the young couple, and again her face
+quivered painfully as she saw how Marietta pressed shyly, but
+confidently, to the man in whose protection she knew herself so secure.
+Maternal jealousy stood a last, hard struggle; but finally she allowed
+herself to be conquered. She stretched out her hand to the young girl.
+
+"I offended you once, Marietta," she said, in a half-stifled voice,
+"and did you a possible wrong that time; but for that you have taken
+from me my boy, who, until then, had not loved anybody but his mother,
+and who now loves nobody but you. I believe we are quits."
+
+"Oh, Willy loves his mother as dearly as ever," Marietta said heartily.
+"I best know how he has suffered under the separation."
+
+"So? Well, we will have to agree with each other for his sake," said
+Regine, with an attempt at playfulness, which did not quite succeed.
+"We shall be in a great deal of anxiety about him soon, when we know
+him in the battlefield; care, anxiety, will be plentiful then. What do
+you think, my child? I believe we could bear it easier if we worry
+about him together."
+
+She opened her arms, and the next second Marietta lay sobbing upon her
+breast. Tears glittered also in the eyes of the mother when she bent
+down to kiss her future daughter-in-law; but then she said in the old,
+commanding tone: "Do not cry; hold up your head, Marietta, for a
+soldier's fiancée must be brave--remember that."
+
+"A soldier's wife," corrected Willibald, who stood by with beaming
+eyes. "We have just now decided to be married before I leave."
+
+"Well, then, Marietta really belongs to Burgsdorf," declared Regine,
+who was hardly surprised, and seemed to find this decision quite in
+order. "No arguments, child. The young Frau von Eschenhagen has nothing
+to do further at Waldhofen, except as she comes for a visit to her
+grandfather. Or are you perhaps afraid of your grim mother-in-law? But
+I believe you have in him"--she pointed to her son--"a sufficient
+protection, even if he is not at home. He would be capable of declaring
+war upon his own mother if she did not bear his little wife upon her
+hands."
+
+"And she will do that, I know it. When my mother opens her heart, she
+does it perfectly."
+
+"Yes, now you can flatter," Frau von Eschenhagen said, with a rebuking
+glance. "So you go with me to your future home, Marietta. You need not
+worry about the duties; I will attend to that. When I go away again it
+will be different; but I see already that Willy will hold you like a
+princess all your life long. It is right with me, just so he returns to
+us safe and sound."
+
+She reached out her hands now to her son, and those two had perhaps
+never been in a closer or more loving embrace than to-day.
+
+When the three entered the house, a quarter of an hour later, they met
+the Chief Forester, who actually started back at the sight of his
+sister-in-law. Regine marked his surprise with the liveliest
+satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Moritz, am I still the most unreasonable, obstinate person?" she
+asked, offering her hand. But Schonan, who had not recovered from his
+jilting, kept his behind him, and muttered something incomprehensible.
+Then he turned to the young couple:
+
+"So? And now you are to be married in hot haste. I met Dr. Volkmar just
+now and he told me about it; so I came to offer myself as best man. But
+perhaps that will not be acceptable, since the Frau Mamma is at her
+post."
+
+"Oh, you are just as cordially welcome, uncle," cried Willibald.
+
+"Well, yes, I can just be used as a secondary person in a marriage,"
+grumbled the Chief Forester, with a reproachful glance at Regine. "And
+so there will be a marriage before the war? One must say, Willy, you
+have marched with seven-league boots from your practical Burgsdorf into
+romance, and I should never have looked for it in you. However, my Toni
+is just as intent upon romance. She and Waldorf would have liked best
+to marry like this in steaming haste before marching orders came, but I
+have vetoed that, for circumstances are different with us, and I do not
+care to already sit at home, lonely as an owl."
+
+He glanced again with the very grimmest expression at Frau von
+Eschenhagen, but she approached him now, and said, cordially: "Do not
+bear malice, Moritz. So far we have always made up again. Let us forget
+this quarrel also. You see, at least, that I can say 'Yes' for once,
+when the whole happiness of my boy depends upon it."
+
+The Chief Forester hesitated a moment longer, then grasped the offered
+hand and pressed it cordially. "I see it," he acknowledged, "and
+perhaps you will now forget altogether that blamed 'No,' Regine, about
+another point."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+
+The Steward of Rodeck stood in the study of Prince Adelsberg's palace,
+in the Residenz. He had been called there to receive various orders and
+plans before the departure of his young lord.
+
+Egon, who already wore the uniform of his regiment, had given him
+verbal instructions, and now dismissed the old man.
+
+"Keep the old forest nook in good order for me as heretofore," he
+concluded. "It is just possible that I may go to Rodeck for a few hours
+before I leave, but I hardly believe so, for the order to march may
+come any day. How do I please you in my uniform?"
+
+He arose and drew himself up to his full height. The slender, youthful
+form looked well in the uniform of a lieutenant, and Stadinger measured
+him with admiring eyes.
+
+"Real splendid!" he assured the Prince. "It is a pity that Your
+Highness is not a soldier by profession."
+
+"Do you think so? Well, I am one now, body and soul. Service in the
+field will come rather hard to me, and I will have to get used to it
+first. But it does not hurt when one is under strict discipline."
+
+"No, Your Highness, it will not hurt you at all," remarked Stadinger,
+with his terrible truthfulness. "When Your Highness travels about for
+years in the Orient with a great sea serpent and a whole herd of
+elephants, or when you run away from the most gracious Court at Ostend
+because you do not want to marry at all--nothing comes of that but
+only----"
+
+"But only stupidity," completed the Prince, wisely. "Stadinger, I shall
+severely miss one thing in the campaign--your boundless tiresomeness.
+You want to give me a last curtain lecture--I see it in your face--but
+will spare you the trouble. Remember me rather to Lena when you get
+home. Is she back at Rodeck now?"
+
+"Yes, Your Highness, _now_ she is there," said the old man, with heavy
+emphasis.
+
+"Of course, because I march to France. But be content; I shall return a
+genuine model of sense and virtue, and then--then I shall marry, too."
+
+"Really?" Stadinger cried in joyful surprise. "How glad the most
+gracious Court will be."
+
+"That depends," teased Egon. "I may terrorize the most gracious Court
+with my engagement, and perhaps inflict cramps upon my most gracious
+Aunt Sophie with it. Don't look so stupid at this, Stadinger. You don't
+understand it, but I will permit you to crack your head over it
+during the campaign. But now go, and if we should not see each other
+again--keep your master in pleasant remembrance."
+
+Stadinger's face took on the grimmest of wrinkles to hide the upwelling
+tears, but he could not succeed.
+
+"How can Your Highness talk like that?" he muttered. "Shall I, an old
+man, remain perhaps alone in this world, and not see you any more--so
+handsome so young and happy! I could not live at that."
+
+"And I have vexed you so much, old Waldgeist," said the young Prince,
+giving him his hand; "but you are right--we must think of victory and
+not death. But, when both come together, then death is easy."
+
+The old man bent over his master's hand, and a tear fell upon it.
+
+"I wish I could go, too," he said, under his breath.
+
+"I believe it," laughed Egon; "and you would not look bad as a soldier,
+in spite of your snow-white hair. But we younger ones have to march
+now, and you old ones remain at home. Farewell, Stadinger----" He shook
+his hand cordially. "I really believe you are crying. You ought to be
+ashamed of yourself. Away with tears and sad anticipations. You will
+yet read me another lecture."
+
+"May God grant it!" sighed Peter Stadinger, from the depths of his
+heart. With wet eyes he looked once more into the youthful face, so
+full of life, smiling at him, so happy and sure of victory. Then he
+left sadly, with bowed head, realizing how much his young master had
+grown into his heart.
+
+The Prince cast a glance at the clock. He was to go to his superior,
+but saw that he had almost an hour yet, so he reached for the
+newspapers and plunged into the newest dispatches and reports.
+
+A rapid footstep sounded in the ante-room. Egon looked up in surprise.
+Servants were not in the habit of making such a noise, and callers were
+always announced. But this caller did not need any announcing, as all
+the servants knew. All doors were open to him in the house of Prince
+Adelsberg.
+
+"Hartmut, is it you?"
+
+Egon sprang to his feet in joyful surprise, and cast himself on the
+breast of the newcomer.
+
+"You back in Germany, and I have no idea of it! You wicked monster, to
+leave me for fully two months without news of you! Have you come to say
+good-by to me?"
+
+Hartmut had neither returned the greeting nor the stormy embrace.
+Silently and gloomily he suffered both, and when he spoke at last, even
+his tone betrayed nothing of the joy of this _Wiedersehen_.
+
+"I came straight from the depot. I hardly dared hope to find you still
+here, and yet everything depends upon it for me."
+
+"But why did you not announce your return to me? I wrote you
+immediately after the declaration of war. You were still in Sicily
+then, were you not?"
+
+"No; I left there as soon as war seemed unavoidable, and did not
+receive your letter. I have been in Germany a week."
+
+"And you come to me only now?" said Egon, reproachfully.
+
+Rojanow did not notice this reproach. His eyes rested upon his friend's
+uniform with almost a jealous expression.
+
+"You are already on duty, I see," he said, hastily. "I also intend to
+enter the German army."
+
+Egon evidently expected something entirely different. He retreated a
+step in boundless surprise.
+
+"In the German army? You--a Roumanian?"
+
+"Yes, and therefore I have come to you. Will you make it possible for
+me?"
+
+"I?" asked the Prince, whose surprise grew greater and greater. "I am
+nothing more than a young officer. If you are really in earnest in this
+strange resolve, you must go to one of the standing posts of command."
+
+"I have already done that at various places. I have tried it even in
+your neighboring state, but they will not accept the stranger. They
+demand all sorts of papers and references, which I do not possess, and
+torture me with endless questions. Everywhere suspicion and mistrust
+affront me. Nobody will understand my resolve."
+
+"To speak the truth, Hartmut, I don't understand it, either," said
+Egon, solemnly. "You have always showed such a deep antipathy to
+Germany--you are the son of a country whose higher circles know only
+French education and customs--which stands in sympathy exclusively with
+France. The mistrust of strangers is easily understood. But why do you
+not turn directly to the Duke, and personally accomplish your desires?
+You know how prepossessed he is with the poet of 'Arivana.' It will
+cost you only an audience, which will be granted you at any time, and
+an order from him will remove every difficulty and admit every
+exception."
+
+Rojanow's glance fell, and his clouded brow grew darker as he replied:
+"I know that, but I cannot ask anything from that side. The Duke would
+put the same questions as all the rest, and I could not withhold the
+answer from him, and the truth--I cannot tell it to him."
+
+"Not even to me?" asked the Prince, stepping up to him and laying his
+hand on Hartmut's shoulder. "Why do you insist so persistently upon
+entering our army? What do you look for under our colors?"
+
+Hartmut passed his hand across his brow, as if to wipe something away
+from there. Then he replied, heavily and huskily:
+
+"Salvation--or death."
+
+"You return as you went--a puzzle," said Egon, shaking his head. "You
+have hitherto refused every explanation. Can I not now learn your
+secret?"
+
+"Obtain me an entrance into your army, and I will tell you everything,"
+Rojanow cried in feverish excitement. "No matter under what conditions,
+only see that it is granted me. But do not speak to the Duke nor to a
+general, but turn to one of the lower commanders. Your name, your
+relationship with the reigning house makes your word powerful. They
+will not answer Prince Adelsberg with a 'No' when he himself speaks for
+a volunteer."
+
+"But the same question will be put to him as to you--you, a Roumanian."
+
+"No, no," cried Hartmut, passionately. "If I must confess it to you--I
+am a German."
+
+The effect of this disclosure was not as great as Hartmut might have
+feared. The Prince looked at him for a moment, amazed.
+
+"I have thought so at times, for the one who could compose an Arivana
+in the German language did not get this language by education, but had
+grown up with it. But you bear the name Rojanow----"
+
+"The name of my mother, who belonged to a Roumanian--Bojar's family. My
+name is--Hartmut von Falkenried."
+
+His own name sounded strange in his ears, for he had not pronounced it
+for years; but Egon grew attentive at the name.
+
+"Falkenried? That was the name of the Prussian Colonel who came on that
+secret mission from Berlin. Are you any connection of his?"
+
+"He is my father."
+
+The young Prince looked compassionately upon his friend, for he saw how
+terribly hard this confession came to him. He felt that a family drama
+was hidden here, and, too delicate to investigate further, he only
+asked: "And you do not want to proclaim yourself the son of your
+father, not a Falkenried? Every Prussian regiment would be open to you
+then."
+
+"No, they would be closed to me forever. I fled from the cadets' school
+ten years ago."
+
+"Hartmut!" Absolute terror was in the exclamation.
+
+"Do you also, like my father, consider me worthy of death for it? You,
+of course, have grown up in freedom and have no conception of the iron
+rule which reigns in these institutions; of the tyranny with which one
+is bent under the yoke of blind obedience. I could not stand it. I was
+forced to freedom and light. I begged--entreated my father--but in
+vain. He held me fast in the chain--when I broke it, and fled with my
+mother."
+
+He uttered this, all with wild, desperate defiance; but his eyes rested
+anxiously upon the face of his listener. His father, with his severe
+ideas of honor, had sentenced him; but his friend, who idolized him,
+who in passionate enthusiasm admired his genius and all that he did--he
+_must_ understand the necessity of his step. But this friend was
+silent, and in this silence lay the sentence.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+
+"You too, Egon?"
+
+In the tone of the questioner who waited several minutes in vain for an
+answer, there lay deep bitterness. "And you too, Egon, who have so
+often told me that nothing should hamper the flight of the poet; that
+he must break the fetters which would hold him to the ground. I did
+that--and you would have done the same."
+
+The Prince drew himself up with the firmness of decision.
+
+"No, Hartmut; you are mistaken there. Perhaps I should have fled from a
+strict school, but from the colors--never!"
+
+Here it was again--the harsh words which he had already heard once
+before--"fled from the colors." It forced the blood to his brow again.
+
+"Why did you not become an officer?" continued Egon. "You could
+have become one early at your home; you could have taken your leave
+then at an age when life only commences. Then you would have been
+free--honorably."
+
+Hartmut was silent. His father had told him the same, but he had not
+wanted to wait and submit himself to rules. A barrier had stood in his
+way, and he simply threw it down unconcernedly. But he threw down duty
+and honor with it.
+
+"You do not know all that stormed upon me at that time," he replied,
+heavily. "My mother--I do not wish to accuse her--but she has been my
+doom. My father had separated from her in early life. I thought her
+dead, when suddenly she entered my life and snatched me to her with her
+burning mother love--with her promise of freedom and happiness. She
+alone is responsible for that unfortunate breaking of my word----"
+
+"What word?" interrupted Egon, excitedly. "Had you sworn to the
+standard?"
+
+"No, but I had given my father my word to return when he allowed me the
+last conversation with my mother----"
+
+"Instead of which you fled with her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The answer was almost inaudible and was followed by a long pause. The
+Prince spoke never a word; but in his open, sunny face deep, bitter
+pain was depicted--the bitterest of his life, for at this moment he
+lost his so passionately loved friend.
+
+At last Hartmut resumed, but he did not raise his eyes. "You understand
+now why I want to force an entrance into the army at any price. Now
+that war has broken out, the man can atone for the boy's sin. Therefore
+I left Sicily immediately after the first threatening news, and flew as
+in a storm to Germany. I hoped to be able to hasten to arms. I had no
+idea of all the difficulties and hindrances which would be put in my
+way. But you can put them aside, if you intercede for me."
+
+"No, I cannot do that," said Egon, coldly. "After what I have heard
+just now, this is impossible."
+
+Hartmut turned deathly white and stepped up close to Egon with a
+vehement gesture.
+
+"You cannot? That means--you will not?"
+
+The Prince was silent.
+
+"Egon!" Wild, stormy entreaty was in the tone. "You know I have never
+made a request of you--this is the first and last one. But now I
+beg--entreat you for this friendly service. It is the relief from the
+doom which has hung over me since that hour. The reconciliation with my
+father--the reconciliation with myself--you must help me!"
+
+"I cannot," repeated the Prince. "The rejection to which you have been
+subjected may hurt you deeply--I believe it--but it is only just. You
+have broken with your fatherland--with your duties--and that cannot be
+mended so easily without anything further, when one has become of a
+different opinion. You fled from the service of our standard--you, the
+son of an officer! Now the army is closed to you, and you must bear
+it."
+
+"And you tell me that so calmly--so coldly!" cried Hartmut, beside
+himself. "Do you not see that it is a question of life or death to me?
+I saw my father again that day at Rodeck, when he hastened to the
+deathbed of Wallmoden. He crushed me with his contempt--with the awful
+words he threw into my face. It was that which drove me away from
+Germany, which chased me ceaselessly from place to place. His words
+went with me and made life a hell to me. I have greeted the war cry as
+a deliverance. I want to fight for the fatherland which I once cast
+from me, and now the door which is open to every one is closed to me
+alone. Egon, you turn from me! Oh--there is only one way left for me!"
+
+With a sudden, passionate motion he turned to the table, where the
+Prince's pistols were lying; but the Prince sprang at him and tore him
+back.
+
+"Hartmut, are you out of your senses?"
+
+"Perhaps I shall be so. All of you torture me beyond endurance."
+
+Boundless despair lay in those words.
+
+Egon, too, had turned pale, and his voice trembled as he said: "Before
+it goes so far--I will try to find an opening in a regiment for you."
+
+"At last! I thank you."
+
+"However, I cannot promise you anything, for the Duke has to be put
+altogether aside now. Besides, he leaves to-morrow for the battlefield.
+Should he learn later on that you serve in his corps, we shall then be
+in the midst of the storm of war, and one does not ask 'How' and 'Why'
+in the face of a completed fact. But it may take days before the
+decision arrives. Will you be my guest?"
+
+Formerly the Prince would have accepted that as only natural and would
+have been exasperated if his friend had refused; now he made the
+inquiry, and Hartmut felt what lay in the cold question.
+
+"No, I shall not remain in town," he replied. "I shall go to the
+Forester at Rodeck, and I beg that you will send your answer there. I
+can return here in a few hours."
+
+"As you wish. Then you will not go to the castle?"
+
+Hartmut gazed at him with a long, sad look.
+
+"No; to the Forester's. Farewell, Egon."
+
+"Farewell."
+
+They parted without a pressure of the hand, without a further word, and
+when the door closed behind him, Hartmut knew that he had lost the
+friend who had idolized him. Judged here, too--and cast out! He had to
+atone terribly for the old guilt.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER L.
+
+
+Over the Wald hung a dark, cloudy sky, which, from time to time, sent
+down showers of rain. Gray mists clung around the heights, and storms
+raged through the crowns of the trees. It was a regular autumn day in
+the middle of summer.
+
+The mistress of Ostwalden was alone at her castle. She had received
+news from her brother that he had already left, and that the meeting
+planned between them could not take place. Therefore Adelaide had
+postponed her departure to be present at the marriage of Willibald and
+Marietta, which was quietly celebrated in the presence of the nearest
+relatives.
+
+The young couple had left for Berlin, where Willibald was to join his
+regiment immediately. His young wife wished to remain near him the few
+days before the order came to march. From there she was to go to
+Burgsdorf, whither her mother-in-law had preceded her.
+
+The morning hours had not yet passed when Prince Adelsberg drove up to
+the castle of Ostwalden. He had asked for leave of absence to-day to
+"arrange some important matters"; but the important matters did not
+carry him to Rodeck, but to Ostwalden. He came to say farewell to
+Adelaide, whom he had not seen since that first visit.
+
+As his carriage entered the castle yard, they met the priest of the
+neighboring village with the holy sacrament, and attendant chorister.
+Apparently the last rites had been administered to one seriously ill.
+The Prince inquired to whom the sad visit had been paid, and learned
+that it was to one of the inspectors of the estate, and that the
+mistress of the castle was at present with the dying man; but the guest
+should be announced to her instantly.
+
+Egon restlessly paced up and down the reception room, into which he had
+been shown. He had come here to obtain an assurance, without which he
+did not feel able to march into a campaign of life or death; and the
+uncertainty with which such a campaign was ever taken, must serve as
+apology for thus approaching a young widow still in deep mourning. It
+need not yet be a proposal. He wanted to take with him only a hope the
+promise of which had risen so brightly at their last meeting, when
+Adelaide had shown such warm interest in his sorrow about his absent
+friend. He did not dream that he had made a fatal mistake. Still, in
+spite of this, a deep shadow rested upon the face of the Prince,
+usually so cheerful. It was not the leave-taking which gave him pain,
+for he went to the battlefield with glowing enthusiasm and the happy
+faith of youth, which dreams only of victory, and rejects all dark
+prospects. Besides, he dreamed of another happiness in the future,
+which he wished to secure now.
+
+The door opened to admit Frau von Wallmoden.
+
+"I beg your pardon for detaining you so long, Your Highness," she said,
+after the first greetings. "It was probably told you that I was beside
+a deathbed?"
+
+"I learned so upon my arrival," replied Egon, who had hastened to meet
+her. "Is the case really so serious?"
+
+"Alas, yes! poor Tanner! He used to be tutor in a family in the
+neighborhood, but had to give up his position on account of a serious
+illness. At the request of the Chief Forester, I gave him employment in
+cataloguing my husband's library, which had been sent to Ostwalden, and
+it was hoped that he would quite recover in the easy office and the
+invigorating forest air. He was so grateful for it, and told me only
+yesterday how happy his mother was that he should be excused from
+military service, on account of not being yet quite well. But suddenly
+this morning he had a hemorrhage, and the physician tells me that he
+can live but an hour longer. It is awful to see a young life bleed to
+death like that!"
+
+"And yet this will happen to thousands in the next few weeks," said
+Egon, gravely. "Have you been with the poor man?"
+
+"Yes, at his request. He knew how it was with him, and wished to lay a
+prayer upon my heart for his old mother, who loses in him her only
+support. I have calmed his mind on that subject, but it was all I could
+do for him----"
+
+One could see how deeply the scene at the deathbed had impressed the
+young widow, and Egon, too, felt deep compassion at the narrative.
+
+"I come to say farewell," he said, after a short pause. "We march the
+day after to-morrow, and I could not deny myself a visit to you once
+more. I am happy to have found you here, as I understand you intend
+leaving soon."
+
+"Yes, for Berlin. Lonely Ostwalden is so far remote, and in this time
+of feverish expectation one wishes to be as near the centre of
+communications and connections as possible. I am anxious about my
+brother, who has joined the standard."
+
+Again a pause ensued, and the Prince was about to break it with
+expression of what lay so near his heart, when Frau von Wallmoden
+anticipated him with a question, asked with apparent indifference, but
+in a voice which trembled slightly:
+
+"You were in much anxiety about the non-arrival of news of your friend
+at your last visit, Your Highness. Have you heard from him yet?"
+
+Egon's eyes fell, and the shadow which had been dispelled during the
+conversation returned, heavily and gloomily, to his face.
+
+"Yes," he replied, coldly. "Rojanow is back in Germany."
+
+"Since the declaration of war?"
+
+"Yes, he came----"
+
+"To join the army! Oh, I knew it!"
+
+The Prince looked at her amazed.
+
+"You knew it, Your Excellency? I thought you had known Hartmut as a
+Roumanian only, and through me."
+
+A deep blush suffused the cheeks of the young Frau von Wallmoden. She
+felt the exclamation had been a betrayal, but she quickly regained
+composure. "I became acquainted with Herr Rojanow last fall, when he
+was your guest at Rodeck," she answered, composedly; "but I have known
+his father for long years, and he---- I suppose your Highness knows all
+that has happened?"
+
+"Yes, I know it now," said Egon, with heavy emphasis.
+
+"Colonel Falkenried was a near friend of my father's and visited our
+house frequently, although I had never heard of his son. I had
+considered the Colonel childless until that awful hour at Rodeck, the
+day my husband died. Then I learned the truth, and was a witness of a
+meeting between father and son."
+
+The Prince breathed a sigh of relief at this explanation, which
+dispelled the disastrous thought just dawning upon him.
+
+"I understand your concern, then," he replied. "Colonel Falkenried is,
+indeed, to be pitied."
+
+"He only?" asked Adelaide, struck by the harsh tone of the last words.
+"And your friend?"
+
+"I have no friend--I have lost him!" cried Egon, with passionate pain.
+"What he confessed to me two days ago opened an abyss between us, and
+what I know now parts us forever."
+
+"You judge the misdemeanor of a seventeen-year-old lad very severely.
+He must have been only a boy then."
+
+A deep reproach lay in the words of the young widow; but the Prince
+shook his head vehemently.
+
+"I do not speak of that flight and that breaking of his word, although
+they weigh heavily with the son of an officer. But what I heard
+yesterday--I see you do not yet know the worst, gracious lady, and how
+should you? Spare me this report."
+
+Adelaide had turned pale, and her eyes, full of fear, hung fixed upon
+the speaker.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LI.
+
+
+"I beg of Your Highness," Adelaide commenced again, "to tell me the
+truth--the whole truth. You said that Herr Rojanow had returned to join
+the army. I had thought he would--had expected it--for it is the only
+thing by which he can atone for his old guilt. Has he joined the
+standard already?"
+
+"Happily it has not gone so far, and that has spared me a heavy
+responsibility," said Egon, with supreme bitterness. "He reported to
+several regiments, but was refused everywhere."
+
+"Refused! But why?"
+
+"Because he did not dare to confess himself a German, and because a
+very just suspicion was raised toward the strange Roumanian. One has to
+be cautious at the present time that no--spies may force their way into
+the ranks of our armies."
+
+"For God's sake, what do you mean?" cried Adelaide, who began now to
+comprehend the situation.
+
+Egon sprang up in great excitement and drew nearer.
+
+"If you wish, then, to know it, gracious lady--listen. Hartmut came to
+me and requested me to use my influence to make the entrance into one
+of our regiments possible to him. I refused at first, but he forced me
+to consent by a threat which was hardly meant seriously. I kept my word
+and asked one of our higher officers, whose brother was secretary to
+our embassy at Paris and who had just returned from there with him.
+This gentleman was present at our interview. He heard the name,
+Rojanow--inquired further into the matter and gave me disclosures; I
+cannot repeat them. I have loved Hartmut as I have nothing else upon
+this earth--have almost idolized him. I let myself be carried away by
+the force of his genius, and now I learn that the friend who was
+everything to me is a monster; that he and his mother did service as
+spies at Paris. Perhaps he wished to do the same in our army!"
+
+He covered his eyes with his hand, and there was something awful in the
+agony of the young man whose idol had been so ruthlessly shattered.
+
+Adelaide had risen, and the hand with which she leaned upon the back of
+the chair trembled.
+
+"And what have you--has he--answered to that?"
+
+"Do you mean Rojanow? I have not seen him since and shall not see him
+again. I shall spare myself and him that much. He is now at the
+forestry at Rodeck and awaits my answer there. I have notified him in
+three lines of what I learned, without adding a remark or a word. He
+has probably received the letter and will understand it sufficiently."
+
+"Good God! that will drive him to his death," Adelaide burst forth.
+"How could you do it! How could you judge the unfortunate one without
+hearing him!"
+
+"The unfortunate one!" repeated the Prince cuttingly. "Do you really
+consider him that?"
+
+"Yes, for I do not hear these awful accusations for the first time. His
+father cast them in his face at that meeting."
+
+"Well, if even his own father accuses him----"
+
+"The deeply offended, deeply embittered man! He cannot have an unbiased
+judgment, but you--the friend of Hartmut--you, who stood so near
+him--you ought to have stepped in and defended him."
+
+Egon looked with questioning surprise upon the excited lady.
+
+"You appear to wish to do so now, Your Excellency," he said slowly. "I
+cannot do it, for there is too much in Hartmut's life which confirms
+the suspicion. It explains everything to me that has hitherto seemed
+mysterious. These are quite decided facts upon which the accusation is
+based----"
+
+"Against the mother! She has ever been the doom--the ruin--of her son;
+but he did not know the shameful work to which she had fallen; he lived
+at her side ignorant of it. I saw how he broke down when his father
+uttered the awful words--how he struggled against it as in a death
+struggle. That was truth--that was the despair of a man who is being
+punished more deeply than he has transgressed. That flight--that
+breaking of his word--robs him now of the faith of those who stand
+nearest to him. But if his father and his friend both so judge him--_I
+believe in him!_ It is not true! He is not guilty!"
+
+She had drawn herself fully erect in her stormy excitement. Her cheeks
+glowed; her eyes sparkled, and her tone and words contained that
+convincing passion which only love knows when defending the loved one.
+
+Egon stood there transfixed and looked at her. There it was--the
+awakening, of which he had often dreamed, Fire and life glowed there
+now--a blooming world arose from the ice; but it was another who had
+called it forth.
+
+"I do not dare to decide as to whether you are right, gracious lady,"
+said the Prince in a toneless voice, after a brief silence. "I only
+know one thing. Whether Hartmut be guilty or not, he is enviable in
+this hour."
+
+Adelaide shrank back; she understood the hint and lowered her head
+mutely before the reproachful glance.
+
+"I came to say farewell," continued Egon. "I intended to add a
+question--a prayer--to this leave-taking, but that is over now. I have
+only to bid you farewell."
+
+Adelaide raised her eyes, in which hot tears glistened, and offered her
+hand.
+
+"Farewell, and may God take you in His care and keeping during the
+campaign!"
+
+But Prince Adelsberg shook his head silently.
+
+"What shall I do with life?" he finally cried in overwhelming sorrow.
+"I should like best--no, do not look at me so entreatingly! I know now
+that I made a fatal mistake, and I will not torture you with a
+confession; but, Adelaide, I would gladly die could I buy with death
+the look and tone you had just now for another. Farewell!"
+
+Once more he pressed her hand to his lips, then hastened away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LII.
+
+
+The storm had increased in violence during the afternoon. It roamed in
+the forest, dashed among the open heights and chased the clouds over
+the sky with increasing wrath. It raged with full force around that
+forest height which had once witnessed such a significant encounter
+between two people, but the man who leaned there now alone and lonely
+at the trunk of a tree did not seem to feel it, for he stood immovable
+in the midst of it.
+
+Hartmut's face was deathly pale; a stony, unnatural calm rested upon
+it, and the sparkle of the eyes had died out, while the hair fell heavy
+and damp over his brow. The storm had torn his hat from his head; he
+had noticed it as little as the rain which drenched him.
+
+He had found himself at this place after hours of roaming through the
+forest--here, where a remembrance drew him unconsciously. It was the
+right place for his purpose.
+
+The news which had been looked for so feverishly had finally come; no
+letter; nothing but a few lines without any preface, and with only the
+signature, "Egon--Prince Adelsberg." But in these lines there lay
+annihilation for him who received them. Cast out forever--judged by his
+friend without a hearing! Doom had awfully fulfilled itself in the son
+of Zalika.
+
+The crashing of a huge limb which broke under the pressure of the storm
+and fell whizzing to the ground, aroused Hartmut from his despairing
+revery. He had not even started at the crash, but slowly turned his
+glance to the heavy mass which fell close to him. A foot nearer and it
+would have struck him--would perhaps have made an end of all the shame
+and torture in one moment; but death was not made so easy for him. That
+blessing came to him only who loved life--he who wished to throw it
+away must do so with his own hand.
+
+Hartmut took the gun from his shoulder and put the butt to the ground;
+then he laid his hand upon his breast to find the right place. Once
+more he glanced up to the veiled skies with their scudding masses of
+clouds, and down to the little dark forest lake in the deceiving
+meadow, over which the fog clustered as at that time at home. The
+beckoning, charming will-o'-the-wisp had appeared to him there; he had
+followed the flame of the depths, and now it drew him down hopelessly;
+there was no further rising into the heights where other, brighter
+lights shone. A bullet in the heart and everything would be at an end.
+
+He was about to grasp the trigger when he heard his name called in a
+tone of deadly anxiety. A slender figure in a dark cloak sprang toward
+him from the edge of the forest, and the weapon fell from his hand, for
+he gazed into the face of Adelaide, who stood trembling before him.
+
+Moments passed without a word from either. It was Hartmut who recovered
+first.
+
+"You here, gracious lady?" he asked with enforced calmness. "Are you
+out in the forest in this weather?"
+
+"I should like to put the same question to you."
+
+"I have been hunting, but the weather is unpropitious, and I was about
+to discharge my gun----"
+
+He did not finish, for the sad, reproachful glance upon him told that
+the lie was in vain. He broke off and looked gloomily before him.
+Adelaide, too, gave up all pretense, and in her voice all her anxiety
+trembled as she cried: "Herr von Falkenried, what did you intend to
+do?"
+
+"What would have now been done had you not interfered," said Hartmut,
+harshly. "And believe me, gracious lady, it would have been better if
+coincidence had brought you here a few moments later."
+
+"It was no coincidence. I was at the forestry at Rodeck, and heard that
+you had been gone for hours. An awful presentiment drove me to look for
+you here. I was almost sure I should find you here."
+
+"You looked for me? Me, Ada?" His voice shook at the question. "How did
+you know that I was at the forestry?"
+
+"Through Prince Adelsberg, who called to see me this morning. You
+received a letter from him?"
+
+"No, only a communication," returned Hartmut with quivering lips. "No
+single word was directed to me personally in the short lines; they
+brought only a communication in a business tone which the Prince
+thought necessary. I fully understood it."
+
+Adelaide was silent; she had known it would drive him to suicide.
+Slowly she walked with him under the protection of the trees, for it
+was hardly possible to keep erect out in the open space in this raging
+storm, but Hartmut did not seem to feel it.
+
+"You know the contents of the communication--I see that you do," he
+commenced again, "and it is not new to you, either. You overheard what
+happened that night at Rodeck, but believe me, Ada, what I felt at that
+moment when you stood before me in that ghostly glow which shone
+through that night, and it grew clear to me that I had been ground into
+the dust before you--what I felt might have satisfied even my father's
+vengeance, might have atoned for all my sin."
+
+"You do him wrong," replied the young widow solemnly. "You saw him only
+in the stern, iron inflexibility with which he cast you from him. I saw
+him differently after you had gone. He broke down there in wild
+anguish; he then let me look into the heart of a despairing father who
+loved his son above everything. Have you not made an attempt since then
+to convince him?"
+
+"No; he would believe me as little as Egon does. He who has once broken
+his word, has lost forever their faith, even if he would regain it with
+his life. Perhaps my death upon the battlefield would have enlightened
+them, but when I fall now by my own hand they will see in it only the
+deed of a despairing man--a guilty one--and will despise me even in my
+grave."
+
+"Not everybody will do that," said Adelaide lowly. "I believe in you,
+Hartmut, in spite of everything."
+
+He looked at her, and through the gloomy hopelessness of his soul there
+flamed something of the old fire.
+
+"You, Ada? And you tell me that upon this spot where you cast me off?
+You did not know anything about me then----"
+
+"And for that reason I shuddered before the man to whom nothing was
+sacred--who recognized no law but his will and his passions; but that
+winter night, when I saw you at your father's feet, showed me that you
+fell more through doom than guilt. Since then I have known that you can
+and must cast that unfortunate inheritance from your mother far from
+you. Rouse yourself, Hartmut. The road which I then showed you is still
+open; whether it leads to life or death--it leads upward."
+
+He shook his head gloomily.
+
+"No, that is past. You have no conception of what my father has done to
+me with his terrible words. What my life has been since then I--but let
+me be silent about it; nobody can grasp it; but I thank you for your
+faith in me, Ada. Death is made easier to me through that faith."
+
+The young widow made a quick motion toward the weapon which lay at his
+feet.
+
+"For God's sake, no! You dare not do that!"
+
+"What am I to do with life?" Hartmut burst forth with terrible
+vehemence. "My mother has branded me as with a red-hot iron, and this
+closes to me every way to atonement--to salvation. I am cast out from
+the ranks of my people, where even the poorest peasant can fight; a
+privilege which is denied only to the dishonorable criminal, is denied
+also to me, for I am nothing else in Egon's eyes. He fears that I might
+become a traitor--a spy to my own brothers!"
+
+He covered his face with both hands, and the last words died in a sob;
+then he felt a hand touch his arm gently.
+
+"The brand is extinguished with the name Rojanow. Throw that from you,
+Hartmut; I bring you what you tried in vain to obtain--entrance into
+the army!"
+
+Hartmut started and gazed at her in unbelief.
+
+"Impossible! How could you----"
+
+"Take these papers," interrupted Adelaide, drawing forth a package.
+"They are made out in the name of Joseph Tanner 29 years old, slender,
+with dark complexion, black hair and eyes--you see everything will
+suit--with these nobody will refuse you an entrance as a volunteer."
+
+She gave him the papers, around which his right hand closed
+spasmodically as upon the most precious jewel.
+
+"And these papers?" he asked, still doubting.
+
+"Belong to a dead man. They were given me for another purpose, but the
+deceased has no further use for them and will pardon me if with them I
+save a living man."
+
+Hartmut stormily opened the package. The wind almost tore the sheets
+from his hand and he was scarcely able to decipher the contents as the
+young widow continued:
+
+"Joseph Tanner had a small office at Ostwalden, when seized with a
+hemorrhage this morning. He had but a few hours to live and gave me his
+last words and mementos for his mother. The poor woman shall receive
+everything--every letter, every scrap which can be a solace to her, but
+I have taken the official papers--for you. We do not rob anybody in
+doing this, for they are valueless to the mother to whom they now
+belong. Perhaps a strict judge would call that deceit, but I gladly
+shoulder the blame, and God will pardon it, and so will the
+fatherland."
+
+Hartmut closed the case and hid it in his breast, which heaved under a
+deep, deep breath. Then he drew himself up and pushed the rain-soaked
+locks from the high brow, so like his father's--his only inheritance
+from the Falkenrieds, but which gave him an unmistakable resemblance to
+them.
+
+"You are right, Ada," he said. "I cannot thank you in words for what
+you have done for me. Words have no power, but--I shall strive to
+deserve it."
+
+"I know that. Farewell and--_auf wiedersehen!_"
+
+"No, do not wish that," said Hartmut gloomily. "Death in battle can
+exonerate me to myself, but not to my father or Egon, for they would
+never hear of it; and if I remained among the living the old stain
+would return; but when I fall, tell them who rests under the foreign
+name. Perhaps then they will believe you and remove the curse from my
+grave."
+
+"Do you want to fall?" asked Adelaide with plaintive reproach, "even if
+I tell you that you sadden me inexpressibly?"
+
+"Sadden you, Ada!" he cried passionately. "Do you no longer shudder at
+my love--at the fate which drew us together? Oh, I might have possessed
+the highest happiness, for you are--free; but it comes near to me now
+for only a fleeting moment, and vanishes again into unattainable
+heights, like the form of the legend who bears your name in my drama.
+Nevertheless, it has approached me, and I may be permitted for once
+only to clasp it to me in farewell."
+
+He drew her to him and pressed a kiss upon the brow of his love, who
+leaned against him sobbing.
+
+"Hartmut, promise me that you will not seek death."
+
+"No; but it will know how to find me. Farewell, my own Ada."
+
+He tore himself away hastily. Adelaide remained alone. The storm roared
+above her head; the giant crowns of the trees moaned and swayed; the
+storm sang its wild song on and on, but suddenly over in the west there
+flamed a dark-red rent through the clouds. It was only for a brief
+moment--only one solitary ray of the sinking sun, but it shiningly
+illumined the forest height and the departing one, who turned once more
+and sent back a last greeting. Then the clouds massed together again,
+and the ray was extinguished.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LIII.
+
+
+The reddish, flickering glow of a wood fire lighted up the interior of
+a small, isolated house which had formerly served as a dwelling to a
+station-keeper, but was now pressed into service for the sentinels of
+the outpost. The room did not bear an expression of cosiness with its
+bare, smoked walls, low ceiling and small, barricaded windows, but the
+tremendous logs which flared and burned in the uncouth stone fireplace
+offered a very welcome warmth, for it was bitterly cold out of doors,
+and the whole country was buried in the snow of a severe winter.
+
+The regiment here was hardly better off than their comrades before
+Paris, although they belonged to the Southern army corps.
+
+At present two young officers were entering, and the one who still held
+the door open called laughingly to the one preceding: "Please bend
+down, Herr Comrade, or you might take our door frame along, for our
+villa is in rather a dilapidated condition, as you see."
+
+The warning was not without need, for the giant figure of the guest--a
+Prussian Lieutenant of the Reserve--was not at all in proportion to the
+door. Nevertheless, he succeeded in entering safely and looked around
+at the four walls, while his companion, who wore the uniform of a South
+German regiment, continued: "Permit me to offer you a seat in our
+'salon,' which is not so bad considering the circumstances. We have
+already had it worse during the campaign. So you are looking for
+Stahlberg? He is with my comrade out at the post, but will probably
+return directly. You will have to be patient for a quarter of an hour."
+
+"With pleasure," assured the Prussian. "I see from that that Eugene's
+injury is really as slight as he reported. I looked for him in the
+hospital, and heard that he was making a visit to the outposts, but as
+we shall probably march on by to-morrow, I did not wish to let this
+opportunity pass by unimproved, and therefore came to see him now."
+
+"His wound was indeed only slight--a shot in the arm, which is already
+far advanced toward healing, but will, nevertheless, disable him for
+service for a short time. You are a friend of Stahlberg?"
+
+"Yes, and connected besides through the marriage of his sister. I
+see that you do not remember me, Your Highness. Let me give you my
+name--Willibald von Eschenhagen. We met last year----"
+
+"At Furstenstein," interrupted Egon von Adelsberg quickly. "Certainly,
+now I remember you perfectly. It is remarkable how the uniform changes
+one; I really did not know you at first."
+
+He glanced with a half-admiring look at the once awkward country squire
+who had appeared so ridiculous to him, but who now possessed a stately,
+military appearance.
+
+It was not the uniform alone, though, which had changed Willibald so
+completely. What love had begun the campaign had finished by tearing
+him from the accustomed surroundings and circumstances. The young Baron
+had not only, as his Uncle Schonan expressed it, "become a man," but
+had developed into a true, genuine man.
+
+"Our meeting at that time was a brief one," continued the Prince, "but
+nevertheless you will permit me to offer my congratulations? You are
+betrothed----"
+
+"I believe you are under a mistake, Your Highness," interrupted
+Willibald with some embarrassment. "Although I had been introduced to
+you at Furstenstein as the future son-in-law of the house, but----"
+
+"That has been changed," finished Egon, smiling. "I knew it, for the
+comrade of whom I spoke just now is Lieutenant Waldorf, the happy
+fiancé of Baroness Schonan. My words were meant for Fraulein Marietta
+Volkmar."
+
+"At present Frau von Eschenhagen."
+
+"What! You are already married?"
+
+"Have been for five months. We were married just before marching orders
+came, and my wife is now at Burgsdorf with my mother."
+
+"Then accept my congratulations on your marriage. But really, Herr
+Comrade, I ought to call you to account for the unwarrantable damage
+you have done to art. Please tell your wife that, as far as I can learn
+out here in the campaign, the entire Residenz still mourns her loss in
+sackcloth and ashes."
+
+"I shall not forget it, although I fear the Residenz has not much time
+for such mourning at present. Ah, the gentlemen are returning--I hear
+Eugene's voice."
+
+Steps were heard outside and the expected ones entered. Young Stahlberg
+greeted his relative with an exclamation of the most joyful surprise.
+He had not seen Willibald during the campaign, although both served in
+the same army corps. He still bore his arm in a sling, but otherwise
+looked well and happy.
+
+Eugene did not possess the beauty of his sister, and the feature of
+decided will-power which the daughter had inherited from her father was
+missing. The son showed a gentle, more conciliatory nature in his
+appearance as well as demeanor, but still he resembled his sister
+closely, which might have been the cause of Prince Adelsberg's intimacy
+with him.
+
+His companion, a handsome young officer with sparkling, saucy eyes, now
+approached, and the Prince performed the introduction.
+
+"I will not fear that the gentlemen will challenge each other when I
+mention the names," he said, jestingly. "They are obliged to be
+called--so then, Herr von Eschenhagen--Herr von Waldorf."
+
+"God forbid! For my part I am peace personified," cried Waldorf gayly.
+"Herr von Eschenhagen, I am glad to meet the cousin of my fiancée, and
+so much more so because he is already in the bonds of holy matrimony.
+We also would have liked to do as you did--marry before the march--but
+my father-in-law put on his grimmest mien and declared, 'Gain victory
+first and then marry.' Well, we have done the first continually for
+five months, and as soon as I return home I shall speedily ask for the
+second."
+
+He cordially shook the hand of his bride-elect's former fiancé, then
+turned to the Prince.
+
+"We brought along something for Your Highness--something we seized
+outside. Orderly of Rodeck, advance to His Highness--the Lieutenant,
+Prince Adelsberg."
+
+The door opened, and in spite of the gathering twilight the Prince
+recognized the wrinkled face and snow-white hair of him who entered. He
+started.
+
+"All good spirits defend us! It is Peter Stadinger!"
+
+It was, indeed, the live Stadinger who stood before his young master.
+He did not seem to be wholly a stranger to the others, for although
+they now saw him for the first time, they greeted his appearance with
+the liveliest joy.
+
+"Above everything, let us have light to take a good look at the
+'Waldgeist' of His Highness," cried Waldorf, lighting candles and
+holding them with comical solemnity close before the old man.
+
+Egon laughed.
+
+"You see, Stadinger, what a well-known and frequently spoken of person
+you are here. Now let me introduce you in proper form. Behold here,
+gentlemen, Peter Stadinger--celebrated for his unequaled churlishness
+and his moral lectures, which make one quake. He probably thinks I
+cannot exist without them, and he will doubtless give to me here also
+upon the battlefield the satisfaction of this friendly habit. I hope
+that some of it will fall upon your heads, gentlemen--and now begin,
+Stadinger!"
+
+But the old man, instead of obeying, grasped the hand of his master in
+both of his and said in a heartrending tone: "Ach, Your Highness, how
+we have trembled and feared for you at Rodeck!"
+
+"Well, that is polite!" said Eugene Stahlberg, but the Prince assumed a
+displeased air.
+
+"So? And you therefore took to your legs speedily and left everything
+to go topsy-turvy at Rodeck. I should not have thought you would
+neglect your duty like that!"
+
+Stadinger looked at him in doubting perplexity.
+
+"But I have come according to orders. Your Highness has written me to
+make haste and come and take Louis from the hospital--you would attend
+to the travel and everything. I arrived this noon, and found the lad as
+well as could be expected. The doctor thinks I can take him home with
+me in a week, for then all danger would be over. But the kindness Your
+Highness has shown to Louis and all the others from Rodeck who are in
+the army can never be told. May God reward you a thousand times!"
+
+Egon withdrew his hand impatiently.
+
+"It is 'Herr Lieutenant' now, remember that. I insist upon my military
+title--and what does this mean, now that when I count upon your
+churlishness you are meek as a lamb and give us a pathetic scene!
+I forbid it! This Louis, gentlemen, is a grandson of this old
+Waldgeist--a fine, brave fellow, but he has a sister who is much
+handsomer. I am sorry to say this senseless grandfather sends her away
+regularly when I go to Rodeck. Why did Lena not come along? You should
+have thought of bringing her."
+
+This proved effective against the meekness and affection, which were as
+unusual as embarrassing.
+
+Stadinger drew himself up rigidly and replied with his usual terseness:
+"I believed Your Highness had no time here in the war to think about
+such foolishness."
+
+"Aha, now it is coming!" said the Prince under his breath to Waldorf,
+who stood beside him, but aloud he continued: "That is where you are
+very much mistaken. A fellow gets uncivilized in the war, and when I
+return home again----"
+
+"Then Your Highness has promised to get married at last," reminded the
+old man in the most emphatic tone, which called forth general laughter
+among the young officers. Egon joined it, but his laugh sounded forced,
+just as did his reply:
+
+"Yes, yes; I have promised, but I have reconsidered the matter in the
+meantime. I may keep my word in ten years or perhaps in twenty, but no
+sooner."
+
+Stadinger, who in spite of the command would not have used the title of
+Lieutenant under any consideration, because that would be a humiliation
+to the ducal family in his eyes, flew into a high state of indignation
+and gave free vent to it.
+
+"If I do not almost believe it! If Your Highness has really for once a
+sensible thought, it does not hold good for twenty-four hours--and your
+sacred father a married man, too! Man has to marry, anyhow, and all
+foolishness stops of its own accord after marriage."
+
+"Now that he is in the run of it, gentlemen, let him moralize to you,"
+cried Egon, and the young officers, to whom this was great fun, teased
+the poor Stadinger until he lost all respect and exhibited himself in
+the full halo of his admonitory nature.
+
+Half an hour later Willibald and Eugene Stahlberg approached the Prince
+to take leave.
+
+"You march on by to-morrow?" he asked.
+
+"At daybreak. We march toward R----, where Major-General von Falkenried
+is stationed with his brigade, though it will take several days to
+reach there, for the whole country between here and the fortress is
+occupied by the enemy, and we have to clear our way."
+
+"But tell the General, Willy, that I shall follow in at least a week,"
+said Eugene. "It is bad enough that I have to remain behind so long on
+account of a shot wound not worth mentioning. Next week I shall report
+myself well, whatever the doctor may say, and after that I shall join
+my regiment without delay--I hope before the capture of R----"
+
+"You must, indeed, make haste then," said Egon, "for resistance does
+not last long usually where General Falkenried stands; we have seen
+that often enough. He is always in front with his men always the first
+to storm a place, and has already won inconceivable things. It seems as
+if no impossibility exists for him."
+
+"But he has the good luck to be always put in the front," grumbled
+Lieutenant Waldorf. "Now again he is to take R----, while we lie here,
+God knows how long. And he will take possession of it--there is no
+doubt of that--perhaps he has taken it already. News reaches us only by
+roundabout ways so long as the enemy stands between us."
+
+He arose to escort the two gentlemen out, while the Prince remained
+behind.
+
+Standing before the fire with folded arms, he gazed into it, and his
+face bore an expression not in accordance with the gayety which he had
+but now been showing. Seriously, yet gloomily, he looked into the
+dancing flames, and the shadow would not leave his usually sunny eyes.
+
+He seemed to have forgotten the presence of Stadinger, but as the
+latter made himself heard by clearing his throat, he started.
+
+"Ah, you are still here? Remember me to Louis and tell him I will come
+to see him again to-morrow. We don't have to say farewell yet, as you
+remain here for the present. You did not think we had such gay times
+here? Yes, one makes life easy as possible when one has to be ready
+every day to lose it."
+
+The old man stood before his master and looked sharply into his eyes,
+then he spoke half aloud:
+
+"Yes, the gentlemen were gay and Your Highness the gayest of all but
+you are not happy in spite of it."
+
+"I? What do you mean? Why should I not be happy?"
+
+"I don't know that, but still I see it," insisted Stadinger. "When Your
+Highness used to come from Furstenstein, or were up to all sorts of
+things with Herr Rojanow, you looked different and laughed different,
+and just now when you looked into the fire it seemed to me as if Your
+Highness had something very heavy upon your heart."
+
+"Get away with all your observations!" cried Egon, to whom his old
+Waldgeist was again becoming uncomfortable. "Do you suppose we are
+always jolly? I should say that when one has the bloody battlefield
+always before the mind, earnest thoughts come near."
+
+Nothing could be said to that, and Stadinger remained silent, but he
+could not be deceived. He knew quite well that something was wrong with
+his young master, and that something was hidden behind this ostensibly
+exhibited gayety.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LIV.
+
+
+Lieutenant Waldorf re-entered the room, but left the door open. "Come
+right in here," he called to the man hesitating outside. "Here is an
+orderly from the Seventh Regiment with a report. Well, don't you hear,
+orderly? Come in!"
+
+The repetition of the order sounded very impatient. The soldier who
+stood upon the threshold hesitated there, and had even made a start
+back, as if he wished to return to the darkness outside. He now obeyed,
+but kept close to the door, so that his face remained in the dusk.
+
+"Do you come from the outposts at the Capellenberg?" asked Waldorf.
+
+"At your command, Herr Lieutenant."
+
+Egon, who had turned indifferently, started at the sound of that voice.
+He made a hasty step forward, then stopped as if suddenly recollecting
+himself, but his eyes were fixed with an almost terrified expression
+upon the speaker.
+
+As far as could be discerned in the semi-darkness he was a tall young
+fellow in the coarse cloak of the common soldier, with helmet upon his
+closely-cut hair. He stood there, rigidly immovable, and delivered his
+report correctly, but his voice had a peculiarly choked, hollow sound.
+
+"From Captain Salfeld," he reported. "We have seized a suspicious
+character, dressed as a peasant, but probably from the French reserve,
+who tried to steal into the fortress. What writings he had with
+him----"
+
+"Do come nearer," commanded Waldorf, impatiently. "We cannot half
+understand you."
+
+The soldier obeyed, drawing near to the officers. The light now fell
+full and sharp upon his features, but his face bore an ashy paleness;
+the teeth were tightly closed, and the eyes were fastened to the floor.
+
+Egon's hand clutched the hilt of his sabre convulsively, and only by an
+effort he suppressed the stormy exclamation which was forced to his
+lips, while Stadinger, with wide-open eyes, glared at the man, who now
+continued: "The writings which he had with him were not of much
+account, but contained hints which he was probably to fill out
+verbally. The Captain thinks that if he were strictly examined, more
+could be learned, and asks now whether he shall send the prisoner here
+or to headquarters."
+
+The report was neither surprising nor unusual. It often happened that
+suspicious people were seized. The enemy's reserve tried obstinately to
+obtain connection with the fortress; perhaps they kept it up in spite
+of all the watchfulness of the besiegers: but Prince Adelsberg seemed
+to have to struggle for breath before he could give the answer.
+
+"I beg the Captain to send the prisoner here. We shall be relieved in
+two hours and then we march straight to headquarters. I shall attend to
+the fellow."
+
+"I hope he can be made to speak when he is seriously pressed," remarked
+Waldorf. "He would not be the first whose heart had fallen when his
+position became clear to him. Well, we shall see."
+
+The soldier stood there awaiting his dismissal; not a muscle quivered
+in his face, but neither did he raise his eyes from the floor. Egon had
+now collected himself, and, retaining the assumed ignorance, he asked
+in the curt tone of the superior:
+
+"Do you belong to the Seventh Regiment?"
+
+"At your command, Herr Lieutenant."
+
+"Your name?"
+
+"Joseph Tanner."
+
+"Drawn?"
+
+"No, volunteer."
+
+"Since when?"
+
+"Since the 30th of July."
+
+"You have been in the whole campaign?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Lieutenant."
+
+"Very well; now take the message to your Captain."
+
+The soldier saluted, turned upon his heel and left.
+
+Waldorf, who had been a little surprised at the examination, but had
+not attached any importance to it, looked after him, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+"Those out at the Capellenberg have the worst time of it. No rest by
+day or night; taxed to the utmost, and with all that they are often
+ordered to help the pioneer corps. The poor fellows work there in the
+hard, frozen ground until the sweat runs in streams from their brows,
+and their hands bleed. Our people surely are better off."
+
+He left the room to appoint an orderly to guard the expected prisoner
+and give him the necessary instructions; but Egon tore the window open
+and leaned out; it seemed as if he should suffocate.
+
+Then he heard Stadinger's voice behind him in subdued tones, which
+nevertheless betrayed the greatest terror.
+
+"Your Highness."
+
+"What is it?" Egon asked without turning.
+
+"Has not Your Highness seen?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The orderly who was here just now. That was Herr Rojanow as sure as he
+lives and breathes."
+
+Egon saw that presence of mind was needed here, so he turned around and
+said coldly: "I believe you see ghosts."
+
+"But, Your Highness----"
+
+"Nonsense! there may be a little resemblance. I noticed it myself,
+therefore I wanted to know the name of the man. You heard that it was
+Joseph Tanner."
+
+"But still it was the real live Herr Rojanow," cried the unshakable
+Stadinger, whose sharp eyes could not be deceived. "Only the black
+locks were gone and the proud, haughty manner, but it was his voice."
+
+"Get away from me with your fancies!" Egon broke out angrily. "You know
+that Herr Rojanow is in Sicily, but here you want to trace him in an
+orderly of the Seventh Regiment. It is truly worse than ridiculous."
+
+Stadinger held his peace. It was, indeed, ridiculous and impossible,
+and consequently was his young Prince so ungracious. He felt offended
+that a common soldier should be confounded with his friend. And really
+the haughty Rojanow, who understood how to command from the very
+bottom of his heart, and had often chased all the servants at Rodeck
+helter-skelter with his orders--and the orderly who had been snubbed by
+Lieutenant Waldorf because he did not speak loud enough--were two ever
+so different things. If only it had not been for the voice!
+
+"Think, Your Highness," besought the old man, who was now wavering.
+
+"I think that you are an old seer of spirits," said Egon more mildly.
+"Go into your quarters and sleep away the fatigue of your journey, or
+you will be finding some more resemblances. Good-night!"
+
+Stadinger obeyed and took his leave. Fortunately he had not known
+Joseph Tanner, who had only been at Ostwalden a few weeks, and the
+encounter had put him in such a fright that the partly concealed
+excitement of his master passed quite unnoticed by him. But he clung to
+his doubts; the thing was strange--very strange.
+
+When the Prince found himself alone he began to pace the floor in
+violent excitement. So! what he had refused his former friend had been
+enforced. Joseph Tanner! He plainly remembered the name, which had been
+mentioned to him at Ostwalden, and he knew now whose hand had opened
+for Hartmut the ranks of the army which had been closed to a Rojanow.
+
+What will not the love of a woman attain!--a woman who desires to see
+her love exonerated at any price. She herself had sent him out into
+danger and death--to save him for life and--herself. Jealousy rose wild
+and hot in Egon's breast at the thought, and with it that awful
+suspicion, not yet overcome, raised its head again threateningly. Did
+Hartmut really wish to atone only in this war? Was not his presence at
+the outposts a danger, for which one was responsible if he kept it a
+secret?
+
+Then came back to the Prince's mind the pale, gloomy face of the man
+to-night--the friend who had once been so dear to him, and who must
+have suffered agonies of torture at this encounter, far exceeding his
+imagination. He well knew Hartmut's unbending pride, and this pride was
+now bowed low in the dust in that subordinate position day after day.
+He had heard it; how out there on the Capellenberg they often worked so
+hard that in spite of the icy weather the sweat poured in streams from
+their brows, and their hands bled. This was what the spoiled, famed
+Rojanow was doing; the man at whose feet the whole town laid its homage
+only a year ago, and whom the house of the reigning Prince had
+overwhelmed with distinction; and he was doing it of his own free will,
+when the success of his poetical work afforded him the richest
+revenues. And with it all, he was the son of General Falkenried!
+
+Egon's breast rose under a deep but relieved breath. This view of it
+was giving him back slowly his lost faith; all torturing doubts fled
+before this. The old sin of the boy Hartmut was now being atoned for,
+and the other more awful sin was the mother's alone--not his.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LV.
+
+
+It was toward nine o'clock in the evening when Prince Adelsberg left
+his quarters to go to the Commanding General. He was not obeying an
+official order, but an invitation, for the General had been close
+friends with his father, and had shown paternal attention to the son
+all during the campaign.
+
+Egon would have given much to have been permitted to remain at home
+to-night, for the encounter with Hartmut had shaken him to the inmost
+heart, but the invitation of the superior could not be disregarded, and
+one could not follow one's inclinations in war-time.
+
+An adjutant met the Prince upon the stairs, seeming to be in the
+greatest haste, and only dropping a hint of bad news, which Prince
+Adelsberg would probably hear from the General. Egon mounted the stairs
+shaking his head.
+
+The General was alone, pacing the room in apparent excitement and with
+a face which boded no good.
+
+"Good evening, Prince Adelsberg," he said, pausing in his walk at the
+entrance of the young officer. "I am sorry I cannot promise you a
+pleasant evening, but we have received news which will probably ruin
+every pleasure of being together."
+
+"I just heard a hint about it," replied Egon; "but what has happened,
+Your Excellency? The dispatches of to-day noon sounded favorable."
+
+"I have had this news but an hour. You yourself delivered the
+suspicious man who had been seized by our outposts to headquarters. Do
+you know what he had with him?"
+
+"Yes, for Captain Salfeld sent the papers with the prisoner. I was also
+of the opinion that he was to complete the information verbally, as
+they had been carefully prepared. They had apparently counted upon the
+possibility of the man's falling into our hands. He would not confess
+anything, but I knew he would be examined closely here."
+
+"Which has been done. The man was a coward, and when he saw the bullet
+threatening him he saved himself by a confession, the truth of which
+cannot be doubted. You remember that in one of the papers it was
+mentioned that one could in an extreme case follow the heroic example
+of the commander of R----?"
+
+"Yes, that is incomprehensible, as the fortress is on the eve of
+surrender. General Falkenried sent word that he hopes to move in by
+to-morrow."
+
+"And I fear he will make his word good," cried the General. Egon looked
+at him in amazement.
+
+"You _fear_, Excellency?"
+
+"Yes, for there is a scoundrelly scheme--a betrayal without example.
+They mean to surrender the fortress, and when their garrison has
+withdrawn to a safe distance, and our army has moved in, they intend to
+blow the citadel to atoms."
+
+"For God's sake!" shrieked the Prince in horror. "Cannot General
+Falkenried be notified?"
+
+"That is the question. I fear that it will not be possible. I have sent
+out warnings upon two different routes, but our direct connection with
+R---- is cut off; the enemy has the mountain passes in possession; the
+messengers will have to make a wide circuit and cannot arrive there in
+time."
+
+Egon was silent in deepest consternation. The passes were, indeed,
+occupied by the hostile forces. Eschenhagen's regiment had been sent to
+clear the way, but that might take several days.
+
+"We have considered all possibilities," continued the General, "but
+there is no way out of it--nothing but a slight hope that the surrender
+has been delayed in some way; but Falkenried is not the man to allow
+himself to be kept waiting. He will hasten the finale and then he is
+lost with perhaps thousands with him."
+
+He resumed his walk through the room. One could see how the fate of his
+endangered comrades went to the heart of this iron man.
+
+The Prince, too, stood helpless, but suddenly a thought flashed upon
+him. He drew himself up.
+
+"Your Excellency."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"If it should be possible to send a dispatch over the passes, a good
+horseman might possibly get to R---- by to-morrow morning. Of course,
+he would have to ride for life and death----"
+
+"And through the midst of the enemy--nonsense! You are a soldier and
+must tell yourself that it is impossible. The foolhardy rider would not
+get half a mile--he would be shot down."
+
+"But if a man could be found who would be willing to make the attempt
+in spite of everything? I know such a man, Your Excellency."
+
+The General frowned angrily.
+
+"Does that mean that you wish to offer yourself for this useless
+sacrifice? I would have to prohibit that, Prince Adelsberg. I know how
+to value the courage of my officers, but I shall not give them
+permission for such impossible enterprises."
+
+"I do not speak of myself," said Egon earnestly. "The man of whom I am
+thinking belongs to the Seventh Regiment, and is at present upon
+sentinel duty on the Capellenberg. It was he who reported the
+prisoner."
+
+The General had grown thoughtful, but he shook his head incredulously.
+
+"I say it is impossible; but what is this man's name?"
+
+"Joseph Tanner."
+
+"Private?"
+
+"Yes, he entered voluntarily."
+
+"You know him, then?"
+
+"Yes, Your Excellency; he is perhaps the best rider in the whole army;
+dauntless to foolhardiness, and capable to act in such a case with the
+circumspection of an officer. If the thing can possibly be done, he
+will do it."
+
+"And you believe--such a thing cannot be commanded--it is, indeed, an
+act of despair--you believe that the man would take this message of his
+own free will?"
+
+"I stand for it."
+
+"Then, indeed, I cannot nor dare not say no where so much is at stake.
+I will order Tanner up immediately."
+
+"May I not take the order to him?" Egon quickly interrupted.
+
+The General stopped and looked at him searchingly.
+
+"You wish to do it yourself--why?"
+
+"To save time; the road which Tanner has to take leads by the
+Capellenberg; an hour would pass before he could get to headquarters
+and back."
+
+Nothing could be said against that, but the General seemed to feel that
+something important was hidden beneath this. An ordinary private would
+hardly undertake such peril, which drove him almost into death's
+embrace, but the old warrior did not inquire further. He only asked:
+
+"Do you stand for the man?"
+
+"Yes," returned the Prince, firmly and calmly.
+
+"Very well; then you can inform him yourself. But one thing more--he
+must have statements for the outposts on the other side, if indeed he
+reaches it, for every detention may prove fatal where moments count."
+
+He stepped to his desk and wrote a few lines upon a paper, which he
+handed to the Prince.
+
+"Here is the necessary passport, and here the dispatch to Falkenried.
+Will you bring me immediate news whether or not Tanner consents to go?"
+
+"Instantly, Your Excellency."
+
+Egon received the papers, took his leave, and hastened to his quarters,
+where he ordered his horse saddled at once. Five minutes later saw him
+on his way.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LVI.
+
+
+The Capellenberg, of Chapel Mountain, which had probably borne
+originally another name, but was so called by the Germans because it
+bore a chapel, was only a small height, partly covered with forests. It
+was the last outrunner of the mountains at this side, and formed here
+the border of the German troops. A company of the Seventh Regiment was
+stationed in the farms which lay scattered over its side. Their
+position was rightly considered very hard and most dangerous.
+
+The chapel lay desolate and lonely, half buried in the deep snow.
+Priests and choir had long since fled, and the little edifice bore
+traces of destruction everywhere, for hot battles had been fought
+around this height. Walls and roof still stood intact, but a part of
+the ceiling had fallen, and the wind whistled through the shattered
+windows. Behind it rose the forest, clad in ice and snow, and all this
+lay in the uncertain light of the half-moon which was now visible in
+the heavily clouded sky, shedding her ghostly light upon the
+surroundings, only to again quickly disappear.
+
+It was an icy winter night, as at that time at Rodeck, and, as then,
+the horizon was lit up by a dark reddish glow; but no aurora beamed
+here in gorgeous beauty; the glow which flared here in the north bore
+witness of battles fought all around; it had its origin in burning
+villages and farms; the awful signs of the flame of war, which were
+reflected in the skies.
+
+A lonely sentinel stood here with gun on shoulder--Hartmut von
+Falkenried.
+
+His eyes hung on the flaming horizon, the dark masses of cloud shone
+there blood-red, and from time to time a shower of fiery sparks burst
+from the seething smoke which rested over the earth.
+
+Glow and flame there; ice and night here! The cold, which had been
+intense already during the day, now grew to the breath of ice, in which
+all life seemed to become stark, and which chilled the lonely sentinel
+to the very marrow.
+
+Although he was not the only one who had to do this hard duty, his
+comrades had not been spoiled by years of life in the Orient and the
+balmy air of Sicily. Hartmut had not lived through a northern winter
+since his boyhood; this cold grew disastrous to him, for it seemed to
+change the blood in his veins into ice.
+
+Slowly the deadly sleepiness, which is not sleep, crept upon him; it
+made the limbs heavy as lead, and drooped the eyelids forcibly. He who
+was so terribly threatened, struggled against it with all his
+will-power; he tried to collect himself and move about; he succeeded
+for a moment, but exhaustion again approached, the end of which he
+knew.
+
+Was it not even to be granted him to fall by a bullet?
+
+Hartmut's glance turned to the half-destroyed house of God, as if
+beseeching help; but what were church and altar to him? He had cast
+faith from him long ago; only night with death stared him in the face,
+and life would have given him so much when the atonement should have
+been completed--possession of his love, the fame of a poet, and perhaps
+even reconciliation with his father.
+
+But it was not to be. He must stand to his post and wait for the
+ignominous death which was creeping upon him from the icy darkness.
+Duty commanded and he--obeyed.
+
+But in the distance sounded steps and voices which came nearer and
+nearer. They tore Hartmut from the semi-unconsciousness which had
+already begun to veil his senses.
+
+He roused himself with an effort and made his gun ready, but it was his
+comrades who drew near. What did it mean? The hour for relief had not
+yet come; but in a moment a sergeant stood before him.
+
+"Relief--command from headquarters brought by an officer," came the
+order.
+
+The change was made and a sturdy peasant, who did not seem to mind the
+cold much, took Hartmut's place. As Hartmut was about to join the
+sergeant an officer approached him from the other side.
+
+"Let the sergeant go on. I wish to speak to you, Tanner; follow me."
+
+Prince Adelsberg, who did not wish the sentinel to witness the
+conversation, entered the chapel, into which Hartmut followed him.
+
+The pale moonlight falling through the windows revealed all the
+dismantled and destroyed interior. The fallen ceiling had shattered
+some of the pews; the altar alone stood undemolished.
+
+Egon had walked to the middle of the room, where he stopped and turned.
+
+"Hartmut."
+
+"Herr Lieutenant."
+
+"Stop that, we are alone," said the Prince. "I did not think, that we
+should meet like this."
+
+"And I hoped I should be spared it," said Hartmut hoarsely, "You have
+come----"
+
+"From headquarters. I heard that you had been ordered to sentinel duty
+on the Capellenberg. That is awful duty for such a night as this."
+
+Hartmut was silent; he knew that without this interruption it would
+have been his last duty.
+
+Egon looked at him with concern. In spite of the uncertain light he saw
+how rigid and exhausted was the man who leaned against one of the
+pillars as if he needed support.
+
+"I came to bring you an order, but it is left to your own free will to
+accept it or not. The matter is considered almost impossible, and it
+would be, perhaps, to any one else. You have courage for it, I know,
+but the question is, have you the strength after all these exertions?"
+
+"Fifteen minutes' rest and warmth will give me the strength. But what
+does it concern?"
+
+"A ride for life or death. You are to take a message through the midst
+of the enemy--to R----"
+
+"To the fortress?" cried Hartmut with a start. "There stands----"
+
+"General Falkenried with his brigade; he is lost if the message does
+not reach him. We lay his safety in the hands of his son."
+
+Again Hartmut started. Gone were frost and exhaustion. With feverish
+excitement he grasped the Prince's arm.
+
+"I am to save my father? I? What has happened? What must I do?"
+
+"Listen. The prisoner whom you reported to me to-day has given us a
+terrible disclosure; it concerns a betrayal. The fortress is to be
+blown up as soon as their troops are in safety and ours have taken
+possession. The General sent warnings instantly, but they will not
+reach them in time, as they have to take a circuitous route. Your
+father thinks of taking possession to-morrow. He must be warned before
+that, and there is only one possibility. The messenger must go over the
+mountain passes, which are held by the enemy. If successful, the news
+will reach there to-morrow before noon, but the way----"
+
+"I know it," interrupted Hartmut. "Our regiment took it only fourteen
+days ago coming here. The passes were free then."
+
+"So much the better! Of course you must take off your uniform, which
+would betray you."
+
+"I shall change only cloak and helmet. If I am held up at all, my fate
+is sealed--so it is only important that I be not recognized in flying
+past. If only a good capable horse can be found!"
+
+"It is at hand. I brought my Arab--my Saladin--with me. You know him
+and have often ridden him. He flies like a bird, and must do his master
+achievement this night."
+
+The conversation had been conducted with flying haste, and now the
+Prince drew out the papers which he had received at headquarters.
+
+"Here is the order of the Commanding General, which puts everything at
+your disposal when you reach our outposts--and here the dispatch. Give
+yourself half an hour's rest, for your strength might not hold out, and
+you will break down on the way."
+
+"Do you think that I need rest and recreation now," cried Hartmut,
+flashing up. "I shall surely not break down now; it will have to be
+under the fire of the enemy if I do. I thank you, Egon, for this hour,
+in which you at last--at last--speak to me free from that base
+suspicion."
+
+"And in which I send you out into death," said the Prince softly. "We
+will not shun the truth. It will be a miracle if you get through
+safely."
+
+"A miracle."
+
+Hartmut's glance wandered to the altar, upon which rested the pale
+light of the moon. He had forgotten long ago how to pray, yet at this
+moment he sent up a silent, fervent prayer to the heavens--to the power
+which could do miracles.
+
+"Only until I have saved my father and his men--only so long guide and
+keep me!"
+
+In the next second he drew himself up. It was as if Egon had poured
+glowing life power into the veins of the man who so shortly since was
+threatened with death through cold and exhaustion.
+
+"And now let us say good-by," whispered Egon. "Farewell, Hartmut."
+
+He opened wide his arms and Hartmut fell upon his breast.
+
+All that had stood between them was buried in this embrace. The old
+glowing love burst forth powerfully again for the last time, for both
+felt that they would not meet again--that this was a final farewell.
+
+Scarce fifteen minutes later a horseman dashed away; the slender Arab
+flying so that his hoof seemed not to touch the ground. In furious
+gallop he flew along over the snow through ice-covered forests, over
+frozen brooks on and on into the mountain passes!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LVII.
+
+
+The next day brought clear, frosty weather, but the sun shone brightly
+and the cold had somewhat abated.
+
+In Prince Adelsberg's quarters were Eugene Stahlberg and Waldorf, the
+latter being off duty today on account of a fall upon the ice,
+resulting in an injury to his hand, which prevented him from marching
+with his company as Egon had done.
+
+The gentlemen were awaiting their princely comrade, who was expected
+soon, and entertained themselves in the meantime by teasing Peter
+Stadinger, who had, as in duty bound, appeared at his young master's
+this morning, and who also awaited him now.
+
+The young officers knew nothing as yet of the news which had
+been obtained at headquarters yesterday, and were in the best of
+spirits--taking all possible pains to call forth in Stadinger the
+far-famed churlishness. But it was not successful today. The old man
+remained laconic and reticent. He would only repeat his question: When
+would His Highness return? and if it would be a serious skirmish to
+which His Highness had marched? until finally Waldorf lost all
+patience.
+
+"Stadinger, I believe you would like best to pack up your Prince and
+take him back with you to your Rodeck, which is safe from bombs," he
+asserted. "You must get over this anxiety in the war--remember that."
+
+"And, besides, the Prince has only marched out to reconnoitre," added
+Eugene. "He is just taking a little walk with his people from the
+Capellenberg into the neighboring dales and ravines, to ascertain how
+it really looks there. They will probably exchange a few compliments
+with the French gentlemen, and then retreat politely; the more impolite
+attacks will follow in a few days."
+
+"But is there shooting with it all?" asked Stadinger, with such anxious
+mien that the two officers laughed aloud.
+
+"Yes, shots are being exchanged, too," confirmed Waldorf. "You seem to
+have great fear of them, yet you are at a safe distance."
+
+"I?" The old man drew himself up, deeply offended.
+
+"I wish I could be in the midst of it also."
+
+"Perhaps to protect your much loved Highness. The Prince would decline
+that. You would hold on to his coat tails and cry continually, 'Take
+care, Your Highness, there comes a ball.' That would look fine!"
+
+"Herr Lieutenant," said the old man, so seriously that the gay tease
+was silenced, "you should not do that to an old hunter who has often
+climbed after the chamois, and has fired his gun when he had scarcely a
+foot's breadth of ground to stand on; I feel so depressed and anxious
+to-day. I wish the day would end."
+
+"Well, it was not meant so seriously," said Eugene, soothingly. "We
+believe you, Stadinger; you do not look like a man who is afraid. But
+you must not speak to us about your depressing presentiments. One does
+not think of them after one has stood so many times in the shower of
+bullets. When we are happily at home again, I will come to my sister at
+Ostwalden, and we will then be good neighbors with Rodeck. The Prince
+loves his old forest nook so well. And now abandon your anxiety, for
+there he comes already."
+
+Rapid steps were heard on the stairs outside; the old man sighed with
+relief. But it was only Egon's attendant who appeared in the open door.
+
+"Well, has His Highness arrived?" asked Waldorf; but Stadinger did not
+allow the man time to answer. He had cast one glance at his face--only
+a single one--then suddenly grasped his hand with a convulsive clutch.
+
+"What is it? Where--where is my master?"
+
+The man shook his head sadly and pointed silently to the window, to
+which both officers hastened with fear and dread. But Stadinger lost no
+time. He dashed out down the stairs, into the little garden which lay
+before the house, and with a loud, bitter cry sank upon his knees at
+the side of a stretcher, upon which there lay a slender, youthful
+figure.
+
+"Quietly," said the physician who had accompanied the sad group.
+"Control yourself--the Prince is seriously wounded."
+
+"I see it," gasped the faithful old servant; "but not fatally--oh, say
+not fatally. Only tell me that, Herr Doctor!"
+
+He looked up to the surgeon with such despairing entreaty that the
+latter had not courage to tell him the truth, but turned to the two
+officers who now hastened near and overwhelmed him with low, anxious
+questioning.
+
+"A ball in the breast," he explained, in the same tone. "The Prince
+begged to be brought to his quarters, and we have used all possible
+care in the moving; but it will bring the end more quickly than I
+thought."
+
+"Fatal?" asked Waldorf.
+
+"Beyond a doubt."
+
+The surgeon gave the bearers who prepared to take their charge into the
+house, a sign to desist.
+
+"Stop, the Prince seems to have something to say to his old servant,
+and there are no moments to lose."
+
+Stadinger saw and heard nothing of what happened at his side. He looked
+only upon his master.
+
+Egon seemed to be unconscious. The light hair had become disheveled,
+the eyes were closed, and beneath the cloak with which he had been
+covered, and which had partly fallen open, the blood-stained uniform
+could be seen.
+
+"Your Highness," besought Stadinger, softly, according to the doctor's
+warning, but with heartbreaking accents, "only look at me! Speak to me!
+It is I--Stadinger."
+
+The well-known voice found its way to the ear of the desperately
+wounded man. Slowly his eyes opened, and a slight smile flitted over
+his features as he recognized the old man who knelt at his side.
+
+"My old Waldgeist," he whispered, "did you have to come--to see this?"
+
+"But you will not die, Your Highness," murmured Stadinger, his whole
+body a-tremble, but never removing his eyes from his dying master;
+"no--do not die--surely not!"
+
+"Do you think that it is hard?" said Egon, calmly. "Yesterday--you saw
+quite correctly--my heart felt heavy; but now it is light. Give my love
+to Rodeck--and to my forests and--to her, too, the mistress of
+Ostwalden."
+
+"Whom? Frau Wallmoden?" asked Stadinger, almost terrified at this turn.
+
+"Yes--take her my last greeting--tell her to think of me sometimes."
+
+The words came painfully--brokenly--from the lips which seemed to
+almost refuse their duty; but they left no doubt as to the meaning of
+the last greeting.
+
+Eugene had started when he heard the name of his sister, and now bent
+low over the dying man, who saw the brother of Adelaide--recognized the
+features which resembled hers so much--and again a smile passed over
+his face. Then he leaned his fair head quietly and calmly on the breast
+of his old Waldgeist, and the beautiful blue eyes closed forever.
+
+It had been a short, painless struggle--almost a falling asleep.
+Stadinger had not moved--had not uttered a sound, for he knew it would
+hurt his young master, whom he had borne in his arms as a child, and
+who now drew his last breath in those arms. But, when all was over, the
+composure of the old man gave way. He threw himself despairingly upon
+the body and wept like a child.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LVIII.
+
+
+Over on the other side of the mountain passes also the winter sun shone
+clear and bright upon the new achievements which the victorious German
+troops had acquired.
+
+The negotiations with the commander of R---- had been brought to an
+end, and the fortress had surrendered. The captive garrison moved out,
+while a portion of the victors had already marched in.
+
+General Falkenried stood in the main square of the lower town with his
+staff, about to move also into the fortress. The helmets and arms of
+the troops who were on their way into the citadel glittered in the
+sunshine. Falkenried issued various orders, then took his stand at the
+head of his staff and gave the signal to march.
+
+But now there came a horseman in furious haste over the main road; the
+noble animal he rode was covered with sweat and foam, and his sides
+bled from the cruel spurs which had hurried him on and on when his
+strength threatened to desert him. The face also of the rider was
+disfigured by the blood trickling from beneath the cloth that had been
+wound around the forehead.
+
+He came flying, as if driven by a tornado, and everything fled from
+before him until he reached the open square, dashed through the midst
+of the officers straight up to the General. A few steps from the end of
+the journey the strength of the noble horse failed, he broke down
+completely; but at the same moment the rider sprang from the saddle and
+hastened toward the commander.
+
+"From the Commanding General."
+
+Falkenried started at the first word. He had not recognized the
+blood-covered face; he only saw that the man who dashed up as if for
+life or death must bring an important message. But at the sound of that
+voice, an idea of the truth flashed upon him.
+
+Hartmut swayed and laid his hand for a moment on his brow; it seemed as
+if he were about to break down, too, like his horse. But he recovered
+with an effort.
+
+"The General sends word to be cautious--betrayal is planned--the
+fortress will be blown up as soon as its garrison has moved off. Here
+is the dispatch."
+
+He tore a paper from his breast and gave it to Falkenried. The officers
+had become violently excited at the awful news, and pressed around
+their chief as if expecting to hear from him confirmation of the
+incredible report. But they had a strange sight before them.
+
+The General, whose iron composure they all knew--who never lost control
+of himself--had turned deathly pale, and stared at the speaker as if a
+spirit had risen before him from the ground, while he held the paper
+unopened in his hand.
+
+"Herr General--the dispatch!"
+
+One of the adjutants who understood the proceedings as little as the
+others, gently reminded him; but it was enough to bring Falkenried back
+to consciousness. He tore the dispatch open and glanced it over, and
+was now again the soldier who knew nothing but his duty.
+
+With full, firm voice he gave his orders. The officers galloped right
+and left; signals and commands resounded in all directions, and in a
+few moments the last detachment of soldiers came to a standstill. Upon
+the fortress sounded the signal of alarm. Neither friend nor foe knew
+what it meant. Did it not appear as if the so recently conquered place
+was to be vacated at once? But the orders were executed with the usual
+alacrity and dispatch; the movements were completed with perfect
+composure, in spite of the haste, and the troops turned back into the
+town.
+
+Falkenried was still in the open square, giving orders, receiving
+reports, watching and guiding everything with his eyes. But still he
+found a moment's time to turn to his son, to whom he had not as yet
+given any sign of recognition.
+
+"You are bleeding--let it be bandaged."
+
+Hartmut shook his head hastily.
+
+"Later--I must first see the retreat--the rescue."
+
+The awful excitement sustained him; he did not falter again, but
+followed with feverish attention every movement of the troops.
+
+Falkenried looked at him and then asked:
+
+"Which way did you come?"
+
+"Over the mountain passes."
+
+"Over the passes! The enemy stands there."
+
+"Yes, there they stand."
+
+"And you came over that way?"
+
+"I had to, otherwise the news would not have reached here in time. I
+started only last night."
+
+"But that is an heroic deed without an equal! Man, how could you
+accomplish it?" exclaimed one of the higher officers, who had just
+brought a report and heard the last words.
+
+Hartmut was silent; only he slowly raised his eyes to his father. He no
+longer feared the eyes he had feared so long, and what he read in them
+now told him that here, too, he was free from that awful suspicion.
+
+But even the greatest will power has its limits, and this was reached
+with the man who had rendered almost superhuman assistance. The face of
+his father was the last thing he saw--then it disappeared as behind a
+bloody veil; something hot and wet flowed over his forehead--all became
+night around him, and he sank to the ground.
+
+And now resounded a crash, under the appalling force of which the whole
+town trembled and quaked. The citadel, whose outlines had just stood
+out sharp and clear against the blue sky, was suddenly transformed into
+a crater, vomiting forth fire and destruction. In those walls a hell
+seemed to open; showers of rocks and stones rose high in the air, only
+to come down with thunderous clatter, and immediately there leaped and
+flickered over all the huge pile of débris a giant pillar of fire and
+smoke which rose up to the heavens--a terrible sign of flame!
+
+The warning had arrived at the last possible moment. But, in spite of
+it, there was a sacrifice of life, for whoever had been still in the
+neighborhood of the citadel had been crushed or severely injured. Still
+the loss was small in comparison with the incalculable disaster which
+would surely have taken place had not the warning been brought.
+
+The General, with his officers and nearly all his troops, had been
+saved. Falkenried had made all the arrangements required by the
+dreadful catastrophe with his usual promptitude and circumspection. He
+was everywhere, and his activity and example succeeded in giving back
+to the men who had been betrayed in the height of victory their
+equilibrium. Only when the commander had done his duty did the father
+seek his natural rights.
+
+Hartmut still lay unconscious in one of the neighboring houses, into
+which he had been carried when he sank to the ground. He neither saw
+nor heard the father, who stood at his bedside with one of the
+physicians.
+
+Falkenried silently gazed down upon the pale face and closed eyes, then
+turned to the physician.
+
+"You do not consider the wound fatal?"
+
+The doctor sadly shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Not the wound in itself, but the great overexertion of that life and
+death ride--the heavy loss of blood, the bitter cold of the night. I
+fear, Herr General, you must be prepared for the worst."
+
+"I am prepared for it," said Falkenried, solemnly. Then he knelt down
+and kissed the son whom perhaps he had found only to lose again; and
+hot, burning tears fell upon the deathly white face.
+
+But it was not granted the father to remain with his child for any
+length of time; he was forced to leave after a few moments, requesting
+the doctor once more to give his greatest care and skill to the
+patient.
+
+At the open square were collected the General's staff and other
+officers, awaiting their chief. They knew he was at present with the
+wounded man who had brought the warning, and whom nobody knew.
+
+It had become known that he had come over the mountain passes, through
+the midst of the foe--that he had ventured upon a ride the like of
+which nobody in the army could imitate--and when the General at last
+appeared, everybody gathered around him, questioningly.
+
+Falkenried was deeply serious, but the rigid, gloomy look which his
+face was accustomed to bear had disappeared and given place to an
+expression which the attendant officers saw now for the first time. In
+his eyes tears still glistened, but his voice sounded firm and clear as
+he answered:
+
+"Yes, gentlemen, he is desperately injured, and perhaps it was his last
+ride that brought rescue to us. But he has done his duty as a man and a
+soldier, and if you want to know his name--he is my son, Hartmut von
+Falkenried!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LIX.
+
+
+The old mansion of Burgsdorf lay peaceful and cosy in the brightest
+sunlight. It had but recently received back its lord, who had been
+absent nearly a year, and who returned now after the war was over, to
+his home and his young wife.
+
+The large estate, with its extensive work, had not suffered through his
+long absence, for it had been under safe guidance. The master's mother
+had stepped into her old place, and held the reins with her usual firm
+hand, until the return of her son; but now she laid those reins
+solemnly into his hands again and insisted, in spite of all prayers and
+entreaties, upon leaving Burgsdorf and returning to her city home.
+
+At present Frau von Eschenhagen was standing upon the terrace, the
+broad stone steps of which led into the garden, talking with Willibald,
+who stood beside her.
+
+Her glance rested with undeniable satisfaction upon the powerful, manly
+form of her son, who appeared even more stately now because of the
+acquired military bearing. Perhaps she felt that something different
+and better had been made of the young country squire than she could
+have done with her education. But she would not have confessed it at
+any price.
+
+"And so you wish to build," she was saying; "I thought about as much.
+The plain old house in which your father and I lived so many years is,
+of course, not good enough for your little princess. She must be
+surrounded by every available splendor. Well, I don't mind; you have
+the money for it, and can allow yourself that pleasure. I am glad to
+say I have not the responsibility of it any longer."
+
+"Do not act so grim, mamma," laughed Willibald. "If any one should hear
+you, they would think you the worst of mothers-in-law, whereas if I did
+not know it from Marietta's letters, I see it daily now, how you spoil
+her and carry her upon your hands."
+
+"Oh, well, one likes to play with pretty dolls sometimes, even in old
+age," replied Regine, dryly; "and your wife is such a delicate little
+doll, who is only good for play. Do not imagine that she will ever get
+to be a competent farm manager. I saw that from the first moment, and
+have not allowed her to do it at all."
+
+"And you were right in that," joined in the young lord. "Work and
+management are my part. My Marietta shall not be worried with it. But,
+believe me, mamma, one can live and work quite differently when such a
+sweet little _singvogel_ sings courage and love of work into one's
+heart."
+
+"Boy, I believe you are crazy still," said Frau von Eschenhagen, with
+her old grim manner. "Has it ever been known that a _sensible_ man--a
+husband and estate owner--speaks so of his wife--'sweet little
+_singvogel_'! Perhaps you get that from your bosom friend, Hartmut, who
+is considered by you all as such a great poet. You always did imitate
+him as a boy."
+
+"No, mamma, it is really my own. I have composed poetry but once in my
+life, on the night when I saw Marietta in Hartmut's 'Arivana.' The poem
+fell into my hands the other day, when I was putting my desk in order,
+and I gave it to Hartmut, begging him to change it a little, for,
+strange to say, the rhymes would not fit, and I had not done very well
+with the meter. Do you know what he said? 'My dear Willy, your poem is
+very beautiful as far as sentiment is concerned, but I advise you to
+abandon poetry. Such verse is not to be tolerated, and your wife will
+seek a divorce if you sing to her in this style.' That is how my 'bosom
+friend' judges my poetical talent."
+
+"It serves you right, too. What does an estate owner have to do with
+poetry?" said Regine, caustically.
+
+The door of the dining room was opened and a small head, running over
+with dark curls, peeped out.
+
+"Is it permitted to disturb the assembly in their important business
+discourse?"
+
+"Come along, you small elf," said Frau von Eschenhagen. But the
+permission was superfluous, for the young wife had already flown into
+her husband's open arms. He bent over her affectionately and whispered
+something in her ear.
+
+"Are you commencing again?" scolded the mother. "It is really
+unbearable in your presence nowadays."
+
+Marietta only turned her head, without freeing herself from the embrace
+which held her so closely, and said, roguishly: "We are celebrating our
+honeymoon after the long separation, and you must know from your own
+experience how people act then, _nicht wahr_, mamma?"
+
+Regine shrugged her shoulders. Her honeymoon with the late Eschenhagen
+had been of a different kind.
+
+"You received a letter from your grandfather, Marietta," she said,
+changing the subject; "was it good news?"
+
+"The very best. Grandpapa is quite well and anticipating much pleasure
+in his visit to Burgsdorf next month. But he writes that everything is
+very quiet around Waldhofen since Rodeck has lost its master.
+Everything is closed and desolate since the death of the young Prince.
+Ostwalden is lonely, and Furstenstein will be deserted, too, after
+Toni's marriage, which occurs in two weeks. Poor Uncle Schonan will be
+all alone then."
+
+The last words were spoken with a certain emphasis as the young wife
+threw a peculiar glance at her mother-in-law.
+
+That upright lady did not pay any attention to it, but only remarked:
+"Yes, it is a strange notion of Hartmut and Adelaide to live here in
+the pine forest in a small, rented villa during the first weeks of
+their married life, while the large castle of Ostwalden and all of the
+Stahlberg country seats are at their disposal."
+
+"They probably wished to remain with their father a little longer,"
+said Willibald.
+
+"Well, Falkenried could have taken a vacation in this case and gone
+with them. Thank God that the man has really come back to life, since
+that terrible bitterness has fallen from him, and he has his son again.
+I knew well how very hard the flight of the boy struck him. He secretly
+idolized him, while showing him only severity and requiring in turn
+nothing but obedience. Of course, what Hartmut accomplished with that
+night's ride, by which he saved his father with his troops, erases even
+more than a senseless boy's escapade, for which the mother was really
+to blame."
+
+"But we are cheated out of all the wedding festivities in the family,"
+pouted Marietta. "Willy and I had to be married quietly because the war
+broke out, and now, after the war has happily ceased, Hartmut and
+Adelaide do just like it."
+
+"My child, when one has gone through such things as Hartmut has, all
+pleasure in festivities is lost," said Frau Eschenhagen, gravely. "And,
+besides, he has not fully recuperated yet. You saw how pale he was at
+the wedding. Adelaide's first marriage was, indeed, celebrated with
+more pomp. Her father insisted upon it, in spite of his low state of
+health, and the bride was really a queenly, if cold, apparition in her
+satin train and her laces and diamonds. But, truly, she looked
+different when she drew near the altar with her Hartmut, in the simple
+white silk dress and the dainty veil. I never in my life saw her so
+lovely. Poor Herbert! He never possessed the love of his wife."
+
+"But how could one love such an old Excellency in his diplomatic frock
+coat? I could not have done it, either," said Marietta, pertly.
+
+But she had touched a weak point; her mother-in-law held the
+remembrance of her brother in high esteem.
+
+"The necessity would never have come to you," she remarked, with pique.
+"A man like Herbert von Wallmoden would hardly have wooed you--you
+little saucy----"
+
+But she got no further, for the saucy little sprite already hung around
+her neck coaxingly.
+
+"Please don't get angry, mamma. How can I help it that my most
+undiplomatic Willy is dearer to me than all the Excellencies in the
+whole world, and he is that to you, too; eh, mamma?"
+
+"You little flatterer!" Regine tried in vain to keep up her severe
+mien. "You know very well that nobody can get angry with you. A regime
+will now probably commence here at Burgsdorf which has had no
+precedent. Willy is ashamed before me now, but after I am gone, he will
+surrender to you upon grace or displeasure."
+
+"Mamma, do you still cling to that idea?" asked Willibald,
+reproachfully. "Will you go now, when everything is love and peace
+between us?"
+
+"Just because of that I shall go, so that it may remain. Do not oppose
+it, my son. I have to be first where I live and work. You want to be
+that now; therefore it is best we are not together; and your little
+princess must not get angry about it. We have heretofore had great
+anxiety about you, and people do not quarrel when they have to tremble
+anew each day for husband and son. But that is over now, and I am still
+too much of the old kind to fit myself to your youth. Do whatever you
+like, but things must go as I like in my house, and therefore I go."
+
+She turned and went into the house, while the young lord looked after
+her with a half-suppressed sigh.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LX.
+
+
+"She is right, perhaps," Willibald said, half aloud, as his
+mother vanished; "but she will be unhappy alone, and without the
+long-accustomed activity. I know that she will not be able to bear the
+enforced rest. You ought to have begged her to remain, too, Marietta."
+
+The young wife laid her curly head upon her husband's shoulder and
+looked at him roguishly.
+
+"Oh, no; I shall do something better. I shall see to it that mamma does
+not get unhappy when she leaves us."
+
+"You? How will you do that?"
+
+"Quite easily. I shall marry mamma off."
+
+"But, Marietta, what are you thinking of?"
+
+"Oh, you wise Willy; have you really not noticed anything?" laughed
+Marietta, and it was the old, silvery laugh with which she had
+bewitched him at Waldhofen. "And you do not know why Uncle Schonan was
+in such a grim temper when we saw him in Berlin three days ago? And why
+he did not want to come to Burgsdorf at all, although we begged him so
+much? Mamma did not ask him, because she feared a renewed proposal. He
+understood it, and consequently he was so angry. I have known all about
+it ever so long; even at the time when mamma came to us at Waldhofen,
+and he told her so fiercely that she would only use him as a secondary
+person at a wedding. I saw then that he would like to be one of the
+principals. Willy, you are making a superb face now! You look exactly
+as you did at the beginning of our acquaintance."
+
+The young lord did not, indeed, look very intellectual in his boundless
+surprise. He had never considered the possibility of his mother
+marrying again, and to her brother-in-law, besides! But it broke upon
+him that this was an excellent solution of the difficulty.
+
+"Marietta, you are surpassingly clever!" he cried, looking with the
+greatest admiration at his wife, who accepted the homage with much
+satisfaction.
+
+"I am even more clever than you think," she said, triumphantly, "for I
+have put the matter to rights. I got behind Uncle Schonan and gave him
+to understand that if he would storm once more now, the fortress would
+probably surrender. He grumbled mightily and said that he had had
+enough of it and did not want to be made a fool of again; but at last
+he reconsidered the matter. He arrived fifteen minutes ago. I did not
+dare tell mamma anything about it, and--here he is!"
+
+She nodded to the Chief Forester, who emerged upon the terrace and
+heard the last words.
+
+"Yes, here I am; but take care, little woman, if you have 'led me
+behind the light,' for"--to Willibald--"I have come solely at her
+request. She has probably given you the details about how it stands
+with us--that is, with me, for your Frau Mamma is probably again
+unreasonable, obstinate and self-willed as she usually is--but I will
+marry her yet!"
+
+"All right, uncle, if she will only have you," laughed Willibald, who
+could not help thinking this description of his mother from a wooer
+very peculiar.
+
+"Yes, that is the question," said Schonan, doubtfully; "but your wife
+thinks----"
+
+"That we dare not lose another minute!" interrupted Marietta. "Mamma is
+in her room, and has no conception of the attack. Willy and I will
+remain in the background, and join in the battle if the worst should
+happen. Forward, march, uncle; forward, Willy!"
+
+And Frau Marietta von Eschenhagen, with her little, delicate hands
+pushed the stately Chief Forester and her huge husband forward, without
+more ado. They patiently submitted, although Schonan muttered:
+
+"Strange how they all understand how to order one about--little ones as
+well as big ones. It must be born in them."
+
+Regine von Eschenhagen stood at the window of her room, looking out
+upon her beloved Burgsdorf, which she intended to leave in a few days.
+
+Much as she was convinced of the wisdom of this decision, it was yet
+not easy to execute it. The strong, restlessly active woman, who had
+stood thirty years at the head of a large work, felt a shudder at the
+rest and inactivity which awaited her. She had been made acquainted
+with the city life during her first separation from her son, and had
+been very unhappy in it.
+
+The door opened and the Chief Forester entered.
+
+"Moritz, you here!" Regine started with surprise. "This is sensible of
+you to come."
+
+"Yes, I am always sensible," remarked Herr von Schonan, very pointedly.
+"Although you did not have the grace to invite me, I came to get your
+consent to attend Toni's wedding. Of course, you will come to
+Furstenstein with your children?"
+
+"Yes, certainly we will come; but we were all much surprised at this
+haste. Did you not intend to buy an estate first? And that is not
+usually accomplished so quickly."
+
+"No, but they want to get married. Our victors have become very
+assuming since their heroic deeds. Waldorf simply declared upon his
+return, 'Papa, you said when I left, First win in war and then marry;
+now we have won and now I want to marry. I'll not wait any longer. The
+estate has time to wait, but not the wedding, for that is the most
+important.' So, since Toni is also convinced of this importance,
+nothing was left for me to do but to name the wedding day."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen laughed.
+
+"Yes, young people are quick to marry, and they have so much time to
+wait."
+
+"But it is not so with older folks," said Schonan, who had only been
+looking for this opportunity and speedily made use of it. "Have you
+considered the question at last, Regine?"
+
+"What question?"
+
+"Our marrying. I hope you are now in the 'humor' for it?"
+
+Regine turned away, somewhat offended.
+
+"You like to be abrupt, Moritz. How did you get into the notion so
+suddenly?"
+
+"What! you call that sudden?" the Chief Forester cried, indignantly. "I
+made my first proposal to you five years ago; the second one last year,
+and now I come for the third time, and yet you have not had sufficient
+time to consider. Yes or no? If you send me away this time, I shall not
+come back--depend upon that--and the whole courtship can go where it
+wants to."
+
+Regine did not answer, but it was not indecision which made her
+hesitate. Even this strange, original nature had a spice of deep
+romance in her heart--love for the man who was once to be her husband,
+Hartmut von Falkenried. When he had married another, she too had
+pledged her hand, for she was not the kind to mourn her life away
+uselessly; but the same bitter pain which had stung the young girl when
+she approached the altar, awoke now again in the aging woman and closed
+her lips; but it lasted only a few moments, then she threw the dream
+from her with decision, and stretched out her hand to von Schonan.
+
+"Well, then, yes, Moritz. I will be a good and true wife to you."
+
+"Thank God!" cried Schonan, with a deep sigh of relief, for he had
+taken the hesitation as a preliminary to a third refusal. "You should
+have said that five years ago, Regine, but better late than never. At
+last we have gotten so far."
+
+And with that the persistent wooer enclosed the finally won life
+companion in a hearty embrace.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LXI.
+
+
+It was a hot summer day. Even in the forest one felt something of the
+intense heat which flickered upon meadows and fields. Upon the forest
+path a little group walked beneath the tall firs. It was General
+Falkenried, with his son and daughter, who were accompanying him a part
+of the way to Burgsdorf, where he intended making a visit.
+
+Falkenried had indeed become another person.
+
+The war which had been fatal to so many, and made others old before
+their time, in spite of the victories and triumphs won, appeared to
+have been a source of rejuvenation to him. Although the white hair and
+deep furrows in the face remained, witnesses not to be erased of a
+painful time, yet the face had life in it again; the eyes had regained
+their old fire, and one saw now at the first glance that the man was
+not so old, but stood yet in the fulness and power of life.
+
+Hartmut had not yet entirely recovered, as his appearance proved. The
+campaign had not made him younger. He looked older and graver, and the
+still pale face, with the broad red scar upon the forehead, spoke of a
+time of heavy suffering.
+
+The wound in itself had not been serious, but had become so through the
+severe loss of blood, and the overexertion of the ride in the night of
+the severe cold, so that at first all hope had been abandoned, and it
+required months of careful nursing to give Hartmut back to life.
+
+But the old Hartmut, the son of Zalika, with his wild blood and
+unbridled desire for freedom, had also died in this time of suffering.
+It seemed as if with the name Rojanow, which he had cast forever from
+him, the unfortunate inheritance from the mother had also been lost.
+The heavy, dark curls were just beginning to grow again, and the high,
+powerful forehead appeared more striking in its resemblance to his
+father.
+
+But the young wife at his side bloomed in the fullest beauty of youth
+and happiness. Whoever had seen her in her cold hauteur--her icy,
+unapproachable manner, would hardly have recognized her in this bright,
+slender woman, in her light summer costume, with fresh forest flowers
+in her hand.
+
+The smile and tone with which she spoke to her husband and father had
+never been known to Frau von Wallmoden; they had been learned only by
+Adelaide von Falkenried.
+
+"Not any farther, now," said the General, pausing in their walk. "You
+have to take the return walk, and Hartmut must still be careful. The
+physicians request that he be very prudent."
+
+"Father, if you only knew how depressing it feels to be considered an
+invalid still, when I already feel full of life and power! I am really
+well."
+
+"Do not place in jeopardy again what has been so hardly won," continued
+the father. "You have not yet learned patience, but fortunately I know
+you are under Ada's supervision, and she is strict on this subject."
+
+"Yes, had it not been for Ada, there probably would not have been
+anything to take care of," said Hartmut, with a look of deepest
+affection upon his wife. "I believe I was in rather a hopeless
+condition when she came to me."
+
+"The physicians, at least, gave me no hope when I sent off the dispatch
+which called Ada to your side. You called for her in your first
+conscious moment, to my boundless surprise, for I did not dream that
+you ever knew each other."
+
+"Was it not right to you, Papa?" asked the young wife, looking
+smilingly up to the father, who drew her to his breast and pressed a
+kiss upon her brow.
+
+"You know best what you are to Hartmut and me, my child. I thanked God
+that I could leave him under your nursing when I had to march on. And
+you were right, too, when you persuaded him to remain here, although
+the doctors wished to send him away. He has to learn to feel at home
+first in the fatherland--must learn to understand and love again that
+from which he has so long been estranged."
+
+"_Has_ to learn it?" said Ada reproachfully. "What he read to you and
+me to-day I should think would show that he has learned it already, and
+that this new work bears another language from the wild, glowing
+Arivana."
+
+"Yes, Hartmut, your new work is of great merit," said Falkenried,
+giving his hand to his son. "I believe the fatherland will be proud of
+my boy, even in times of peace."
+
+Hartmut's eyes sparkled as he returned the pressure of the hand. He
+knew what praise from his father's lips was worth.
+
+"And now, good-by." The General kissed his daughter-in-law again, "I
+will drive from Burgsdorf directly to town, but we shall see each other
+in a few days again. Farewell, children!"
+
+When he had disappeared behind the trees, Hartmut and Adelaide turned
+on their homeward way, which led them by the Burgsdorf pond.
+Involuntarily they paused beside it, and gazed upon the calm sheet of
+water which lay so shiningly in the sun with its wreath of rushes and
+water lilies.
+
+"I have played boys' games here so often with Willy," said Hartmut
+softly, "and here my future was decided on that fatal night. I realize
+only now what I did to my father in that unfortunate hour."
+
+"But you have atoned for it fully," returned Ada, leaning her head on
+her husband's shoulder. "It has been wiped out before the world, too,
+which overwhelmed you and father on all sides with admiration and
+appreciation when it was known who had done that heroic deed."
+
+Hartmut shook his head gravely.
+
+"It was a deed of despair, not heroism. I did not believe that it would
+succeed--nobody believed it; but even if I had fallen I should have
+regained my lost honor by that ride through the enemy. Egon knew that,
+and for that reason he put the rescue into my hands. When we said
+farewell that icy winter night in the shattered walls of the little
+chapel, we both felt that it was a final farewell, but we thought, too,
+that I should be the victim, for I went into almost certain death. Fate
+decreed differently. I was borne as by spirit hands through the dangers
+to the accomplishment of my aim, and almost at the same hour Egon fell.
+You need not hide your tears from me, Ada; I am not jealous of the
+dead, for I loved him just as--he loved you."
+
+"Eugene brought me his last greeting," said the young wife, in whose
+eyes shone the tears she had wished to conceal from her husband. "And
+Stadinger, too, wrote me to fulfill his dying master's last request. I
+fear the old man will not live much longer; his letter sounded as if he
+were utterly crushed."
+
+"Poor Egon!" In Hartmut's voice sounded the deep pain he felt for his
+friend. "He was so full of sunny happiness and joy; he was created for
+it and to give it. Perhaps you would have been happier at his side,
+Ada, than with your wild, passionate Hartmut, who will trouble you
+often enough with the dark side of his nature."
+
+Ada smiled up at him with the tears still in her eyes. "But I love this
+wild, stormy Hartmut, and do not desire any greater happiness than to
+be his wife."
+
+The forest lake lay in dreamy noonday stillness; grave and dark stood
+the old firs over it; the rushes at its border whispered low, and
+thousands of bright sparkles danced upon its surface.
+
+Above it curved the blue sky into which the boy had once wished to soar
+like the falcon of which his race bore the name, higher and higher to
+the sun. It beamed, too, now up there in shining splendor the powerful,
+eternal sign of flame in the heavens!
+
+
+
+                               [THE END.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign of Flame, by E. Werner
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+<title>The Sign of Flae</title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign of Flame, by E. Werner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sign of Flame
+
+Author: E. Werner
+
+Translator: Eva Freeman Hart
+            E. Van Gerpen
+
+Release Date: January 25, 2011 [EBook #35069]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIGN OF FLAME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Note:<br>
+
+Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/signofflame00werniala</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center"><img src="images/p26.png" alt="My son. My only child!"><br>
+&quot;My son'. My only child! Do you not know your mother?&quot;<br>
+Hartmut retreated, startled. &quot;My mother is dead,&quot; he said<br>
+in a low tone. Page 26. <i>The Sign of Flame</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE SIGN OF FLAME.</h1>
+<br>
+
+
+<h2>FROM THE GERMAN OF E. WERNER</h2>
+<br>
+
+
+<h4>TRANSLATED BY</h4>
+
+<h3>EVA FREEMAN HART AND E. VAN GERPEN</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<div style="margin-left:10%">
+<p style="text-indent: -8px">&quot;Give me a nook and a book,<br>
+And let the proud world spin round.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<h3>A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,<br>
+52-58 DUANE STREET, NEW YORK</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>Copyright, 1902. BY A. L. BURT COMPANY.</h4>
+<hr class="W10">
+<h4>THE SIGN OF FLAME.<br>
+
+Translated by <span class="sc">Eva Freeman Hart</span> and <span class="sc">E. Van Gerpen</span>.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE SIGN OF FLAME</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Through the gray fog of an autumn morning a flock of birds took flight;
+sweeping now, as if in farewell, close to the firs, so recently their
+home--rising now to a goodly height, directing their flight toward the
+south, and disappearing slowly in the veiled distance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gloomy eyes of a man standing at a window of the large castle-like
+mansion situated at the edge of the forest, followed this flight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was of tall stature and powerful in physique; the erect bearing
+would have betrayed the soldier even without the uniform which he wore:
+his features not handsome but strong; hair light, and eyes blue; in
+short, a typical German in appearance; but something like a shadow
+rested on those features, and the high brow bore deeper furrows than
+the years seemed to warrant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, the birds are already leaving,&quot; he said, pointing to the flock
+which fluttered in the distance until lost entirely in the mass of fog.
+&quot;The autumn is here in nature and also in our lives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not yet in yours,&quot; interrupted his companion. &quot;You are standing in
+full strength at the height of your life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps so considering years; but I feel as if old age would approach
+me sooner than any one else. I feel much like the autumn of the year.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other gentleman, who was in civilian dress, was probably older than
+his companion. His stature was of medium height and frail. At first
+sight he appeared almost insignificant beside the powerful form of the
+officer, but the pale, sharply outlined face bore an expression of
+cold, superior calm; and the sarcastic line around the thin lips proved
+that behind the cold composure expressed in his whole manner something
+deeper lay concealed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He now shook his head with displeasure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You take life too hard, Falkenried,&quot; he said reproachfully; &quot;you have
+changed remarkably in these last years. He who has seen you as a young
+officer, merry as the day, would not recognize you now. And why all
+this? The shadow which once clouded your life has long ago vanished;
+you are heart and soul a soldier; you receive distinction at every
+opportunity; an important position is assured you in the near future;
+and, what is best--you have kept your son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried did not reply; he folded his arms and again looked out into
+the gray distance. The other continued:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The boy has grown as handsome as a picture in these last few years. I
+was quite surprised when I saw him, and even you confess that he is
+extraordinarily gifted, and, moreover, in several respects is endowed
+with absolute genius.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish Hartmut were less gifted and had more character instead,&quot;
+Falkenried said in almost harsh tones. &quot;He can make poetry and learn
+languages as if it were play, but as soon as he begins earnest study he
+remains far behind the others; while as to military strategy, nothing
+whatever can be done with him. You have no idea, Wallmoden, what iron
+severity I have to bring to bear on that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I only fear that you do not accomplish much with this severity,&quot;
+interrupted Wallmoden. &quot;You should have followed my advice and sent
+your son to the University. That he is not cut out for a soldier you
+ought now finally to see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He must and shall be fit for it; it is the only thing possible for his
+unruly disposition, which chafes under every curb and feels every duty
+a burden. The University--the life of a student--would give him fullest
+liberty. Nothing but the iron discipline to which he has to bow keeps
+him in check.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, for a while; but can it force him in the future? You should not
+deceive yourself. His are, unfortunately, inherited faults, which may
+possibly be suppressed, but never uprooted. Hartmut is in appearance
+the image of his mother; he has her features--her eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know,&quot; Falkenried said, gloomily, &quot;her dark, demoniacal,
+glowing eyes, which knew how to charm everything----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And which became your ruin,&quot; completed Wallmoden. &quot;How did I not warn
+and implore against them, but you would not listen to anything. Passion
+had taken hold of you like a fever and held you in bonds altogether. I
+have never been able to understand it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A bitter smile flitted around Falkenried's mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe that. You, the cool, calculating diplomat who carefully
+measure every step, are safe from such charms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should at least be more careful in my choice. Your marriage brought
+misfortune with it from the beginning. A wife of foreign race and
+blood--of wild Slavian nature, without character, without any
+understanding for that which is custom and duty to us, and you with
+your strict principles--your irritable sense of honor--it had finally
+to come to such an end. And I believe you loved her up to the
+separation in spite of everything!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; said Falkenried harshly. &quot;The illusion vanished in the first
+year. I saw only too clearly--but I shuddered at the idea of laying my
+domestic miseries open to the world by a divorce. I bore it until no
+choice was left me--until I finally--but enough of it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He turned quickly, and again looked out of the window. There was
+suppressed torture in the sudden breaking off.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it needed much to tear a nature like yours from the roots,&quot;
+Wallmoden said seriously; &quot;but nevertheless the separation left you
+free from the unfortunate claim, and with that you should have also
+buried the reminiscences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One cannot bury such reminiscences; they always rise up again from the
+supposed grave, and just now----&quot; Falkenried broke off suddenly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just now--what do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing; let us speak of other things. You have been at Burgsdorf
+since the day before yesterday. How long do you intend to stay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps two weeks. I have not much time at my disposal, and am
+Willibald's guardian really only in name, since the diplomatic service
+keeps me mostly in foreign countries. In fact, the guardianship rests
+in the hands of my sister, who rules everything, anyhow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Regine is well up to her position,&quot; assented Falkenried. &quot;She
+rules the large estates and numerous people like a man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And issues commands from morning to night like a sergeant,&quot; completed
+Wallmoden. &quot;With all due appreciation for her excellent qualities, I
+always feel a slight rising of the hair at the prospect of a visit to
+Burgsdorf, and I return from there regularly with shattered nerves.
+Real primitive conditions rule in that place. Willibald is actually a
+young bear, but the ideal of his mother for all that. She does her best
+to raise him an ignorant young country squire. All interposition is of
+no use, for he has every inclination for it, anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The entrance of a servant interrupted them. He handed a card to
+Falkenried, which the latter glanced at hastily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Egern, Solicitor. Very well, show the gentleman in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you a business engagement?&quot; asked Wallmoden, rising. &quot;I will not
+disturb you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the contrary, I beg you to remain. I have been advised of this
+visit, and know what will be discussed. It concerns----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not conclude, for the door opened and the one announced entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He seemed surprised not to find the officer alone, as he had expected,
+but the latter took no notice of the surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Egern, Solicitor--Herr von Wallmoden, Secretary of the
+Ambassador.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The barrister bowed with cool courtesy, and accepted the offered chair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I probably have the honor of being familiar to you, Herr Major,&quot; he
+began. &quot;As counsel for your wife, I had occasional cause to meet you
+personally in that suit for divorce.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stopped, and seemed to expect an answer, but Major Falkenried only
+bowed in mute assent. Wallmoden now began to be attentive. He could now
+understand the strangely irritable mood in which he had found his
+friend upon his arrival.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I come to-day also in the name of my former client,&quot; continued the
+lawyer. &quot;She has asked me--may I speak freely?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He cast a glance at the Secretary, but Falkenried said shortly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr von Wallmoden is my friend, and as such is familiar with the
+case. I beg you to speak without restraint.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, then--the lady has returned to Germany after long years of
+absence, and naturally wishes to see her son. She has already written
+to you on that behalf, but has not received an answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should consider that a sufficient answer. I do not desire this
+meeting, and therefore shall not permit it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That sounds very harsh, Herr Major. Frau von Falkenried has
+surely----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frau Zalika Rojanow, you mean to say,&quot; interrupted the Major. &quot;She
+resumed her maiden name, so far as I know, when she returned to her
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The name is of no consequence,&quot; replied the lawyer calmly. &quot;The sole
+consideration here is the perfectly justifiable wish of a mother, which
+the father cannot and must not deny, even when, as in this case, the
+son is given to him unconditionally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Must not! And if he should do it, notwithstanding?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he oversteps the borders of his rights. I would like to ask you,
+Herr Major, to consider the matter calmly before speaking such a
+decided 'No.' The rights of a mother cannot be so completely cancelled
+by a decision of the court that one may even deny her a meeting with
+her only child. The law is upon the side of my client in this case, and
+she will enforce it, if my personal appeal is ignored as was her
+written request.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She may try it then. I will let it come to the test. My son does not
+know that his mother is alive, and shall not learn it just yet. I do
+not wish that he should see and speak to her, and I shall know how to
+prevent it. My 'No' remains unchanged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">These remarks were given quietly, but upon Falkenried's features there
+lay an ashy paleness, and his voice sounded hollow and threatening. The
+awful excitement under which he labored was apparent; only with supreme
+effort could he force himself to outward calm. The lawyer seemed to
+understand the fruitlessness of further effort. He only shrugged his
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If this be your final decision, then my errand is, of course,
+finished, and we must decide later upon further moves. I am sorry to
+have disturbed you, Herr Major.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He took his leave with the same cool politeness with which he had
+entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried sprang up and paced the room stormily after the door had
+closed upon the lawyer. A depressing silence reigned for a few moments,
+after which Wallmoden spoke half audibly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You ought not to have done that. Zalika will hardly submit to your
+'No.' If you remember, she carried on a life-and-death struggle for her
+child at that time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I remained victor. I hope she has not forgotten that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At that time it concerned the possession of the boy,&quot; interrupted the
+friend. &quot;The mother now only requests to see him again, and you will
+not be able to deny her that when she demands it with decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Major came to a sudden standstill, but there was a scarcely veiled
+contempt in his voice as he said:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She dares not do that after all that happened. Zalika learned to know
+me in our parting hour. She will take care not to force me to extremes
+a second time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But she will perhaps try to obtain secretly what you refuse her
+openly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That will be impossible; the discipline of our school is too strict.
+No relations could be started there of which I would not be notified
+immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden did not seem to share this confidence; he shook his head
+doubtingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I confess that I consider your keeping, with such persistence, the
+knowledge of his mother's existence from your son a mistake. If he
+should hear it now from another source--what then? And you will have to
+tell him finally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps after two years, when he enters life independently. He is
+still but a scholar--a mere boy. I cannot yet draw the veil from the
+tragedy which was once enacted in the home of his parents--I cannot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then at least be upon your guard. You know your former wife--know what
+can be expected from her. I fear there are no impossibilities for that
+woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know her,&quot; said Falkenried with boundless bitterness, &quot;and just
+for that reason I will protect my son from her at any cost. He shall
+not breathe the poison of her presence for even an hour. Rest assured,
+I do not underrate the danger of Zalika's return, but as long as
+Hartmut remains at my side he will be safe from her, for she will not
+approach me again. I pledge you my word for that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will hope so,&quot; returned Wallmoden, rising and giving his hand, &quot;but
+do not forget that the greatest danger lies in Hartmut himself. He is
+in every respect the son of his mother. I hear you will come with him
+to Burgsdorf the day after tomorrow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; he always spends the short autumn vacation with Willibald. I
+myself can probably stay only for the day, but I shall surely come with
+him. Au revoir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador's Secretary departed, and Falkenried again approached
+the window, glancing only hastily after the friend, who bowed once
+more. His glance was again lost with the former gloom, in the gray
+masses of fog.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The son of his mother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words rang in his ears, but there was no need for another to tell
+him that. He had long known it, and it was this knowledge that furrowed
+his brow so deeply and caused those heavy sighs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was a man to offer himself to every open danger, but he had
+struggled in vain, with all his energy for years, against this
+unfortunate inheritance of the blood in his only son.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now I request that this utter foolishness shall end, for my patience
+is exhausted. There has been an awful turmoil in all Burgsdorf for
+three days, as if the place were conjured. Hartmut is full of
+foolishness from head to toe. When once he gets free from the rein
+which his father draws so tight there is no getting on with him. And
+you, of course, go with him through thick and thin, following
+obediently everything that your lord and master starts. You are a fine
+team!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This lecture, delivered in very loud tones, came from the lips of Frau
+von Eschenhagen of Burgsdorf, who sat at breakfast with her son and
+brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The large dining-room was in the lower story of the old mansion, and
+was a rather bare room, the glass doors of which led to a broad
+terrace, and from there into the garden. Some antlers hung upon the
+whitewashed walls, giving evidence of the Nimrod proclivities of former
+owners. They were also the only ornament of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dozen straightback chairs standing in stiff rows like grenadiers, a
+heavy dining table, and two old-fashioned sideboards constituted all of
+the furniture, which, as one could see, had already served several
+generations.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Articles of luxury, such as carpets, wallpaper or paintings, were not
+there. The inmates were apparently satisfied with the old, inherited
+things, although Burgsdorf was one of the richest estates in the
+vicinity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The appearance of the lady of the house corresponded fully with the
+surroundings. She was about forty years old; of tall, powerful figure,
+blooming complexion, and strong, heavy features, which were very
+energetic, but which could never have been beautiful. Nothing escaped
+easily the glance of those sharp, gray eyes; the dark hair was combed
+back plainly; the dress was simple and serviceable, and one could see
+that her hands knew how to work.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This robust person lacked gracefulness, certainly, but possessed
+something decidedly masculine in carriage and appearance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The heir and future lord of Burgsdorf, who was scolded in this way, sat
+opposite his mother, listening, as in duty bound, while he helped
+himself bountifully to ham and eggs. He was a handsome, ruddy-faced boy
+of about seventeen years, with features which might portray great good
+nature, but no surplus of intellect. His sunburned face was full of
+glowing health, but otherwise bore little resemblance to his mother's.
+It lacked her energetic expression. The blue eyes and light hair must
+have been an inheritance from the father. With his powerful but awkward
+limbs he looked like a young giant, and offered the completest contrast
+to his Uncle Wallmoden, who sat at his side, and who now said with a
+tinge of sarcasm:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You really ought not to make Willibald responsible for the pranks and
+tricks. He is certainly the ideal of a well-raised son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should advise him not to be anything else. Obeying of orders is what
+I insist upon,&quot; exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen, slapping the table with
+such force as to cause her brother to start nervously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, one learns that under your regime,&quot; he replied, &quot;but I would like
+to advise you, dear Regine, to do a little more for the mental training
+of your son. I do not doubt that he will grow up a splendid farmer
+under your leadership, but something more is required in the education
+of a future lord, and as Willibald has outgrown tutors, it may be time
+to send him off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Send him----&quot; Frau Regine laid down knife and fork in boundless
+amazement. &quot;Send him off!&quot; she repeated indignantly. &quot;In gracious name,
+where to?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, to the University, and later on let him travel, that he may see
+something of the world and its people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And that he may be totally ruined in this world and among these
+people! No, Herbert, that will not do. I tell you right now. I have
+raised my boy in honesty and the fear of God, and have no idea of
+letting him go into that Sodom and Gomorrah from which our dear Lord
+keeps the rain of fire and brimstone by His long-suffering alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you know this Sodom and Gomorrah only by hearsay, Regine,&quot;
+interrupted Herbert sarcastically. &quot;You have lived in Burgsdorf ever
+since your marriage, but your son must one day enter life as a man--you
+must acknowledge that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not acknowledge anything,&quot; declared Frau von Eschenhagen
+stubbornly. &quot;Willy shall be a thoroughly capable farmer. He is fitted
+for that and does not need your learned trash for it. Or do you,
+perhaps, wish to take him in training for a diplomat. That would be
+capital fun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She laughed loudly, and Willy, to whom this proposition seemed as
+ridiculous, joined in in the same key.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Wallmoden did not indulge in this hilarity, which seemed to
+jar upon his nerves. He only shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not intend that, indeed; it would probably be lost pains; but I
+and Willibald are now the only representatives of the family, and if I
+should remain unmarried----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>If?</i> Are you contemplating marriage in your old age?&quot; interrupted his
+sister in her inconsiderate manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am forty-five years old, dear Regine. That is not usually considered
+old in a man,&quot; said Wallmoden, somewhat offended. &quot;At any rate, I
+consider a late contracted marriage the best, because then one is not
+influenced by passion as was Falkenried to his great misfortune, but
+one allows reason to guide the decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May God help me! Must Willy wait until he has fifty years upon his
+back and gray hairs upon his head before he marries!&quot; exclaimed Frau
+von Eschenhagen, horrified.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; for he must consider the fact that he is an only son and future
+lord of the estates; besides, it will depend upon an individual
+attachment. What do you say, Willibald?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young future lord, who had just finished his ham and eggs, and was
+now turning with unappeased appetite to the <i>wurst</i>, was apparently
+greatly surprised at having his opinion asked. Such a thing happened so
+seldom that he was now thrown into a spell of deep musing, declaring as
+the result of it:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; I shall probably have to marry some time, but mamma will find me
+a wife when the time comes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That she will, my boy,&quot; affirmed Frau von Eschenhagen. &quot;That is my
+affair; you do not need to worry about it at all. You will remain here
+in Burgsdorf, where I shall have you under my eyes. Universities and
+travels are not to be considered--that is decided.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She threw a challenging glance at her brother, but he was regarding
+with a kind of horror the enormous amount of eatables which his nephew
+was piling upon his plate for the second time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you always have such a healthy appetite, Willy?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Always,&quot; assured Willy with satisfaction, taking another huge piece of
+bread and butter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; God be thanked, we do not suffer from indigestion here,&quot; said
+Frau Regine, somewhat pointedly. &quot;We deserve our meals honestly. First
+play and work, then eat and drink, and heartily--that keeps soul and
+body together. Just look at Willy, how he has prospered with that
+treatment. He need never be ashamed to be seen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She slapped her brother upon the shoulder in a friendly manner at these
+words, but so heartily that Wallmoden hastily pushed his chair out of
+her reach. His face betrayed plainly that his hair was &quot;standing on
+end&quot; again; but he gave up the enforcing of his rights as guardian in
+the face of these primitive conditions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy, on the contrary, apparently discovered that he had turned out
+extraordinarily well, and looked very pleased at this praise of his
+mother, who continued now rather vexedly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And Hartmut has not come to breakfast again! He seems to allow himself
+all sorts of irregularities here at Burgsdorf, but I shall lecture the
+young man when he comes, and make him----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here he is already!&quot; cried a voice from the garden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shadow fell athwart the bright sunshine that poured in through the
+open window, in which there suddenly appeared a youthful form, which
+swung itself through from the outside.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Boy, are you out of your senses that you enter through the window?&quot;
+exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen indignantly. &quot;What are the doors for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For Willy and other well-raised people,&quot; laughed the intruder
+mirthfully. &quot;I always take the shortest route, and this time it led
+through this window.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With one jump he landed in the middle of the room from the high sill.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut Falkenried, like the future lord of Burgsdorf, stood at the
+border between boyhood and manhood, but beyond that likeness it
+required but a glance to see the superiority of Hartmut in every
+respect.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He wore the cadet uniform, which became him wonderfully, but there was
+something in his whole appearance indicative of a revolt against the
+strict military cut.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The tall, slender boy was a true picture of youth and beauty, but this
+beauty had something strange and foreign about it; the movement and
+whole appearance had a wild, unruled element; and not a feature
+reminded one of the powerful, soldierly figure and grave composure of
+the father. The thick, curly hair of a blue-black color, falling over
+the high brow, denoted a son of the South, rather than a German; the
+eyes also, which glowed in the youthful face, did not belong to the
+cold, calm North; they were mysterious eyes, dark as night, yet full of
+hot, passionate fire. Beautiful as they were, there was something
+uncanny about them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And now the laugh, with which Hartmut looked from one to another of the
+assembly, had more of the supercilious about it than of a boy's hearty
+mirth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You introduce yourself in a very unconventional manner,&quot; said
+Wallmoden sharply; &quot;you seem to think that no etiquette is to be
+observed at Burgsdorf. I hardly think your father would have permitted
+such an entrance into a dining-room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He does not take such liberties with his father,&quot; said Frau von
+Eschenhagen, who fortunately did not feel the stab which lay for her
+also in her brother's words. &quot;So you finally come now, Hartmut, when
+we have finished breakfast? But late people do not get anything to
+eat--you know that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know it,&quot; returned Hartmut, quite unconcerned; &quot;therefore I got
+the housekeeper to give me some breakfast. You can't starve me out,
+Aunt Regine. I am on too good terms with all your people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So you think you will be able to take all sorts of liberties
+unpunished,&quot; cried the lady of the house angrily. &quot;You break all the
+rules of the house; you leave no person nor thing in peace; you stand
+all Burgsdorf upon its head! We shall know how to stop all that, my
+boy. I shall send a messenger over to your father to-morrow, to ask him
+to kindly come for his son, who can be taught no punctuality or
+obedience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This threat was effective; the boy grew serious and found it best to
+yield.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, all that is only jesting,&quot; he said. &quot;Am I not to utilize the short
+vacation----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For all sorts of foolishness?&quot; interrupted Frau von Eschenhagen.
+&quot;Willy in all his life has not done so many pranks as you in these last
+three days. You will ruin him for me by your bad example and make him
+also disobedient.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Willy can't be ruined; all pains are thrown away with him,&quot;
+confessed Hartmut frankly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord did not look, indeed, as if he had any inclination to
+disobedience. Quite unconcerned by all this conversation, he calmly
+finished his breakfast by still another piece of bread and butter; but
+his mother was highly incensed over this remark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are doubtless extremely sorry for that,&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;You
+have taken pains enough to ruin him. Very well, it remains as I
+said--to-morrow I write to your father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To come for me? You will not do that, Aunt Regine. You are too good to
+do that. You know very well how strict papa is--how harshly he can
+punish. You surely will not accuse me to him--you have never done so
+before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave me alone, boy, with your flatteries.&quot; Frau Regine's face was
+still very grim, but her voice already betrayed a perceptible wavering,
+and Hartmut knew how to take the advantage offered. With the artless
+frankness of a boy, he laid his arm around her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought you loved me a little bit, Aunt Regine. I--I have
+anticipated this trip to Burgsdorf so joyously for weeks. I have longed
+until I was sick, for forest and lake, for the green meadows and the
+wide, blue sky; I have been so happy here--but, of course, if you do
+not want me, I shall leave immediately; you do not need to send me
+away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His voice sank to a soft, coaxing whisper, while the large, dark eyes
+helped with the pleading only too effectively. They could speak more
+fervently than the lips; they seemed, indeed, to have peculiar power.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen, who to Willy and all Burgsdorf, was the stern,
+absolute ruler, now allowed herself to be moved to compliance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, behave yourself, you Eulenspiegel,&quot; she said, running her
+fingers through his thick curls. &quot;As to sending you away, you know only
+too well that Willy and all my people are perfectly foolish about
+you--and so am I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut shouted in his happiness at these last words, and kissed her
+hand in fervent gratitude. Then he turned to his friend, who had now
+happily mastered his last sandwich, and was regarding the scene before
+him in quiet amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you through with your breakfast at last, Willy? Come on; we wished
+to go to the Burgsdorf pond--now don't be so slow and deliberate.
+Good-by, Aunt Regine. I see that Uncle Wallmoden is not pleased in the
+least that you have pardoned me. Hurrah! Now we are off for the woods.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And away he dashed over the terraces and down to the garden. There was
+in this unruliness an overflowing youthful happiness and strength that
+were enchanting; the lad was all life and fire. Willy trotted behind
+him like a young bear, and they disappeared in a few seconds behind the
+trees and shrubberies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He comes and goes like a whirlwind,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen,
+looking after them. &quot;That boy cannot be restrained when once the reins
+are slackened.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A dangerous lad!&quot; declared Wallmoden. &quot;He understands how to rule even
+you, who otherwise rule supreme. It is the first time in my knowledge
+that you pardon disobedience and unpunctuality.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Hartmut has something about him that really bewitches a body,&quot;
+exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen, half vexed over her yielding. &quot;When he
+looks at one with those glowing, black eyes, and begs and pleads
+besides, I would like to see the one who could say no. You are right;
+he is a dangerous lad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, very true; but let us leave Hartmut alone now and consider the
+education of your own son. You have really decided----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To keep him at home. Do not trouble yourself, Herbert. You may be an
+important diplomat and carry the whole political business in your
+pockets, but nevertheless I do not surrender my boy to you. He belongs
+to me alone, and I keep him--settled!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A hearty slap upon the table accompanied this &quot;settled,&quot; with which the
+reigning mistress of Burgsdorf arose and walked out of doors; but her
+brother shrugged his shoulders, and muttered half audibly: &quot;Let him
+become a country squire, for all I care--it may be best, anyhow.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, Hartmut and Willibald had reached the forest belonging
+to the estate. The Burgsdorf pond, a lonely water bordered by rushes in
+the midst of the forest, lay motionless, shining in the sunlight of the
+quiet morning hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord found for himself a shady place upon the bank, and
+devoted himself comfortably and persistently to the interesting
+occupation of fishing, while the impatient Hartmut roamed around,
+starting a bird here, plucking rushes and flowers there, and finally
+indulging in gymnastics upon the trunk of a tree which lay half in the
+water.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you never be quiet in one place? You scare off all the fishes,&quot;
+said Willy, displeased. &quot;I have not caught a thing to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can you sit for hours in one spot waiting for the stupid
+fishes--but, of course, you can roam through field and forest all the
+year round whenever you like. You are free--free!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you imprisoned?&quot; asked Willy. &quot;Are not you and your companions out
+of doors every day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But never alone--never without restraint and supervision. We are
+eternally on duty, even in the hours of recreation. Oh, how I hate
+it--this duty and life of slavery!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Hartmut, what if your father should hear that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He would punish me again, then, as usual. He has nothing for me but
+severity and punishment. I don't care--it's all the same to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He threw himself upon the grass, but harsh and disagreeable as his
+words sounded, there was in them something like a pained, passionate
+complaint.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy only shook his head deliberately fastening a new bait to his hook
+meanwhile, and deep silence reigned for a few moments.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly something dashed down from on high, lightning-like; the water,
+just now so motionless, splashed and foamed, and in the next moment a
+heron rose high in the air, carrying the struggling, silver-shining
+prey in his bill.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bravo! that was a splendid shot,&quot; cried Hartmut, starting up, but
+Willy scolded vexedly. &quot;The con---- robber strips our whole pond. I
+shall tell the forester to keep an eye on him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A robber!&quot; repeated Hartmut, as his eyes followed the heron, which now
+disappeared behind the tree-tops. &quot;Yes, surely; but it must be
+beautiful--such a free robber's life high up in the air. To dash down
+from the heights like a flash of lightning--to grab the booty, then
+soar high with it again where no one can follow--that is worthy of the
+chase.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, I actually believe you have a good notion to lead such a
+robber's life,&quot; said Willy, with the deep horror of a well-raised boy
+for such inclinations.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His companion laughed, but it was again that harsh, strange laugh which
+had in it nothing youthful.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if I should have it, they would know how to get it out of me at
+the cadets' school. There is obedience--discipline--the Alpha and Omega
+of all things, and one finally learns it, too. Willy, have you never
+longed for wings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I? Wings?&quot; ejaculated Willy, whose full attention was again directed
+to hook and line. &quot;Nonsense! who could wish for impossibilities?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish I had some,&quot; cried Hartmut, flaming up. &quot;I wish I were one of
+the falcons of which we hear. Then I would soar high up into the blue
+air--always higher and higher toward the sun, and would never, never
+come back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think you are crazy,&quot; said the young lord calmly; &quot;but I have not
+caught anything yet; the fish will not bite at all to-day. I must try
+another spot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He gathered up his fishing paraphernalia and went to the other side of
+the pond.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut threw himself upon the ground again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">How could he expect that the stolid, matter-of-fact Willibald should
+harbor thoughts of flying!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was one of those autumn days which seem to charm back the summer for
+a few short hours--the sunshine was so golden, the air so mild, the
+woods so fresh and fragrant. Thousands of brilliant sparkles danced
+upon the water; the rushes whispered low and mysteriously as the air
+breathed through them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut lay quite motionless, listening to this mystery of whispering
+and fluttering. The wild, passionate flame, which had flared up almost
+uncannily when he spoke of the bird of prey, had disappeared from his
+eyes. Now they were riveted dreamily upon the shining blue of the sky,
+with a consuming longing in their depths.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Light footsteps drew near, almost inaudible on the soft forest soil;
+the bushes rustled as if brushed by a silken garment, and parted; a
+female figure emerged noiselessly and stopped short, fixing an intent
+look upon the young dreamer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He started and sprang up quickly. He did not know the voice, nor the
+stranger, but it was a lady, and he bowed chivalrously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gracious lady----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A slender and trembling hand was laid hastily and warningly upon his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush--not so loud--your companion might hear us, and I must speak with
+you, Hartmut--with you alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stepped back again and motioned him to follow. Hartmut hesitated a
+moment. How came this stranger, whose face was closely veiled, but who,
+to judge by her dress, belonged to the highest class, at this lonely
+forest pond? And what was the meaning of the familiar &quot;thou&quot; from her
+to him, whom she saw now for the first time? But the mystery of the
+encounter began to interest him, and he followed her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They stopped under the protection of the bushes where they could not be
+seen from the other side, and the stranger slowly raised her veil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was no longer in her youth--a woman still in her thirties--but the
+face with the dark, flashing eyes possessed a strange fascination, and
+the same charm was in the voice, which, even in the whisper, was soft
+and deep, with a foreign accent, as if the German which she spoke so
+fluently was not her native tongue.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, look at me. Do you really not remember me? Have you not kept
+some recollection from your childhood that tells you who I am?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man shook his head slowly, and yet there arose in his mind a
+remembrance, misty and dreamlike, that told him he did not now hear
+this voice for the first time--that he had seen this face before in
+times long, long past. Half timidly, half transfixed, he stood there
+gazing upon the stranger, who suddenly stretched out both arms toward
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My son! my only child! do you not know your mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut retreated, startled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My mother is dead,&quot; he said in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stranger laughed bitterly; it sounded exactly like that harsh,
+unchildlike laugh which had come from the lips of the lad only a short
+while ago.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So that is it; they have called me dead. They would not leave you even
+the memory of your mother. But it is not true, Hartmut. I live--I stand
+before you. Look at me! look at my features, which are yours also. They
+could not take those from you. Child of my heart, do you not feel that
+you belong to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still Hartmut stood motionless, looking into the face in which he saw
+his own reflected as in a mirror. There were the same features,
+the same abundant, blue-black hair; the same large, deep black
+eyes--yes--even the strange demoniac expression which glowed like a
+flame in the mother's eyes, glimmered as a spark in the eyes of the
+son. The natural resemblance showed that they were of the same blood,
+and now the voice of that blood woke up in the young man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not ask for explanations--for proofs; the confused, dream-like
+recollections suddenly became clear. Only one more second of
+hesitation, then he threw himself into the arms which were open for
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the exclamation lay the glowing devotion of the lad, who had never
+known what it was to possess a mother, and who had longed for it with
+all his passionate nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His mother! As he lay in her arms while she overwhelmed him with
+passionate caresses--with tender, fond names such as he had never
+heard, all else disappeared in the flood of overwhelming delight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Several minutes passed thus, then Hartmut disengaged himself from the
+embrace which would have detained him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why have you never been with me, mamma?&quot; he asked vehemently. &quot;Why did
+they tell me that you were dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika drew back. In a moment all the tenderness vanished from her
+face; a light kindled there of wild, deadly hatred, and the answer came
+hissing from her lips:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because your father hates me, my son, and because he did not wish to
+leave me even the love of my only child when he thrust me from him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was silent with consternation. He knew well that no one dared
+mention his mother's name in his father's presence--that his father had
+once silenced him with the greatest harshness when he had ventured to
+ask for her, but he had been too young to muse over the why.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika did not give him time for it now. She stroked the dark, curly
+hair back from the high forehead, and a shadow rested on her face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have his brow,&quot; she said slowly, &quot;but that is the only thing to
+remind of him; everything else belongs to me--to me alone. Every
+feature tells that you are wholly mine. I knew it would be so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again she embraced him, overwhelming him with caresses, which Hartmut
+returned as passionately. It was an intoxication of happiness to
+him--like one of the fairy tales of which he had so often dreamed, and
+he gave himself up to the charm unquestioningly and unreservedly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But now Willy made himself heard on the opposite bank, calling loudly
+for his friend, and reminding him that it was time to return home.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika started.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We must part. Nobody must know that I have seen you and spoken with
+you, particularly your father. When do you return to him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In eight days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not until then?&quot; The tone was triumphant. &quot;I shall see you every day
+until then. Be here at the pond to-morrow at the same hour. Dispense
+with your companion under some pretext, so that we may be undisturbed.
+You will come, Hartmut?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly mother, but----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She did not give him time for an excuse, but continued in the same
+passionate whisper:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Above all, be silent to everybody; do not forget that. Farewell, my
+child, my beloved only son. Au revoir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One more fervent kiss upon Hartmut's brow, then she vanished in the
+bushes as mysteriously as she had appeared. It was quite time, for
+Willy appeared on the scene, his approach being heralded by his heavy
+stamping upon the forest ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why do you not answer?&quot; he demanded. &quot;I have called three times. Did
+you fall asleep? You look as if you had been startled from a dream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stood as if stunned, gazing upon the bushes in which his mother
+had disappeared. At his cousin's words he straightened himself and drew
+his hand across his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I have been dreaming,&quot; he said, slowly; &quot;quite a wonderful,
+strange dream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You might rather have been fishing,&quot; said Willy; &quot;just see what a
+splendid catch I got over on the other bank. A person ought not to
+dream in broad daylight. He ought to be properly occupied, my mother
+says--and my mother is always right.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The families of Falkenried and Wallmoden had been friendly for years.
+As owners of adjoining estates they visited each other frequently; the
+children grew up together, and many mutual interests drew the bonds of
+friendship still closer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As both families were only comfortably well off, the sons had their own
+way to make, which, after completing their education, Major Hartmut von
+Falkenried and Herbert Wallmoden had done. They had been playmates as
+children, and had remained true to that friendship when grown to
+manhood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At one time the parents thought to cement this friendship by a marriage
+between the--at that time--Lieutenant Falkenried and Regine Wallmoden.
+The young couple seemed in perfect accord with it, and all looked
+propitious for the match, when something took place which brought the
+plan to a sudden end.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A cousin of the Wallmoden family--an incorrigible fellow who, through
+divers bad capers, had made it impossible to remain at home, had, long
+ago, gone out into the wide world. After much travel and a rather
+adventurous life, he had landed in Roumania, where he acted as
+inspector upon the estates of a rich Bojar. The rich man died, and the
+inspector thought best to retrieve his lost fortunes and position in
+life by marriage with the widow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was consummated, and he returned to his old home, accompanied by his
+wife, for a visit to his relatives, after an absence of more than ten
+years.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Wallmoden's bloom of youth had long passed, but she brought
+with her her daughter by her first marriage--Zalika Rojanow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl, hardly seventeen years old, with her foreign beauty and
+charm of her glowing temperament, burst like a meteor upon the horizon
+of this German country nobility, whose life flowed in such calm, even
+channels.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she was a strange object in this circle, whose forms and manners
+she disregarded with sovereign indifference, and who stared at her as
+at a being from another world. There was many a serious shaking of
+heads and much condemnation, which was not uttered aloud, because they
+saw in the girl only a temporary visitor, who would disappear as
+suddenly as she had come into view.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just about this time Hartmut Falkenried came from his garrison to the
+paternal estates, and became acquainted with the new relatives of his
+friends. He saw Zalika and recognized in her his fate. It was one of
+those passions which spring up lightning-like--which resemble the
+intoxication of a dream, and are paid for only too frequently with the
+penance of the whole life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Forgotten were the wishes of the parents, his own plans for the
+future--forgotten the quiet affection which had drawn him to his
+playmate Regine. He no longer had eyes for the domestic flower which
+bloomed young and fresh for him; he breathed only the intoxicating
+perfume of the foreign wonder-plant. All else disappeared before her,
+and in a quiet hour with her he threw himself at her feet, confessing
+his love.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Strangely enough, his feelings were returned. Perhaps it was the truth
+of extremes meeting which drew Zalika to a man who was her opposite in
+every respect; perhaps she was flattered by the fact that a glance, a
+word from her could change the grave, calm and almost gloomy nature of
+the young officer to enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Enough, she accepted his proposal and he was permitted to embrace her
+as his betrothed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The news of this engagement created a storm in the whole family circle;
+entreaties and warnings came from all sides; even Zalika's mother and
+stepfather opposed it, but the universal disapproval only increased the
+determination of the young couple, and six months later Falkenried led
+his young wife into his home.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the voices who prophesied misfortune to this marriage were in the
+right. The bitterest disappointment followed the short term of
+happiness. It had been a dangerous mistake to believe that a woman like
+Zalika Rojanow, grown up in boundless freedom and accustomed to the
+uncontrolled, extravagant life of the families of the Bojars of her
+country, could ever submit herself to German views and conditions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To gallop about on fiery horses; to associate freely with men who spent
+their time in hunting and gambling, and who surrounded themselves in
+their homes with a splendor which went hand in hand with the most
+corrupted indebtedness of estates--such was life as she had known it so
+far, and the only life which suited her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A conception of duty was as foreign to her as the knowledge of her new
+position in life. And this woman was to accommodate herself now to the
+household of a young officer of but limited means, and to the
+conditions of a small German garrison!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That this was impossible was proved in the first weeks. Zalika began by
+throwing aside every consideration, and furnishing her house in her
+usual style, squandering heedlessly her by no means insignificant
+dowry.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In vain her husband entreated, remonstrated; he found no hearing. She
+had only sarcasm for forms and rules which were holy to him; only a
+shrug of the shoulder for his strict sense of honor and ideas of
+decorum.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Very soon they had the most vehement controversies, and Falkenried
+recognized too late the serious error which he had committed. He had
+counted upon the all-powerful efficacy of love to battle against those
+warning voices which had pointed out the difference of descent,
+education and character, but he was forced now to recognize that Zalika
+had never loved him; that caprice alone, or a sudden outburst of
+passion, which died as suddenly, had brought her to his arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She saw in him now only the uncomfortable companion who begrudged her
+every pleasure of life; who, with his foolish--his ridiculous ideas of
+honor, fettered and bound her on every side. Still, she feared this
+man, whose dominant will succeeded always in bowing her characterless
+nature under his rod.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Even the birth of little Hartmut was not sufficient to reconcile this
+unhappy marriage; it only held it, apparently, together. Zalika loved
+her child passionately; she knew her husband would never permit her to
+keep it if they separated. This alone retained her at his side, while
+Falkenried bore his domestic misery with concealed pain, putting forth
+every effort to hide it at least from the world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nevertheless, the world knew the truth; it knew things of which the
+husband did not even dream and which were kept concealed from him
+through sheer compassion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But finally the day came when the deceived husband was told what was no
+secret to others.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The immediate result following was a duel in which Falkenried's
+opponent fell. Falkenried himself was imprisoned, but was soon
+pardoned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Every one knew that the offended husband had only vindicated his honor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, steps were taken for a divorce, which was granted in
+due time. Zalika made no opposition. She dared not approach her
+husband; she trembled before him since that hour of separation, when he
+had called her to account; but she made desperate efforts to secure the
+possession of her child, fighting as for life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was in vain. Hartmut was given unconditionally to his father, who
+knew how to prevent every approach of the mother with iron
+inflexibility.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika was not even allowed to see her son again, and it was only after
+convincing herself entirely on that point that she left--returning to
+the home of her mother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had seemed lost to and forgotten by her former husband until she
+suddenly reappeared in Germany, where Major Falkenried now held an
+important position in the large military school at the Residenz.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20px">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was about a week after the arrival of Hartmut at Burgsdorf. Frau von
+Eschenhagen was in her sitting-room with Major Falkenried, who had but
+just arrived.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The topic of their conversation seemed to be very serious and of a
+rather disagreeable nature, for Falkenried listened with a gloomy face
+to his friend, who was speaking.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I noticed Hartmut's changed demeanor the third or fourth day. The boy,
+whose mirth at first knew no bounds, so that I even threatened to send
+him back home, suddenly became subdued. He committed no more foolish
+pranks, but roamed for hours through the woods alone, and when he
+returned was always dreaming with his eyes open, to such an extent that
+one had almost to awake him. 'He is beginning to get sensible,' said
+Herbert; but I said, 'Things are not going right; there is something
+behind all this,' and I questioned my Willy, who also appeared quite
+peculiar. He was actually in the plot. He had surprised the two one
+day. Hartmut had made him promise to keep silent, and my boy positively
+hid something from <i>me, his mother!</i> He confessed only when I got after
+him seriously. Well, he will not do it a second time. I have taken care
+of that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And Hartmut? What did he say?&quot; interrupted the Major hastily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing at all, for I have not spoken a syllable to him about it. He
+would probably have asked me why he should not see and speak to his own
+mother, and only--his father can give him the answer to that question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has probably heard it already from the other side,&quot; said Falkenried
+bitterly; &quot;but he has hardly learned the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I fear so, too, and therefore I did not lose a minute in notifying you
+after discovering the affair. But what next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall have to interfere now,&quot; replied the Major with forced
+composure. &quot;I thank you, Regine. I apprehended trouble when your letter
+called me so imperatively. Herbert was right. I ought not to have
+allowed my son to leave my side for an hour under the circumstances.
+But I believed him safe from every approach here at Burgsdorf. And he
+anticipated the trip with such pleasure--he longed for it almost
+passionately. I did not have the heart to refuse him. He is happy,
+anyway, only when absent from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was deep pain in the last words, but Frau von Eschenhagen only
+shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is not the fault of the boy alone,&quot; she said straightforwardly.
+&quot;I also keep my Willy under good control, but nevertheless he knows
+that he has a mother whose heart is full of him. Hartmut does not know
+that of his father. He knows him only from a grave, unapproachable
+side. If he had an idea that you idolize him secretly----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He would abuse the knowledge and disarm me with his caressing
+tenderness. Shall I allow myself to be ruled by him as every one else
+is who comes into his presence? His comrades follow him blindly
+although he brings punishment upon them by his pranks. He has your
+Willibald completely under control--yes, even his teachers treat him
+with particular indulgence. I am the only one he fears, and
+consequently the only one he respects.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you think by fear alone to succeed with the boy, who is doubtless
+now being overwhelmed with the most senseless caresses! Do not turn
+away, Falkenried; you know I have never mentioned that name to you, but
+now that it is brought forward so prominently, one may speak it. And
+since we happen to be upon the subject, I tell you frankly that nothing
+else could be expected since Frau Zalika's appearance. It would have
+done no good to have kept Hartmut from Burgsdorf, for one cannot treat
+a seventeen-year-old lad like a little child. The mother would have
+found her way to him in spite of all--and it was her right. I would
+have done just so, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her right!&quot; cried the Major angrily. &quot;And you tell me that, Regine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I say it because I know what it is to have an only child. That you
+should take the child from its mother was right--such a mother was not
+fit for the raising of a boy--but that you now refuse to let her see
+her son again after twelve years is harshness and cruelty, which hatred
+alone can teach you. However great her faults may be, that punishment
+is too severe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried stared gloomily before him--he might have felt the truth of
+the words. Finally he said, slowly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I would never have thought that you would take Zalika's part. I
+offended you bitterly once for her sake--I broke a bond----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Which had not even been tied,&quot; interrupted Frau von Eschenhagen. &quot;It
+was a plan of our parents--nothing more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the idea was dear and familiar to us from childhood. Do not
+attempt to excuse me, Regine; I only know too well what I did at that
+time to you and--to myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine fixed her clear, gray eyes upon him, but there was a moist gleam
+in them as she replied:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, yes, Hartmut; now since we are both long past our youth, I may,
+perhaps, confess that I liked you then. You might have been able to
+make something better of me than I am now. I was always a self-willed
+child--not easy to rule; but I would have followed you--perhaps you
+alone of all the world. When I went to the altar with Eschenhagen three
+months after your marriage, matters were reversed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I took the reins into my own hands and began to command, and since then
+I have learned it thoroughly---- But now, away with that old story,
+long since past. I have not thought hard of you because of it--you know
+that.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have remained friends in spite of it, and if you need me now, in
+advice as well as deed, I am ready to help you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She offered her hand, which he grasped.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it, Regine, but I alone can advise here. Please send Hartmut to
+me. I must speak to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen arose and left the room, murmuring as she went:
+&quot;If only it is not too late already! She blinded and enraptured the
+father once. She has probably secured her son now.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut entered the room and closed the door behind him, but remained
+standing near it. Falkenried turned toward him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come nearer, Hartmut; I must speak with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The youth obeyed, drawing near slowly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He already knew that Willibald had had to confess; that his rendezvous
+with his mother had been betrayed; but the awe with which he always
+approached his father was mingled to-day with defiance, which was not
+unnoticed by the Major.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He scanned the youthful, handsome person of his son with a long, gloomy
+glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My sudden arrival does not seem to surprise you,&quot; he began; &quot;you
+probably know what brought me here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, father, I surmise it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, we do not need then to continue with preliminaries. You
+have learned that your mother is still living. She has approached you
+and you are in communication with her. I know it already. When did you
+see her for the first time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Five days ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And since then you have spoken with her daily?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, near the Burgsdorf pond.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Question and reply alike sounded curt and calm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was accustomed to this strict, military manner, even in his
+private intercourse with his father, who never allowed a superfluous
+word, a hesitation or evasion in the answers. This tone was kept up
+even to-day to veil his painful excitement from the eyes of his son.
+Hartmut saw only the grave, unmoved face; heard only the sound of cold
+severity as the Major continued:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will not make it a reproach to you, as I have never forbidden you
+anything regarding it; the subject has never been mentioned between us.
+But since matters have gone so far, I will have to break the silence.
+You thought your mother dead, and I have silently allowed you to think
+so, for I wished to save you from reminiscences which have poisoned my
+life. I meant that your youth, at least, should be free from it. It
+seems that it cannot be, so you may hear the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused for a moment. It was torture to the man, with his delicate
+sense of honor, to talk on this subject before his son, but there was
+no longer a choice--he must speak on.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I loved your mother passionately when a young officer, and married her
+against the wish of my parents, who saw no good to result from a
+marriage with a woman of foreign race. They were right, the marriage
+was deeply unfortunate, and we finally separated at my desire. I had an
+undeniable right to demand the separation, and also the possession of
+my son, which was granted me unconditionally. I cannot tell you any
+more, for I will not accuse the mother to the son; therefore let this
+suffice you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Short and harsh as this explanation sounded, it yet made a strange
+impression upon Hartmut. The father would not accuse the mother to him,
+who had been hearing daily the most bitter accusation, abuse and
+slander against the father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika had put the whole blame of the separation upon her husband, upon
+his unheard-of tyranny, and she found only too willing a listener in
+the youth whose unruly nature suffered so intensely under that
+severity. And yet those short, earnest words now weighed more than all
+the passionate outbursts of the mother. Hartmut felt instinctively upon
+which side the truth stood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But now to the most important point,&quot; resumed Falkenried. &quot;What has
+been the subject of your conversation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut had not expected this question, and a burning blush suffused
+his face. He was silent and looked to the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, so! you do not dare to repeat it to me; but I request to know it.
+Answer, I command you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Hartmut remained silent; he only closed his lips more firmly, and
+his eyes met his father's with dark defiance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried now drew nearer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will not speak? Has a command from that side, perhaps, made you
+silent? Never mind, your silence says more than words. I see how much
+estranged from me you have become, and you would become lost entirely
+to me if I should leave you longer under that influence. These meetings
+with your mother must be ended. I forbid them. You will accompany me
+home to-day and remain under my supervision. Whether it seems cruel to
+you or not, it must be so, and you will obey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the Major was mistaken when he thought to bow his son to his will
+by a simple command.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut had been in a school during these last days where defiance
+against the father had been taught him in the most effectual manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, you will not--you cannot command that,&quot; he burst forth now
+with overpowering vehemence. &quot;It is my mother who is found again; the
+only one in the whole world who loves me. I shall not let her be taken
+from me again as she has already been taken. I shall not allow myself
+to be forced to hate her because you hate her. Threaten--punish me do
+whatever you will with me, but I do not obey this time. I will not
+obey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The whole unruly, passionate nature of the young man was in these
+words; the uncanny fire flamed again in his eyes; the hands were
+clenched; every fibre throbbed in wild rebellion. He was apparently
+decided to do battle against the long-feared father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the burst of anger which he so confidently expected did not come.
+Falkenried only looked at him silently, but with a glance of grave,
+deep reproach.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The only one in the whole world who loves you!&quot; he repeated slowly.
+&quot;You have, perhaps, forgotten that you still have a father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who does not love me, though,&quot; cried Hartmut in overwhelming
+bitterness. &quot;Only since I have found my mother have I known what love
+is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The youth looked up, startled by the strange, pained tone which he
+heard for the first time, and the defiance which was about to break
+forth again died on his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because I have no pet names and caresses for you; because I have
+raised you with seriousness and firmness, do you doubt my love?&quot; said
+Falkenried, still in the same voice. &quot;Do you know what this severity
+toward my only, my beloved child has cost me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The word sounded still timid and hesitating, but no longer with the old
+fear and awe; it now contained something like budding faith and trust;
+like a happy but half-comprehended surprise, and with it Hartmut's eyes
+hung as if riveted upon his father's features. Falkenried now put his
+hand upon his son's arm, drawing him nearer, while he continued:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I once had high ambitions, proud hopes of life, great plans and
+aspirations, which came to an end when a blow fell upon me from which I
+shall never be able to rally. If I still aspire and struggle, it is
+from a sense of duty and because of you, Hartmut. In you centers all my
+ambition; to make your future great and happy is the only thing which I
+yet desire of life; and your future can be made great, my son, for your
+gifts are extraordinary ones; your will is strong in good as well as
+evil. But there is yet something dangerous in your nature, which is
+less your fault than your doom, and which must be taken in hand in
+time, if it is not to develop and dash you into destruction. I had to
+be severe to banish this unfortunate tendency; it has not been easy for
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The face of the youth was covered by a deep blush. With panting breath
+he seemed to read every word from his father's lips, and now he said in
+a whisper, in which the suppressed joy could scarcely be hidden:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not dared to love you so far. You have always been so cold--so
+unapproachable, and I----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He broke off and glanced up at his father, who now put his arm around
+Hartmut's shoulders, drawing him still closer to him. Then eyes looked
+deep into eyes, and the voice of the iron man broke as he said, lowly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are my only child, Hartmut, the only thing which has remained to
+me from a dream of happiness that dispersed in bitterness and
+disappointment. I lost much at that time and have borne it; but if I
+should lose you--you--I could not bear it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His arms closed around his son tightly, as if they could never be
+detached. Hartmut had thrown himself sobbing upon his father's breast,
+and father and son held each other in a long, passionate embrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Both had forgotten that a shadow from the past still stood
+threateningly and separatingly between them.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20px">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, Frau von Eschenhagen, in her dining-room, was giving
+Willy a curtain lecture. She had done so, in fact, this morning, but
+was of the opinion that a double portion would not come amiss in this
+case. The young heir looked completely crushed. He felt himself in the
+wrong, as well toward his mother as toward his friend, and yet he was
+quite blameless. He allowed himself to be lectured patiently, like an
+obedient son, only throwing an occasional sad look over at the supper
+which already stood upon the table, although his mother did not take
+any notice of it at all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is what comes of having secrets behind the backs of parents,&quot; she
+said severely, concluding her lecture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut is getting what he deserves in yonder; the Major will not
+treat him very mildly. I think you will let playing helpmate in such, a
+plot alone in the future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I have not helped in it,&quot; Willy defended himself. &quot;I had only
+promised to be silent and I had to keep my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You ought not dare to keep silence to your mother; she is always an
+exception,&quot; Frau Regine said decidedly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, mamma, Hartmut probably thought so, too, when it concerned his
+mother,&quot; remarked Willibald, and the remark was so correct that she
+could not well say anything against it; but that angered her the more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is different--entirely different,&quot; she said curtly; but the young
+lord asked persistently:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why is it entirely different?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Boy, you will kill me yet with your questions and talking,&quot; cried his
+mother angrily. &quot;That is an affair which you do not and shall not
+understand. It is bad enough that Hartmut has brought you in connection
+with it at all. Now do you keep quiet, and do not concern yourself
+further about it. Do you hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy was dutifully silent. It was perhaps the first time in his life
+that he had been reproved for too much talking; besides, his Uncle
+Wallmoden, who had just returned from a drive, entered now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Falkenried has already arrived, I hear,&quot; he said, approaching his
+sister.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she replied. &quot;He came immediately upon receiving my letter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And how has he borne the news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Outwardly very calm, but I saw only too well how it rent his
+heartstrings. He is alone now with Hartmut, and the storm will probably
+burst.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry; but I prophesied this turn of affairs when I learned of
+Zalika's return. He ought to have spoken then to Hartmut. Now I fear he
+will but add a second mistake to the first one by trying to accomplish
+a separation by force and dictating. This unfortunate obstinacy which
+knows only 'either--or'! It is least of all in the right place here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, the meeting yonder lasts too long for me,&quot; said Frau von
+Eschenhagen with concern. &quot;I shall go and see how far the two have
+gotten, whether it offends the Major or not. Remain here, Herbert; I
+shall return directly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She left the room, which Wallmoden paced disconsolately. His nephew sat
+alone at the supper table, about which nobody seemed to think. He did
+not dare to begin eating by himself, for a regular turmoil reigned
+to-day in Burgsdorf, and the Frau Mamma was in a very ungracious mood.
+But fortunately she returned after a few minutes, and her face was
+beaming with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The affair is settled in the best way,&quot; she said in her short and
+decided tone. &quot;He has the boy in his embrace. Hartmut is hanging upon
+his father's neck, and the rest will arrange itself easily now. God be
+praised! And now you may eat your supper, Willy. The confusion which
+has disturbed our whole household has come to an end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy did not allow himself to be told twice, but made brisk use of the
+coveted permission. But Wallmoden shook his head and muttered: &quot;If it
+were only truly at an end!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Neither Falkenried nor his son had noticed that the door had been
+quietly opened and closed again. Hartmut still clung to his father's
+neck. He seemed to have lost in a moment all awe and reserve, and was
+overwhelmingly lovable in his new-found, stormy caresses, the charm of
+which the Major had rightly feared would disarm him. He spoke but
+little, but again and again he pressed his lips upon the brow of his
+son, looking steadily into the beautiful face, full of life, which
+pressed so close to his own.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Finally Hartmut asked in a low voice: &quot;And--my mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shadow passed again over Falkenried's brow, but he did not release
+his son from his arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your mother will leave Germany as soon as she is convinced that she
+must in the future, as in the past, stay away from you,&quot; he said, this
+time without harshness, but with decision. &quot;You may write to her. I
+will allow a correspondence with certain restrictions, but I cannot--I
+dare not permit a personal intercourse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, think----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot, Hartmut; it is impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you hate her, then, so very much?&quot; asked the youth reproachfully.
+&quot;You wished the separation--not my mother--I know it from herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried's lips quivered. He was about to speak the bitter words and
+tell his son that the separation had been at the command of honor; but
+he looked again in those dark, inquiring eyes, and the words died
+unspoken. He could not accuse the mother to the son.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let that question rest,&quot; he replied gloomily; &quot;I cannot answer it to
+you. Perhaps you will learn my reasons later and will understand them.
+I cannot spare you the hard choice now. You can belong only to one--the
+other you must shun. Accept it as a doom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut bowed his head; he might have felt that nothing further could
+be gained. That the meetings with his mother had to end when he
+returned to the strict discipline of the school, he knew; but now a
+correspondence was permitted, which was more than he had dared to hope
+for.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I will tell mamma so,&quot; he said in a crestfallen way. &quot;Now, since
+you know everything, I may see her openly, may I not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Major started; he had not considered this possibility.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When were you to see her again?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To-day, at this hour, at the Burgsdorf pond. She is surely awaiting me
+there now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried seemed to battle with himself. A warning voice arose in him
+not to allow this leave-taking, yet he felt that to refuse would be
+cruel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you be back in two hours?&quot; he asked finally.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, father; even earlier if you desire it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go, then,&quot; said the Major, with a deep breath. One could hear how
+reluctant was the permission which his sense of duty forced from him.
+&quot;We shall drive home as soon as you return. Your vacation ends shortly,
+anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut, who was just about to leave, came to a standstill. The words
+recalled to him what he had entirely forgotten in the last half hour:
+the discipline and severity of the service which was awaiting him.
+Heretofore he had not dared to betray his aversion to it openly, but
+this hour which banished the awe of his father broke also the seal from
+his lips. Obeying a sudden impulse, he turned and put his arms again
+around the neck of his father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have a request,&quot; he whispered, &quot;a great, great request which you
+must grant me; and I know you will do it as a proof that you love me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A furrow appeared between the Major's eyebrows as he asked with slight
+reproach: &quot;Do you require proofs of it? Well, let's hear it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut nestled still more closely to him; his voice had again that
+sweet, coaxing sound which made his prayers so irresistible, and the
+dark eyes implored intensely, beseechingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not let me become a soldier, father. I do not love the calling for
+which you have decided me. I shall never learn to love it. If I have
+bowed until now to your will, it has been with aversion, with secret
+grumbling, and I have been unbearably unhappy, only I did not dare to
+confess it to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The furrow on Falkenried's brow sank deeper, and he released his son
+slowly from his embrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That means, in other words, that you do not like to obey,&quot; he said
+harshly, &quot;and just that is more important to you than to any one else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I cannot bear any compulsion,&quot; Hartmut burst forth passionately,
+&quot;and the military service is nothing but duty and fetters. To obey
+always and eternally--never to have a will of your own--to bow day
+after day to an iron discipline and strict, cold forms by which every
+individual movement is suppressed. I cannot bear it any longer.
+Everything in me demands freedom for light and life. Let me go, father;
+do not keep me any longer in these bonds. I die--I suffocate under
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To a man, who was heart and soul a soldier, he could not have done his
+cause greater harm than by these imprudent words. It sounded like a
+stormy, glowing prayer. His arm yet lay around his father's neck, but
+Falkenried now straightened himself suddenly and pushed him back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should consider the service an honor and no fetter,&quot; he said
+cuttingly. &quot;It is sad that I should have to recall that to my son's
+mind. Freedom--light--life! You think perhaps that one can throw
+himself at seventeen years into life and grasp all its treasures. The
+longed-for freedom for you would be only recklessness, ruin,
+destruction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what if it should be so!&quot; cried Hartmut, totally beside himself.
+&quot;Better go to ruin in freedom than to live in this depression. To me it
+is a chain--a fetter--slavery----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be silent! not a word further,&quot; commanded Falkenried so threateningly
+that the youth grew silent despite his awful excitement. &quot;You have no
+choice, and take care that you do not forget your duty. You must become
+an officer and fulfill your duty completely as does every one of your
+comrades. When you are of age, I no longer have any power to hinder
+you. You may then resign, even if it give me my deathblow to see my
+only son flee the service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, do you consider me a coward?&quot; Hartmut burst forth. &quot;I could
+stand a war--I could fight----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You would fight foolhardily and rush blindly into every danger; and
+with this obstinacy which knows no discipline you would destroy
+yourself and your men. I know this wild, boundless desire for freedom
+and life to which no barrier, no duty is sacred. I know from whom you
+have inherited it and where it will finally lead; therefore I keep you
+securely in the 'fetters,' no matter whether you hate it or not. You
+shall learn to obey and to bow your will while yet there is time; and
+you shall learn it. I pledge my word to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again the old, inflexible harshness sounded in his voice; every line of
+tenderness, of softness, had disappeared, and Hartmut knew his father
+too well to continue supplication or defiance. He did not answer a
+syllable, but his eyes glowed again with that demoniac spark which
+robbed him of all his beauty; and around his lips, which were pressed
+closely together, there settled a strange, bad expression as he now
+turned to go.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Major's eyes followed him. Again the warning voice came to him like
+a presentiment of evil, and he called his son back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, you are sure to be back in time? You give me your word?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, father.&quot; The answer sounded grim, but firm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well. I shall trust you as a man. I let you go in peace with this
+promise which you have given me. Be punctual.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut had been gone but a few moments when Wallmoden entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you alone?&quot; he asked, somewhat surprised. &quot;I did not wish to
+disturb you, but I saw Hartmut hasten through the garden just now.
+Where was he going so late?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To his mother, to take leave of her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Secretary started at this news. &quot;With your consent?&quot; he asked
+quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, I have permitted him to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How imprudent! I should think that you knew now how Zalika manages to
+get her own way, and yet you leave your son to her mercy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For only half an hour to say farewell. I could not refuse that. What
+do you fear? Surely no force. Hartmut is no longer a child to be borne
+into a carriage and carried off in spite of his resistance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But if he should not refuse a flight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have his word that he will return in two hours,&quot; said the Major with
+emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The word of a seventeen-year-old lad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who has been raised a soldier and who knows the importance of a word
+of honor. That gives me no care; my fear lies in another direction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Regine told me that you were reconciled,&quot; remarked Wallmoden, with a
+glance upon the still clouded brow of his friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For a few moments only; after that I had to become again the firm,
+severe father. This hour has showed me how hard the task is to bend, to
+educate this roving nature. Nevertheless I shall conquer him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Secretary approached the window and looked out in the garden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is twilight already, and the Burgsdorf pond is half an hour's
+distance,&quot; he said, half aloud. &quot;You ought to have allowed the
+rendezvous only in your presence, if it had to take place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And see Zalika again? Impossible! I could not and would not do that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But if the leave-taking end differently from what you expect--if
+Hartmut does not return?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he would be a scoundrel to break his word!&quot; burst out Falkenried;
+&quot;a deserter, for he carries the sword already at his side. Do not
+offend me with such thoughts, Herbert; it is my son of whom you speak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is also Zalika's son; but do not let us quarrel about that now.
+They await you in the dining room. And you will really leave us
+to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, in two hours,&quot; the Major said, calmly and firmly. &quot;Hartmut will
+have returned by that time. My word stands for that.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The gray shadows of twilight were gathering in forest and field,
+becoming closer and denser with every moment. The short, foggy autumn
+day drew near its close. Through the heavy-clouded sky the night
+lowered sooner than usual.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A female figure paced impatiently and restlessly up and down the bank
+of the Burgsdorf pond. She had drawn the dark cloak tightly around her
+shoulders, but was unmindful of her shivering, caused by the cold
+evening air. Her whole manner was feverish expectation and intense
+listening for the sound of a step which could not as yet be heard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika had arranged the meetings with her son for a later hour, when it
+was desolate and dim in the forest, since the day Willibald had
+surprised them and had to be admitted into the secret. They had parted,
+however, before dark, so that Hartmut's late return should not cause
+suspicion at Burgsdorf. He had always been punctual, but now his mother
+had waited in vain for an hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Did a trifle detain him, or was the secret betrayed? One had to expect
+that, since a third party knew it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Deathlike silence reigned in the forest; the dry leaves alone rustled
+beneath the hem of the gown of the restlessly moving woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Night shades already lingered under the tree-tops; a cloud of mist
+floated over the pond where it was lighter and more open; and over
+there where the water was bordered by a marsh, whitish-gray veils of
+mist arose yet more thickly. The wind blew damp and cold from over
+there, like the air of a vault. A light footstep finally sounded at a
+distance, coming nearer in the direction of the pond with flying haste.
+Now a slender figure appeared, scarcely recognizable in the gathering
+dusk. Zalika flew toward him, and in the next moment her son was in her
+arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What has happened?&quot; she demanded, amidst the usual stormy caresses.
+&quot;Why do you come so late? I had given up in despair seeing you to-day.
+What kept you back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I could not come any sooner,&quot; panted Hartmut, still breathless from
+his rapid run. &quot;I come from my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika started.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From your father? Then he knows----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So he is at Burgsdorf? Since when? Who notified him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man, with fluttering breath, reported what had happened, but
+he had not finished when the bitter laugh of his mother interrupted
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Naturally they are all in the plot when it concerns the tearing of my
+child from me. And your father, he has probably threatened and punished
+and made you suffer for the heavy crime of having been in the arms of
+your mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The remembrance of that moment when his father drew him to his breast
+stood firm, in spite of the bitterness with which that scene had ended.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; he said in a low voice; &quot;but he commanded me not to see you
+again, and requested irrevocable separation from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet you are here? Oh, I knew it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The exclamation was full of joyous victory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not triumph too soon, mamma,&quot; said the youth bitterly. &quot;I came only
+to say farewell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father knows it. He allowed me this meeting, and then----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he will grasp you again, and you will be lost to me forever, is
+it not so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut did not answer; he folded his mother in his arms, and a wild,
+passionate sob, which had in it as much of anger as pain, escaped his
+breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It had now grown quite dark; the night had commenced; a cold, gloomy
+autumn night, without moon or star shining, but over there upon the
+marsh where lately the veils of mist floated, something now shot up
+with a bluish light, glimmering dimly in the fog, but growing brighter
+and clearer like a flame; now appearing, now disappearing, and with it
+a second and a third. The will-o'-the-wisp had commenced its ghostly,
+uncanny play.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You weep,&quot; cried Zalika, pressing her son closely to her; &quot;but I have
+seen it coming long ago, and if your Eschenhagen had not betrayed us,
+the day you had to return to your father would have brought your forced
+choice between separation or--decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What decision? What do you mean?&quot; asked Hartmut, perplexed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika bent over him, and, although they were alone, her voice sank to
+a whisper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you bow feebly and defenselessly to a tyranny which tears asunder
+the sacred bond between mother and child, and which stamps under foot
+our rights as well as our love? If you can do that, you are not my son;
+you have inherited nothing of the blood that flows in my veins. He sent
+you to bid me farewell, and you accept it patiently as a last favor.
+Have you really come to take leave of me, perhaps for years? Actually,
+have you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have to,&quot; interrupted the youth despairingly. &quot;You know father and
+his iron will. Is there any possibility of anything else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you return to him, no. But who forces you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mamma, for God's sake!&quot; shrieked Hartmut, terrified. But the
+encircling arms did not release him, and the hot, passionate whisper
+again reached his ear:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What frightens you so at the thought? You will only go with your
+mother, who loves you devotedly, and who will henceforth live for you
+alone. You have told me repeatedly that you hate the vocation which is
+forced upon you, that you languish with longing for freedom. There is
+no choice there for you; when you return your father will keep you
+irrevocably in the fetters. If he knew that you would die of them, he
+would not let you free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had no need to tell that to her son; he knew it better than she
+did. Only an hour ago he had seen the full inflexibility of his father,
+his hard &quot;You shall learn to obey and bow your will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His voice was almost smothered in bitterness as he answered:
+&quot;Nevertheless, I must return. I have given my word to be back at
+Burgsdorf in two hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really,&quot; said Zalika, sharply and sarcastically; &quot;I thought so.
+Usually you are nothing but a boy, whose every step is prescribed;
+whose every moment counted out; who ought not even to have his own
+thoughts; but as soon as the retaining of you is concerned, you are
+given the independence of a man. Very well; now show that you are not
+only grown in words, but that you can also act like a man. A forced
+promise has no value. Tear asunder this invincible chain with which
+they want to bind you and make yourself free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No--no,&quot; murmured Hartmut, with a renewed attempt to free himself. But
+he did not succeed. He only turned his face and looked with fixed eyes
+out into the night, into the desolate, silent forest darkness and over
+yonder where the will-o'-the-wisp still carried on its ghostly dance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Those quivering, tremulous flames appeared now everywhere; seeming
+to seek and flee from each other, they floated over the ground,
+disappearing or dissolving in the ocean of fog, only to reappear
+again and again. There was something ghastly yet fascinating in this
+spectre-like play; the demoniac charm of the depths which that
+treacherous mire concealed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come with me, my Hartmut,&quot; implored Zalika, now in those sweet,
+coaxing tones which were so effectively at hers as well as at her son's
+command. &quot;I have foreseen everything and prepared for it. I knew that a
+day like this had to come. My carriage awaits me half an hour's
+distance from here. It will take us to the next station, and before
+anybody at Burgsdorf thinks you will not return, the train will have
+carried us into the far country. There are freedom, light and
+happiness. I will lead you out into the great distant world, and after
+you know that, you will breathe with relief and shout like a redeemed
+man. I myself know how one released feels. I too have borne that chain
+which I riveted myself in foolish error, but I would have broken it in
+the first year but for you. Oh, it is sweet, this freedom. You will
+feel it, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She knew only too well how to succeed. Freedom, life, light! These
+words found a thousand-fold echo in the heart of the young man, whose
+passionate thirst for freedom had been so far suppressed. This promised
+life shone with a magic splendor like a beacon before him. He needed
+only to stretch forth his hand and it was his.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My promise,&quot; he murmured with a last attempt to gather strength.
+&quot;Father will look at me with contempt if----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you have reached a great, proud future?&quot; Zalika interrupted him
+passionately. &quot;Then you can go before him and ask if he dares consider
+you with contempt. He would keep you upon the ground while you have
+wings which will carry you high up. He does not understand a nature
+like yours; he will never learn to understand it. Will you languish and
+go to ruin for only a word's sake? Go with me, my Hartmut--with me, to
+whom you are all in all--out into freedom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She drew him along, slowly but irresistibly. He still resisted, but did
+not tear himself away; and amidst the prayers and caresses of his
+mother this resistance slowly gave way--he followed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A few moments later the pond lay wholly deserted; mother and son had
+disappeared; the sound of their steps died away. Night and silence
+brooded alone. Only over yonder in the fog of the marsh fluttered that
+noiseless spectral life. It floated and vanished, rose and sank again
+in restless play--the mysterious sign of flame.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>PART II.</h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The warm, golden light of a clear September day lay over the green
+ocean of forest, which stretched as far as the eye could reach. These
+immense forests had covered this part of Southern Germany for countless
+years; trees one hundred years old were no rarity among them. The whole
+bore the character of a mountainous forest, for hills and dales
+succeeded one another.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While the railroads spun their web all around the country, drawing one
+place after another within their grasp, this &quot;Wald,&quot; as these miles and
+miles of wooded land were briefly called by the people, lay still and
+deserted, like a green island, almost untouched by the life and strife
+around.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here and there a village rose from the forest green, or an old castle,
+almost in ruins, gray and dilapidated. There was one exception to it,
+in a powerful, old, gray edifice which stood upon a height and
+overlooked the whole vicinity. This was &quot;Furstenstein,&quot; once the
+hunting lodge of the sovereign, but at present the habitation of the
+Chief of all the foresters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The castle dated from the beginning of the last century and had been
+built with all the waste of space of that epoch when the hunting lodge
+of the Prince had to accommodate for weeks the whole court suite.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Furstenstein was only partly visible at a distance, for the forest
+covered all the castle mount, the gray walls, the steeples and bow
+windows lifting themselves from among the crown of green firs. The size
+of the old structure was only apparent when one stood before the
+entrance portal, for many additions belonging to later times were
+attached to it. It was to be understood that decay here was carefully
+kept back, for the numerous rooms of the upper floors were kept in
+readiness for the commands of the Prince, who came here occasionally in
+the fall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The similarly extensive lower floor was given to the chief of the
+forest department, Herr von Schonan, who had lived here for years, and
+who knew how to make the loneliness agreeable by keeping a very
+hospitable house and by frequent sociable visitings in the
+neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was entertaining guests at present. His sister-in-law, Frau Regine
+von Eschenhagen, had arrived yesterday, and her son was also expected.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two daughters of the house of Wallmoden had made very desirable
+matches, the elder one marrying the lord of the Burgsdorf estates and
+the younger one Herr von Schonan, who belonged to a wealthy South
+German family. In spite of the distance separating them, the sisters
+and their families had remained in intimate association, and even after
+the death of the younger one, which had occurred several years
+previously, these family connections were continued.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This friendship, however, had a quality of its own, for Herr von
+Schonan was always on the war-path with his sister-in-law. As both
+natures were terse and inconsiderate they came to a tussle at every
+opportunity, made up regularly, deciding to keep the peace in future,
+but the promise was broken just as regularly. A new difference of
+opinion would come up in the next hour, the dispute would be carried on
+with fullest passion, until it again raged with undiminished power.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just at present a very unusual harmony seemed to prevail between the
+two, who sat upon the terrace before the entrance room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester, who in spite of his advanced years, was still a
+very stately man, with strong, sunburned features and slightly gray but
+thick hair and beard, was leaning comfortably back in his chair,
+listening to his sister-in-law, who, as usual, was monopolizing the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Regine was now near her fiftieth year, but had scarcely changed in
+the last decade. The years could not make much impression upon her
+strong physique; a little wrinkle perhaps here and there in the face, a
+few silver threads mingled with the dark hair; but the gray eyes had
+lost none of their keen clearness; the voice was as full and steady,
+the carriage just as energetic as formerly. It was very evident that
+the lady bore the sceptre in her domain now as before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As I said, Willy will be here in a week,&quot; she was saying. &quot;He had not
+quite finished with his harvest work, but it will soon end, and then he
+will be ready for the betrothal. The affair has long been settled
+between us, but I decidedly advocated the delay, for a young girl of
+sixteen or seventeen years has all sorts of childish tricks still in
+her head, and cannot preside well over an orderly household. But
+Antonie is now twenty years old and Willy twenty-seven; this suits
+exactly. You are satisfied, are you not, brother, that we now arrange
+the betrothal of our children?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite satisfied,&quot; affirmed the Chief Forester; &quot;and we are of the same
+opinion in all else concerning it. Half of my money will fall to my son
+after my death, the other half to my daughter, and you can also be at
+rest about the dower which I have set apart for the wedding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you have not been stingy about it. As to Willy, you know he has
+had possession of the Burgsdorf estates for three years. The money,
+according to the will, remains in my hands. After my death it will, of
+course, fall to him. The young couple will not be in need. Sufficient
+care has been taken for that; therefore all is decided.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, decided. We will celebrate the betrothal now and the wedding in
+the spring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The thus far clear sky was darkened now by the first cloud. Frau von
+Eschenhagen shook her head and said dictatorially:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That will not do, the wedding must occur in the winter, for Willy will
+not have time to marry in the spring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! One always has time to marry,&quot; declared Schonan, just as
+dictatorially.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not in the country,&quot; persisted Frau Regine; &quot;there the motto is, first
+work and then pleasure. It has always been so with us, and Willy has
+learned it, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I emphatically beg that he will make an exception in the case of
+his young wife, otherwise the deuce may take him!&quot; cried the Chief
+angrily. &quot;Besides, you know my conditions, Regine. My girl has not seen
+your son for two years; if he does not please her, she shall have a
+free choice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had attacked his sister-in-law in a most sensitive spot. She
+straightened herself to her fullest height in her offended motherly
+pride.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Moritz, I credit your daughter with some taste at least.
+Besides, I believe in the old custom of parents choosing for their
+children. It was so in our time and we have fared well with it. What do
+young people know of such important things? But you have always allowed
+your children their own way too much. One can see there is no mother in
+the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that my fault?&quot; demanded Schonan, angrily. &quot;Should I have given
+them a stepmother? In fact, I wished to once, but you would not consent
+to it, Regine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I had enough of marriage with one trial,&quot; was the dry answer,
+which roused the Forester still more. He shrugged his shoulders
+sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, I shouldn't think that you could possibly complain of the late
+Eschenhagen. He and all his Burgsdorf danced entirely after your
+piping. Of course, you would not have gotten the upper hand of me so
+easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I should have had it in a month,&quot; remarked Frau Regine with
+perfect composure, &quot;and I should have taken you under my command first
+of all, Moritz.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! you tell me this to my face? Shall we try it, then?&quot; shouted
+Schonan in a passion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, I shall not marry a second time. Do not trouble yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not the slightest idea of it. I had enough of it with that one
+jilting; you do not need to do it a second time&quot;; with which the Chief
+Forester pushed back his chair angrily and left.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen remained quietly seated. After awhile she called
+in a quite friendly manner: &quot;Moritz!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it?&quot; sounded crossly from the other side of the terrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When is Herbert to come with his young wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At twelve o'clock,&quot; came the curt reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am glad of that. I have not seen him since he was sent to your
+capitol, but I have always said that Herbert was the pride of our
+family, whom one could parade anywhere. He is now Prussian Ambassador
+to His Excellency at your court.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And a young husband of fifty-six years, besides,&quot; said Herr von
+Schonan scornfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he took his time to marry, but then he has made a splendid match
+for all that. It was surely no little thing for a man of his years to
+win a wife like Adelaide, young, beautiful, rich----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And of burgher descent,&quot; interrupted Schonan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! Who asks nowadays after a pedigree when a million is
+involved. Herbert can make use of it. He has had to get along with
+small means all of his life, and the position of ambassador will
+require more display than the salary will admit of. And my brother does
+not need to be ashamed of his father-in-law, for Stahlberg is one of
+our first industry men and a man of honor from tip to toe, besides. It
+was a pity that he died after the marriage of his daughter, for she has
+surely made a sensible choice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pouf! You call it a sensible choice when a girl of eighteen takes a
+husband who could be her father?&quot; cried the Chief, drawing near in the
+heat of the controversy. &quot;Of course when one becomes a baroness and the
+wife of the Prussian Ambassador, one plays a big rôle in society. This
+beautiful, cool Adelaide, with her 'sensible' ideas which would do
+credit to a grandmother, is not congenial to me at all. A sensible girl
+who falls heels over head in love and declares to her parents, 'This
+one or none at all,' is much more to my taste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, these are beautiful ideas for a father!&quot; cried Frau von
+Eschenhagen indignantly. &quot;It is exceedingly fortunate that Toni has
+taken after my sister and not after you, for otherwise you might live
+to see the like in her. Stahlberg raised his daughter better. I know
+from himself that she obeyed his wish when she gave her hand to
+Herbert, and so, of course, it is all right and as it should be. But
+you do not understand anything about educating children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! I, a man and a father, not understand the bringing up of
+children?&quot; shouted Schonan, cherry-red with vexation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two were in the best possible condition to fly at each other again,
+but fortunately they were interrupted this time, for a young girl, the
+daughter of the house, stepped out on the terrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Antonie von Schonan could not be called exactly pretty, but she had a
+stately figure like her father and a fresh, blooming face, with light
+brown eyes. Her brown hair was folded in simple plaits around her head
+and her dress, although suitable to her position, was also plain. But
+Antonie was in those years when youth displaced every other charm, and
+as she drew near, fresh, healthy, stately in her whole appearance, she
+was exactly the daughter-in-law after Frau von Eschenhagen's own heart,
+and she nodded in a friendly way to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, the carriage is returning from the station,&quot; said the young
+lady in a very deliberate, somewhat drawling tone. &quot;It is already at
+the foot of the castle mount. Uncle Wallmoden will be here in fifteen
+minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, tausend! They have driven like lightning!&quot; exclaimed the Chief
+Forester, whose face brightened at the news. &quot;Are the rooms all in
+order?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toni nodded as calmly as if that were a self-evident fact. As her
+father started off to look for the carriage which was to bring his
+guests, Frau von Eschenhagen said with a glance at the little basket
+which the young girl carried: &quot;Well Toni, you have been busy again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have been in the kitchen garden, dear aunt. The gardener insisted
+that there were no pears ripe as yet, but I looked for myself and
+gathered a basketful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is right, my child,&quot; said her future mother-in-law, highly
+satisfied. &quot;One must have her eyes and hands everywhere, and never rely
+upon servants. You will some day be a splendid housekeeper. But now let
+us go. We will also meet the uncle.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Schonan was already in advance and just descending the wide
+stone steps which led to the castle court, when a man emerged from one
+of the side buildings and came to a standstill, bowing his greeting
+respectfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hallo, Stadinger; what are you doing at Furstenstein?&quot; cried the Chief
+Forester. &quot;Come up here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man obeyed the command. He walked actively with firm, erect
+carriage, in spite of his snow-white hair, and a pair of keen, dark
+eyes shone from his tanned face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have been with the Herr Steward, Herr Oberforstmeister,&quot; he replied,
+&quot;to ask if he could not let me have a few of his people to help me, for
+everything is topsy-turvy with us at Rodeck just now. We have not hands
+enough for the work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, yes; Prince Egon has returned from his travels in the Orient; I
+heard of it,&quot; said Schonan. &quot;But how does it happen that he comes to
+Rodeck this time, this small forest nook which offers neither room nor
+comforts?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven alone knows that; one never dares ask why with our young
+Highness. The news came one morning, and the castle had to be put in
+order, good or bad. I have had pains and worry enough to get ready in
+two days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe that. Rodeck has not been inhabited for years, but now there
+will be life once more in the old walls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the old walls will be stood on their head with it all,&quot; grumbled
+the castle keeper. &quot;If you only knew how it looks there, Herr
+Oberforstmeister. The whole hunting hall is packed full of lion and
+tiger skins and all manner of mounted animals, and the live parrots and
+monkeys sit about in every room. There is such a noise and making of
+faces that one cannot hear a word at times; and now His Highness has
+announced to me, besides, that a whole herd of elephants and a large
+sea serpent are on their way here. I think apoplexy will overtake me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is on the way here?&quot; demanded Schonan, who could not believe his
+ears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A sea serpent and a dozen elephants. I have remonstrated with might
+and main. 'Your Highness,' I have said, 'we cannot house any more of
+the beasts, particularly not the sea serpent, for such a beast needs
+water, and we have no pond at Rodeck. As to the elephants--well, we
+will just have to tie them to the trees in the forest. If we cannot do
+that, I do not know what to do.' 'Good,' says His Highness, 'we will tie
+them to the trees, it will be a picturesque sight; and we will send the
+sea serpent to board at Furstenstein. That pond is large enough.' I beg
+of you, Herr Oberforstmeister, he will populate the whole neighborhood
+with those awful beasts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester laughed aloud and patted the shoulder of the old
+man, who seemed to enjoy his special favor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Stadinger, did you really take that in earnest? Don't you know
+your Prince? It seems that he has not become more settled by his
+absence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, really not,&quot; sighed Stadinger, &quot;and what His Highness does not
+know, Herr Rojanow will surely find out. He makes it ten times worse.
+Oh, dreadful that such a madcap should fall to our lot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rojanow? Who is that?&quot; asked Schonan, becoming attentive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that is what nobody knows exactly, but he is everything with us
+since His Highness cannot live without him. He found this friend
+somewhere back there in the heathen lands. The friend himself may be
+half a heathen or a Turk; he looks just like it, with his dark hair and
+his fiery eyes, and he knows how to command from the very bottom. He
+sometimes drives all the servants helter-skelter with his orders and
+actions, as if he was lord and master of Rodeck. But he is handsome as
+a picture--almost more so than our Prince, who has given strict orders
+that his friend has to be obeyed like himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Probably some adventurer who takes advantage of the Prince. I can
+imagine that,&quot; muttered Schonan, continuing aloud: &quot;Well, may God help
+you, Stadinger! I must go now to meet my brother-in-law. Do not let any
+gray hairs grow on account of the sea-serpent. If His Highness
+threatens you with it again, just tell him I would offer the
+Furstenstein pond with pleasure, but I must see it alive before me
+first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He nodded laughingly at the old man, who looked much comforted, and
+walked toward the entrance portal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen and her niece had also appeared, and the carriage
+now came in sight upon the broad forest road of the castle mount,
+rolling, a few minutes later, into the castle court.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine was the first to greet them. She shook her brother's hand so
+heartily that he drew back with a slight shudder. The Chief Forester
+remained in the background; he stood somewhat in awe of his diplomatic
+brother-in-law, whose sarcasm he secretly feared; while Toni allowed
+neither her uncle, His Excellency, nor his beautiful wife to rouse her
+from her composed deliberation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The years had not passed Herbert von Wallmoden by as lightly as
+they had his sister; he had aged considerably; his hair had turned
+quite gray, and the sarcastic lines around his mouth had become
+more pronounced; otherwise he was still the cool, aristocratic
+diplomat--perhaps a few degrees cooler and more reticent than formerly.
+The superiority which he had borne to his surroundings seemed to have
+grown with the high position which he filled at present.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife at his side would probably have been taken by every
+stranger for his daughter. He had truly shown good taste in his choice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide von Wallmoden was, indeed, beautiful, although of that
+composed, serious beauty which usually aroused only calm admiration,
+but she seemed equal in every respect to the high position in life
+brought her by this marriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife, scarcely nineteen years old, and who had been married
+but six months, showed perfect ease of manner--an unexceptional mastery
+of all forms, as if she had lived for years beside her elderly husband.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To his wife Wallmoden was politeness and attention personified. He now
+offered his arm to lead her to her room, returning in a few minutes to
+join his sister, who awaited him on the terrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The attitude of these two to each other was in many respects a strange
+one. The brother and sister were of the most pronounced opposites in
+appearance as well as character, and usually of opinion as well; but
+the blood relationship gave them, in spite of this difference, a
+feeling of closest union. This was evident as they sat together now
+after the long separation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Although Herbert was somewhat nervous during the conversation, for
+Regine did not find it necessary to subdue her peculiar manner, causing
+him embarrassment more than once with her inconsiderate questions and
+remarks, he had long ago learned to consider that as unavoidable, and
+surrendered himself to it now with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At first they spoke of the coming betrothal of Willibald and Toni,
+which had Wallmoden's full approval. He thought the match very
+suitable, and besides, every one in the family had been long acquainted
+with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But now Frau von Eschenhagen began an entirely different subject.
+&quot;Well, and how do you feel as a husband, Herbert?&quot; she asked. &quot;You have
+certainly taken your time for it, but better late than never, and to
+speak the truth, you have had extraordinarily good luck in spite of
+your gray hair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador did not seem very well pleased at this allusion to his
+age. He pressed his thin lips together for a moment, and then replied
+with some sharpness: &quot;You should really be a little more careful in
+your expressions, dear Regine. I know my age very well, but the
+position in life which I brought my wife as a wedding gift should
+counteract the difference of the years somewhat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I should think the dowry she brought you was not to be
+slighted,&quot; remarked Regine, quite unconcerned as to the rebuke. &quot;Have
+you already presented her at court?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, two weeks ago, at the Summer Residenz. Mourning for my
+father-in-law prevented it before. We shall have open house in the
+winter as my position requires. I was most pleasantly surprised at
+Adelaide's manner at court. She moved upon the strange ground with an
+ease and composure which were truly admirable. I saw there again how
+happy my choice was in every respect. But I wish to inquire after
+several things at home. First of all, how is Falkenried?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Surely you do not need to ask me that? Are you not in regular
+correspondence with him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but his letters grow shorter and more monosyllabic. I wrote him
+at length about my marriage, but received only a very laconic reply.
+But you must see him frequently, since he has been called to the
+position of Secretary of War. The city is near.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken there. The Colonel shows himself very rarely at
+Burgsdorf, and he is becoming more and more reticent and
+unapproachable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry to hear that; but he used always to make an exception of
+you, and I hoped much from your influence since he is back in your
+vicinity. Have you not tried, then, to renew the old intimacy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did at first, but finally had to give it up, for I saw that it was
+painful to him. Nothing can be done there, Herbert. Since that
+unfortunate catastrophe which both of us lived through with him he has
+changed into stone. You have seen him several times since then and know
+the ruin that has worked there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden's brow clouded and his voice was harsh as he returned: &quot;Yes,
+that scoundrel--that Hartmut lies heavy upon his heart, but more than
+ten years have passed since then, and I hoped that Falkenried would
+return to sociable life in time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have never had that hope; that blow went to the root of life. I
+shall never forget that evening at Burgsdorf while I live. How we
+waited and waited--first with restlessness and anxiety, then with
+deadly fear. You guessed the truth directly, but I would not permit
+myself to believe it--and Falkenried! I can see him yet as he stood at
+the window, looking fixedly out into the night pale as a corpse, with
+teeth tightly clenched, having for every fear expressed the one reply,
+'He will come--he must come. I have his word for it.' And when, in
+spite of all, Hartmut did not come--when the night wore on and we
+finally learned upon inquiry at the railroad station that the two had
+arrived there in a carriage and taken the express train--God in heaven!
+How the man looked when he turned to leave, so mute and stiff! I made
+you promise not to leave his side, for I believed that he would blow
+his brains out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You judged him wrongly,&quot; said Wallmoden decisively. &quot;A man like
+Falkenried considers it cowardice to lay hands on his life, even if
+that life has become torture to him. He stands up even to a lost post.
+Although what would have happened if they had let him go that time--I
+do not dare to surmise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I knew that he had asked for his dismissal, because to serve
+after his son had become a deserter did not accord with his ideas of
+honor. It was the step of despair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, truly; and it was fortunate that his chiefs would not dispense
+with his military genius and force. The chief of the general's staff
+took the affair in his own hands and brought it before the king. They
+concluded finally to treat the whole unfortunate occurrence--at least
+as far as it could concern the father--as the act of a heedless boy,
+for which a highly deserving officer could not be held accountable.
+Falkenried had to take back his request for resignation, was
+transferred into a far-away garrison, and the affair silenced as much
+as was possible. It is, indeed, buried and forgotten now after ten
+years by all the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not forgotten by one,&quot; finished Regine. &quot;My heart burns
+sometimes when I think of what Falkenried was once, and what he is now.
+The bitter experience of his marriage had made him rather serious and
+unsocial, but occasionally the full charming amiability of his manner
+would break through, warm and hearty, from his inmost heart--all that
+is over. He knows now only the iron severity of duty--all else is dead.
+Even the old friendly relations have become painful to him. One has to
+let him go his own way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She broke off with a sigh, which betrayed how near to her heart was the
+friend of her youth, and laying her hand upon the arm of her brother,
+she continued: &quot;Perhaps you are right, Herbert, in that one chooses
+best and most sensibly in late years. You do not need to fear the fate
+of Falkenried. Your wife comes from a good race. I knew Stahlberg well.
+He had worked up to the heights of life with firmness and ability, and
+even as a millionaire he remained the upright man of honor he had ever
+been. Adelaide is the daughter of her father in every respect. You have
+chosen well and you my heartfelt wishes for your happiness.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Rodeck, the hunting lodge belonging to the possessions of the Prince of
+Adelsberg, was about two hours' distance from Furstenstein, in the
+midst of deepest forest loneliness. The small building, erected
+without much taste, contained at the most about a dozen rooms, whose
+old-fashioned and shabby furniture had been put in as good order as the
+short notice of the coming of the Prince permitted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The little castle had not been inhabited for years and looked somewhat
+dilapidated, but when one emerged from the deep, dark forest into the
+opening, and beheld at the end of the wide green sward the old gray
+edifice with its tall, spiked roof and four steeples at the corners, it
+had truly something of the forest idyl about it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Adelsbergs had once been a reigning family, but a family that had
+long since lost its sovereignty. They had retained, however, the
+princely title, an enormous fortune, and a very extensive property. The
+once numerous family counted at present but few representatives; the
+main branch only a single one--the Prince Egon, who, as lord of all the
+family estates, besides being closely related to the reigning house
+through his late mother, played an important rôle among the nobility of
+the land.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young Prince had always been considered a rover, who at times
+followed very eccentric notions and bothered himself very little about
+princely etiquette when he wished to follow some momentary whim. The
+old Prince had been very strict with his son, but his death made Egon
+von Adelsberg the sole master of his own will very early in life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had now returned from a tour in the Orient which had kept him in
+foreign lands two years, but instead of occupying the princely palace
+in town, or one of his other castles which were furnished with every
+conceivable splendor for a summer or fall visit, he took a notion to go
+to the old forest nook--the little half-forgotten Rodeck--which was not
+prepared for the honor of receiving its master, and could offer but
+scant accommodation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Old Stadinger was right: one must never ask Prince Egon why. Everything
+depended entirely upon his momentary caprice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the morning of a sunny autumn day, two gentlemen in hunting costume
+stood upon the lawn at Rodeck talking with the castle-keeper, while a
+light open carriage stood upon the gravel road, ready for departure. At
+a casual glance the two young men bore a certain resemblance to each
+other. They had tall, slender figures, deeply tanned faces, and eyes in
+which glowed the whole fiery gayety and courage of youth, but upon
+closer examination the wide difference between them was apparent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Southern coloring of the younger one, who might, perhaps, be about
+twenty-four years old, was caused, apparently, by a prolonged stay
+under a hot sun, for the light, curly hair and blue eyes did not match
+it--they betrayed the German. A light beard, curly like the hair,
+framed a handsome, open face, which, however, did not follow any strict
+line of beauty. The forehead was rather too low, but there was
+something like bright sunshine in this face which charmed and won
+everybody.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His companion, several years his senior, had nothing of this sunny
+quality, although his appearance was more imposing. Slender like the
+younger one, he towered above him in height, and his dark complexion
+was not caused by the sun alone. It was of that olive tint which allows
+a pale face to still look fresh, and the blue-black hair which fell in
+thick waves over the high brow made the apparent paleness more
+noticeable. The face was beautiful, with its noble, proud lines so
+firmly and energetically pronounced, but upon it appeared also deep
+shadows lying over brow and eyes; such shadows as one seldom finds on
+youthful features.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The large, dark eyes, which had in their depths something gloomy, told
+of hot, unruled passions. In their flashing there was something uncanny
+but mysteriously attractive. One felt that they could charm with
+demoniac power; in fact, the whole personality of the man possessed
+this uncanny, entrancing charm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I cannot help you, Stadinger,&quot; said the younger of the two
+gentlemen. &quot;The newly arrived lot has to be unpacked and a place found
+for them. Where? that is your affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Your Highness, if that is absolutely impossible?&quot; argued the
+castle-keeper, in a tone indicating that he stood in rather familiar
+relations to his young master. &quot;Not a nook is free any more in Rodeck.
+I have had trouble enough already to house the servants which Your
+Highness brought along, and now every day boxes large as houses arrive,
+and always it is 'Unpack, Stadinger,' 'Find room, Stadinger,' and in
+the meantime the rooms stand empty by the dozen in the other castles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not grumble, old forest spirit, but find room,&quot; interrupted the
+Prince. &quot;The arrivals have to be put up here at Rodeck, at least for
+the present, and if the worst comes you will have to give up your own
+lodgings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, certainly; Stadinger has room enough in his lodgings,&quot; joined in
+the second gentleman. &quot;I shall arrange it myself and measure it all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And Lena can help you with it,&quot; added the Prince, supporting the
+proposal of his friend. &quot;She is at home, is she not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger measured the gentlemen from head to foot, then answered
+drily:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Your Highness, Lena is away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where?&quot; cried the Prince, starting up. &quot;Where has she gone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To town,&quot; was the laconic reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! I thought you intended keeping your grandchild at home all
+winter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That has been changed,&quot; replied the castle-keeper with imperturbable
+composure. &quot;My old sister Rosa only is at home now. If you wish to
+measure my dwelling with her help, Herr Rojanow, she would consider it
+a high honor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow glanced at the old man in no very friendly way, and the young
+prince said reproachfully:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now listen, Stadinger, you treat us in quite an unaccountable manner.
+You even take Lena away from us, the only one who was worth looking at.
+All else here in the female line have the sixties behind them, and
+their heads positively shake from old age; and the kitchen women you
+got from Furstenstein to help actually offend our sense of beauty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Highnesses do not need to look at them,&quot; suggested Stadinger. &quot;I
+look out that the servants do not come into the castle, but if Your
+Highness goes into the kitchen like the day before yesterday----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, must I not inspect my servants at times? But I shall not go into
+the kitchen a second time--you have taken care of that. I have my
+suspicions that you have gathered here all the very ugliest of the Wald
+to celebrate my arrival. You ought to be ashamed, Stadinger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man looked sharply and fixedly into his master's eyes, and his
+voice sounded very impressive as he answered:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not ashamed a bit, Your Highness. When the late Prince, Your
+Highness' father, gave me this post of rest he said to me, 'Keep order
+at Rodeck, Stadinger--I rely upon you.' Well, I have kept order for
+twelve years in the castle, and in my house particularly, and I shall
+do that in future. Has Your Highness any orders for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, you old, rude thing,&quot; cried the Prince, half laughing, half angry.
+&quot;Make haste and get away. We do not need any curtain lectures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger obeyed. He saluted and marched off.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow looked after him and shrugged his shoulders sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I admire your patience, Egon. You allow your servants very
+far-reaching liberty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stadinger is an exception,&quot; replied Egon. &quot;He allows himself
+everything; but he was not so much in the wrong when he sent Lena away.
+I believe I should have done the same in his place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is not the first time that this old castle-keeper has taken it
+upon himself to call you and me to order. If I were his master he would
+have his dismissal in the next hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If I tried that it would turn out badly for me,&quot; laughed the Prince.
+&quot;Such old family heirlooms, who have served for three generations, and
+have carried the children in their arms, will be treated with respect.
+I cannot gain anything there with orders and prohibitions. Peter
+Stadinger does what he will, and occasionally lectures me just as he
+sees fit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you suffer it--such a thing is incomprehensible to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it is a thing you do not comprehend, Hartmut,&quot; said Egon more
+seriously. &quot;You know only the slavish submission of the servants in
+your country and the Orient. They kneel and bow at every opportunity,
+yet steal and betray their masters whenever they can and know how.
+Stadinger is of an enviable simplicity. My 'Highness' does not
+intimidate him in the least. He often tells me the hardest things to my
+face; but I could put hundreds of thousands in his hands--he would not
+defraud me of one iota of it. If Rodeck were in flames and I in the
+midst of it, the old man, with all his sixty years, would stand by me
+without a second thought. All this is different with us in Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; with you in Germany,&quot; repeated Hartmut slowly, and his glance was
+lost dreamily in the dusk of the forest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you still so prejudiced against it?&quot; asked Egon. &quot;It cost me
+persuasion and prayers enough to get you to accompany me here--you
+fought so against entering German territory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish I had not entered it,&quot; said Rojanow, gloomily. &quot;You know----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That all sorts of bitter remembrances have their origin here for
+you--yes, you have told me that; but you must have been a boy then.
+Have you not yet overcome the grudge against it? You have the most
+obstinate reticence, anyway, upon this point. I have not yet heard what
+it really was that----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Egon, I beg of you, leave the subject,&quot; interrupted Hartmut, harshly.
+&quot;I have told you once for all that I cannot and will not speak of it.
+If you mistrust me, let me go. I have not forced myself upon you, you
+know that; but I cannot bear these inquiries and questions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The proud, inconsiderate tone which he used toward his friend did not
+seem to be anything new to the Prince. He merely shrugged his shoulders
+and said pacifyingly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How irritable you are again to-day! I believe you are right when you
+insist that German air makes you nervous. You are entirely changed
+since you put foot on this soil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is possible. I feel that I torture you and myself with these whims;
+therefore let me go, Egon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know better! Have I taken so much pains to catch you, just to let
+you fly off again now? No, no, Hartmut, I shall not let you go by any
+means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words sounded playful, but Rojanow seemed to take them wrongly. His
+eyes lighted up almost threateningly as he returned:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what if I <i>will</i> leave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I shall hold you like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With an indescribably charming expression, Egon threw his arm around
+his friend's shoulder. &quot;And I shall ask if this bad, obstinate Hartmut
+can bring his conscience to desert me. We have lived together almost
+two years, and have shared danger and joy like two brothers, and now
+you would storm out into the world again without asking about me. Am I,
+then, so little to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Such warm, heartfelt beseeching was in the words that Rojanow's
+irritation could not live. His eyes lit up with an expression which
+showed that he returned just as intensely the passionate, enthusiastic
+affection which the young Prince bore him, even if he was, in their
+mutual relationship, the domineering one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you believe that for the sake of any one else I would have come to
+Germany?&quot; he asked in a low voice. &quot;Forgive me, Egon. I am an unstable
+nature. I have never been able to stay long in any place since--since
+my boyhood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then learn it now here at my home,&quot; cried Egon. &quot;I came to Rodeck
+especially to show you my country in its entire beauty. This old
+edifice, which nestles in the midst of the deep forest like a fairy
+castle, is a piece of forest poetry such as you could not find in any
+of my other possessions. I know your taste--but I must really leave you
+now. You will not drive with me over to Furstenstein?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I will enjoy your much-praised forest poetry, which, it appears,
+is already tiresome to you, as you wish to make calls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; I am no poet like you, who can dream and be enthused all day,&quot;
+said Egon, laughing. &quot;We have led the life of hermits for a full week,
+and I cannot live on sunshine and forest perfume and the curtain
+lectures of Stadinger alone. I need people, and the Chief Forester is
+about the only person in the neighborhood. Besides, this Herr von
+Schonan is a splendid, jolly man. You will yet meet and know him, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He motioned to the waiting carriage, gave his hand to his friend,
+sprang to his seat and rolled away.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow looked after him until the vehicle had disappeared behind the
+trees, then he turned and took one of the paths which led into the
+forest. He carried his gun over his shoulder, but evidently did not
+think of hunting. Lost in thought, he walked further and further
+aimlessly, without noticing the road or direction, until deepest forest
+loneliness surrounded him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Prince Adelsberg was right; he knew his friend's taste. This forest
+poetry took full possession of him. He finally came to a standstill and
+drew a deep breath, but the cloud upon his brow would not dispel; it
+grew darker and darker as he leaned against the trunk of a tree and
+allowed his eyes to roam about. Something not of peace or joy was
+depicted in those beautiful features, which all the sunny beauty around
+could not erase.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He saw this country for the first time; his former home was far removed
+in the northern part of Germany; nothing here reminded him directly of
+the past, and yet just here something awoke in him which seemed to have
+long been dead--something which had not made itself felt in all those
+years when he crossed oceans and countries, when intoxicating waves of
+life surrounded him and he drank with full thirsty draughts the freedom
+for which he had sacrificed so much--everything.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old German woods! They rustled here in the south as up there in the
+familiar north; the same breath floated through the firs and oaks here
+which whispered there in the crowns of the pines; the same voice which
+had once been so familiar to the boy when he lay upon the mossy forest
+soil. He had heard many other voices since, some coaxing and
+flattering, some intoxicating and enthusiastic, but this voice sounded
+so grave and yet so sweet in the rustling of the forest trees--the
+fatherland spoke to the lost son!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Something moved yonder in the bushes. Hartmut looked up indifferently,
+thinking that some game was passing through, but instead of that he saw
+the glimmer of a light dress. A lady emerged from a narrow side path
+which wound through the forest, and stood still, apparently undecided
+as to the direction she ought to take.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow had started at the unexpected sight. It awoke him suddenly from
+his dream and called him back to reality. The stranger had also noticed
+him. She, too, seemed surprised, but only for a moment; then she drew
+near and said with a slight bow: &quot;May I ask you, sir, to show me the
+road to Furstenstein? I am a stranger here and have lost my way in my
+walk. I fear I have wandered considerably from my path.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut had scanned the appearance of the young lady with a quick
+glance, and immediately decided to act as guide. Although he did not
+know the road about which she had asked--knew only the direction in
+which it lay--it troubled him but little. He made a deeply polite bow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I place myself entirely at your service, gracious Fraulein.
+Furstenstein is, indeed, rather far from here, and you cannot possibly
+find the road by yourself, so I must beg you to accept my escort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The lady seemed to have expected the right direction to be pointed out,
+and the proffered escort was evidently not especially welcome, but she
+may have been afraid of losing her way a second time, and the perfect
+politeness with which the offer was made scarcely left her any choice.
+She bowed after a moment's hesitation and replied: &quot;I shall be very
+much obliged to you. Please let us go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow pointed out a narrow, half-covered path which led in the
+direction of Furstenstein, and entered it without further ado. He
+decided to retain his rôle as guide, for the little adventure began to
+interest him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His protégé was, indeed, beautiful enough to make the encounter
+interesting. The pure, delicate oval of her face; the high, clear brow
+surrounded by shining blonde hair; the lines of the features--all was
+perfect symmetry, but there was something chilling in the strong
+regularity of these lines, which was rather increased by a mark of
+energetic will power most plainly pronounced. The young lady could not
+be more than eighteen or nineteen years old at the utmost, but she had
+nothing of the charm of mirth and gayety belonging to that age. The
+large blue eyes looked as calm and grave as if a girlish dream had
+never brightened them, and the same cold, proud composure was visible
+in the carriage and whole appearance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This tall, slender figure affected one like a chilling breath. Her
+plain but elegant apparel showed that she belonged to the high classes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow had time enough to observe her as he walked now behind her and
+now before, bending back the low-hanging bows, or warning of the
+unevenness of the ground. This narrow forest path was truly not
+comfortable, and proved itself not very appropriate for the toilet of a
+lady. More than once her dress was caught by the bushes; the veil of
+her hat was entangled in the boughs at every opportunity, while the
+mossy soil proved at times very damp and foggy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All of this, however, was borne with perfect indifference, but Hartmut
+felt that he was not doing himself much credit with his post as guide.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry to have to lead you over such a rough path, Fraulein,&quot; he
+said courteously. &quot;I am really afraid of fatiguing you, but we are in
+the densest forest and there is no choice whatever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not easily fatigued,&quot; was the calm rejoinder. &quot;I care little for
+the roughness of the road if it only leads to the desired end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The remark sounded somewhat unusual from the lips of a young girl.
+Rojanow seemed to think so, and smiled rather sarcastically as he
+repeated:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If it only leads to the desired end? Quite so--that is my opinion, but
+ladies are usually of a different mind; they wish to be borne softly
+over every inconvenience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All of them? There are also women who prefer to go alone, without
+being led like a child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps, as an exception. I prize the chance which gives me the good
+fortune of meeting such a charming exception----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was about to utter a bold compliment, but suddenly grew silent,
+for the blue eyes looked at him with an expression that made the words
+die upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment the lady's veil was caught again by a thorny bush, which
+held it fast relentlessly. She stood still, but hardly had her
+companion stretched forth his hand to disengage the delicate fabric,
+when she tore herself free with a quick motion of the head. The veil
+remained hanging in shreds on the bough, but his help had become
+totally superfluous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow bit his lip. This adventure was developing quite differently
+from what he had expected. He had thought to play the agreeable in that
+bold, vainglorious manner which had become his second nature toward
+ladies, to a timid young being who trusted herself entirely to his
+protection, but he was being shown back to his proper place by a mere
+glance at his first attempt. It was made very clear to him that he was
+to be guide here and nothing else.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Who, then, in truth, was this girl who, with her eighteen or nineteen
+years, already showed the perfect ease of a great lady and who knew so
+well how to make herself unapproachable? He concluded to have light
+about it at any cost.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The narrow path now ended; they emerged into an opening, the forest
+continuing on the other side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was not easy to be a guide here, where one was as little acquainted
+with the country as Hartmut, but he would never confess his ignorance
+now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Apparently quite certain, he kept in the same direction, choosing one
+of the wood roads which crossed through the forest. There must surely
+be a spot somewhere which would offer a free outlook and make it
+possible to find the right road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The wider path now permitted them to walk side by side, and Hartmut
+took immediate advantage of it to start a conversation, which thus far
+had been impossible, since they had had to struggle with so many
+obstacles.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have neglected so far to introduce myself, gracious Fraulein,&quot; he
+commenced. &quot;My name is Rojanow. I am at present at Rodeck, a guest of
+Prince Adelsberg, who enjoys the privilege of being your neighbor,
+since you live at Furstenstein.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I am likewise only a guest there,&quot; replied the lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The princely neighbor seemed to be as indifferent to her as the name of
+her companion; at all events, she did not seem to consider it necessary
+to give her name in return, but accepted the introduction with that
+proud, aristocratic movement of the head which seemed to be peculiar to
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, you live, then, at the Residenz, and have taken advantage of the
+beautiful fall weather for an excursion here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It sounded as monosyllabic and rebuking as possible, but Rojanow was
+not the man to be rebuked. He was accustomed to have his personality
+felt everywhere--to meet with consideration and importance,
+particularly among the ladies, and he felt it almost an insult that
+this oft-tested success was denied him here. But it excited him to
+enforce a conversation which apparently was not desired.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you satisfied with your stay at Furstenstein?&quot; he began anew. &quot;I
+have not yet been there, and have only seen the castle from afar, but
+it seems to overlook the whole vicinity. A peculiar taste is needed,
+however, to find the country beautiful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And this taste does not seem to be yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At any rate, I do not love the monotony, and here one has the same
+view everywhere. Forest and forest and nothing but forest! It is enough
+sometimes to create despair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It sounded like suppressed resentment. The poor German forests had to
+atone for torturing the returned prodigal to such an extent that he had
+been upon the point several times of fleeing from their whispering and
+rustling. He could not bear it--this grave, monotonous tune of old
+times which the leaves whispered to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His companion heard, of course, only the sarcasm in the remark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a foreigner, Herr Rojanow?&quot; she asked calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dark shadow passed again over Hartmut's brow. He hesitated for a
+moment, then replied coldly: &quot;Yes, gracious Fraulein.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought so; your name, as well as appearance, betrays it, and
+therefore your opinion is conceivable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is certainly an unbiased opinion,&quot; said Hartmut, irritated by the
+reproach contained in the last words. &quot;I have seen a great deal of the
+world, and have but now returned from the Orient. Whoever has known the
+ocean in its brilliant, transparent blue, or its majestic, stormy
+uproar; whoever has enjoyed the charm of the tropics, and been
+intoxicated with their splendor and coloring--to him these evergreen
+forest depths appear but cold and colorless, like all of these German
+landscapes, anyhow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The contemptuous shrug of the shoulders with which he concluded seemed
+to finally arouse his companion from her cool indifference. An
+expression of displeasure flitted across her features, and her voice
+betrayed a certain excitement as she answered: &quot;That is probably solely
+and entirely a matter of taste. I know, if not the Orient, at least the
+south of Europe. Those sun-glaring, color-shining landscapes intoxicate
+for the moment, certainly, and then they weary one. They lack freshness
+and strength. One can dream and enjoy there, but not live and work. But
+why argue about it? You do not understand our German forests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut smiled with undeniable satisfaction. He had succeeded in
+breaking the icy reticence of his companion. All of his charming
+politeness had been without effect, but he saw now that there was
+something which could call life into those cold features, and he found
+it attractive to draw it out. If he offended by it, it did not matter;
+it gave him pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That sounds like a reproof which, alas! I have to accept,&quot; he said,
+with an undisguised sneer. &quot;It is possible that this understanding is
+wanting in me. I am accustomed to measure nature differently from most
+people. Live and work! It depends greatly upon what one calls living
+and working. I have lived for years in Paris, that mighty centre of
+civilization, where life throbs and flows in a thousand streams.
+Whoever is used to being borne on those sparkling waves cannot bring
+himself again into narrow, <i>petit</i> views--into all those prejudices and
+pedantries which in this good Germany are called 'life.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The contemptuous stress which he put upon the last words had something
+of a challenge in it, and reached its aim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His companion came to a sudden standstill and measured him from head to
+foot, while from the formerly cold, blue eyes there flashed a spark of
+burning anger. She seemed to have an angry reply upon her lips, but
+suppressed it. She only straightened herself to her fullest height, and
+her words were few and of icy, haughty reprimand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You forget, mein Herr, that you speak to a German. I remind you of
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut's brow glowed dark-red under this stern reproof, and yet it was
+directed only to the stranger--the foreigner--who forgot the
+consideration of a guest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If this girl had an idea who spoke so to her--if she knew! Hot, burning
+shame rose suddenly within him, but he was man of the world enough to
+control himself immediately.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg your pardon,&quot; he said with a slight, half-sarcastic bow. &quot;I was
+under the impression that we were exchanging only general views, which
+have the right of unbiased opinions. I am sorry to have offended you,
+gracious Fraulein.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An inimitable, proud and disdainful motion of the head assured him that
+he did not even possess the power to offend her. She shrugged her
+shoulders in a barely perceptible manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not wish to bias your opinions in the least, but as our views are
+so widely different on this matter, we will do better to discontinue
+our conversation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow was not inclined to continue it. He knew now that those cold,
+blue eyes could flash. He had wished to see it--had caused it to
+happen, and yet the matter had ended differently from what he had
+anticipated. He glanced with a half hostile look at the slender figure
+at his side, and then his eyes roamed resentfully again in the bitterly
+abused green depths of the forest.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">This forest loneliness had, however, something fascinating in it. It
+was touched by the first slight breath of autumn; that touch which has
+not yet brought withering and death, but has only steeped the landscape
+in richer coloring. Here and there brilliant red and gold flashed
+through the bushes, but the forest itself still rested fresh and
+aromatic in its green dusk.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Beneath the crowns of the century-old trees bending gracefully toward
+each other, deep, cool shadows glided, and in the openings golden
+sunshine lay glistening on the flowers which bloomed here in the light.
+Occasionally in the distance the bright mirror of a small pond
+glittered, resting lonely, as if lost in the midst of the deep forest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Through the profound quiet all around could be heard the low rustling
+of the mighty trees and the humming and singing of thousands of insects
+that seemed to float upon the rays of the sun: all of those mysterious
+voices which are heard only in solitude--the sweet, dreamy language of
+the forest. It lured and coaxed irresistibly with its green depths,
+which stretched endlessly, always further and further, as if it wished
+to keep forever within its charm the two now walking through it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But suddenly quite an unexpected obstacle appeared before them. Dashing
+and roaring from the thickly grown heights, a broad forest brook made a
+way for itself with merry haste through bushes and rocks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow paused in his walk and took in the situation with a quick
+glance, but as nowhere could a ford or bridge be discovered, he turned
+to his companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I fear we are in trouble; the brook seems to put an end to our path.
+It is usually easy to cross on the moss-covered stones at the bottom,
+with some care, but yesterday's rain has covered them completely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lady was looking anxiously for some crossing place. &quot;Would it
+not be possible further down?&quot; she asked, pointing down the stream.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, for the water is deeper and more rapid there. We must cross here
+at this place. Of course, you cannot go through the water. You will
+permit me, Fraulein, to carry you over?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The offer was made with perfect courtesy and reserve, but Rojanow's
+eyes flashed triumphantly. Chance was avenging him now on the
+unapproachable one, who would not suffer his assistance even in the
+disengaging of her veil from a thorn bush. She had now to entrust
+herself unconditionally to his help, there was no choice but to allow
+herself to be carried in his arms to the other bank.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew near as if the permission sought had been granted, but she
+recoiled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you, Herr Rojanow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut smiled with an irony which he took no pains to conceal. He was
+master of the situation now and intended to remain so.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you desire to turn back?&quot; he asked. &quot;More than an hour would be
+lost, whereas if we cross here the other side will be reached in a few
+moments. You can trust yourself to my arms without fear--the crossing
+will be quite without danger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think so, too,&quot; was the calm reply, &quot;and therefore I shall try it
+alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alone? That is impossible, Fraulein!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Impossible to walk through a forest brook? I do not consider that a
+particularly heroic deed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the water is deeper than you think. You will get a thorough
+wetting, and besides--it is really impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not effeminate in the least and do not catch cold easily. Be so
+kind as to go first. I will follow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That was plain enough, and sounded so commanding that remonstrance was
+not possible. Hartmut bowed a silent assent and waded through the
+water, which could do no damage to his high hunting boots.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was indeed, rather deep and violent, so that he had to be careful in
+getting a firm foothold upon the stones. A slight smile played around
+his lips as he stood on the other bank and awaited his companion, who
+had refused his protection so haughtily. Let her try coming alone; the
+water would frighten her; she would not be able to battle with it, and
+would be compelled to call him to help her in spite of her reluctance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had followed him without hesitation. With her delicate, thin boots
+offering no resistance whatever, she already stood in the water, which
+was cold, but she seemed scarcely to feel it. Catching up her dress
+with both hands, she advanced carefully and slowly, but quite surely,
+to the middle of the brook.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But here in the midst of the dashing, foaming flood, it required the
+firm step of a man to hold its own. The slender, soft foot of the lady
+searched in vain for a hold upon the slippery stones. The high heels of
+the dainty boots were as much of a detriment as the dress, the hem of
+which was caught by the waves.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The courageous pedestrian apparently lost the confidence hitherto
+displayed. She slipped several times and finally stood still. A
+questioning glance flew over to the bank where Rojanow stood, firmly
+decided not to lift his hand to help her until she asked for it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She may have read this resolution in his eyes, and it seemed to give
+her back instantly her failing strength. She stood immovable a moment,
+but the determined expression in her features was in full play.
+Suddenly she slipped from the flooded stones into water a foot deep,
+where she now, indeed, gained terra firma directly on the bottom of the
+brook, and could walk unmolested to the other bank. She grasped a
+branch of a tree, instead of Hartmut's offered hand, and by its aid
+swung herself to dry land.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Naturally she was very wet. The water ran from her dress, which she had
+released from her grasp without consideration, but with perfect
+unconcern she turned to her escort and said: &quot;Shall we continue on our
+way? It cannot be very far to Furstenstein.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut did not return a syllable, but something like hatred sprang up
+within him for this woman, who would rather slip into the cold flood
+than trust herself to his arms. The proud, spoiled man whose brilliant
+traits had heretofore won all hearts, felt so much more keenly the
+humiliation which was forced upon him here. He almost cursed the whole
+encounter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They walked on. From time to time Rojanow threw a glance upon the
+heavy, wet hem of the dress which trailed on the ground beside him, but
+otherwise he bestowed his whole attention upon the surroundings, which
+seemed to get lighter. This forest thickness must end some time!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His supposition was correct. He had been successful in his leadership,
+for the path taken at random proved the right one. In about ten minutes
+they stood upon a slight elevation which offered a free outlook. Over
+yonder, above an ocean of treetops, rose the towers of Furstenstein,
+while a broad road, which could be plainly seen, wound to the foot of
+the castle mount.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is Furstenstein,&quot; said Hartmut, turning for the first time to
+his companion, &quot;although it will be about half an hour's walk from
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is of no consequence,&quot; she interrupted him quickly. &quot;I am very
+grateful to you for your guidance, but I cannot now miss the road, and
+I should not like to trouble you further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you wish, gracious Fraulein,&quot; Rojanow said, coldly. &quot;If you desire
+to dismiss your guide here he will not force himself upon you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reproach was understood. The young lady herself might feel that a
+man who had guided her through the forest for hours might well deserve
+a different dismissal, even if she found it necessary to keep him at a
+distance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have already detained you too long,&quot; she said graciously, &quot;and since
+you have introduced yourself, Herr Rojanow, let me give you my name
+also before we part--Adelaide von Wallmoden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut started slightly and a burning blush covered his face as he
+repeated slowly, &quot;Wallmoden!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is the name familiar to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe I have heard it before, but it was in--in North Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most probably, for that is my husband's home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Unmistakable surprise was depicted in Rojanow's face as the supposed
+young girl announced herself a married woman, but he bowed politely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I beg your pardon, gracious lady, for the wrong address. I could
+not anticipate that you were married. In any case, I have not the honor
+of knowing your husband even by name, for the gentleman who was then
+known to me was already advanced in years. He belonged to the
+diplomatic corps, and his name was, if I am not mistaken, Herbert von
+Wallmoden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite right; my husband is at present Ambassador at the court of this
+country. But he will be anxious about my long stay. I must not tarry
+longer. Once again, my thanks, Herr Rojanow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She bowed slightly and took the descending road. Hartmut stood
+motionless, looking after her, but an ashy paleness was on his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So--he had hardly set foot upon German soil before there met him a name
+and connection with old times which was at least painfully disagreeable
+to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert von Wallmoden, brother of Frau von Eschenhagen, guardian of
+Willibald, and friend of----</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow suddenly broke off in his thoughts, for a sharp, painful stab
+sank into his breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As if to throw something from him he straightened himself, and again
+the harsh, offensive sarcasm trembled around his lips, over which he
+had such masterly command.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle Wallmoden has made a fine career at least,&quot; he murmured, &quot;and
+seems to have had good luck besides. His hair must have been gray a
+long time, and yet with it he conquers a young, beautiful girl. Of
+course an ambassador is always a good match, hence the cool,
+aristocratic manner which does not consider it worth the while to bend
+to other mortals. Probably the diplomatic school of the husband has
+educated his chosen one especially for this position. Well, he has
+succeeded admirably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His eyes still followed the young wife, who had already reached the
+foot of the hill, but now a deep furrow appeared in his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If I should meet Wallmoden here--and it can scarcely be avoided--he
+will recognize me beyond a doubt. If he then tells her the truth--if
+she learns what has happened--and looks at me again with that look of
+contempt----&quot; In wild, out-breaking wrath he stamped his foot upon the
+ground, then laughed bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pah! what do I care? What does this blond, blue-eyed race, with their
+indolent, cold blood, know of the longing for freedom--of the storm of
+passions--of life in general? Let them pass judgment upon me! I do not
+fear the meeting. I shall know how to hold my own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Throwing back his head in proud defiance, he turned his back upon the
+slender female figure yet visible, and walked back into the forest.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">At the home of the Chief of all the foresters, the talked-of family
+fête for which Wallmoden and his young wife had expressly come, had
+taken place according to programme, and the lord of Burgsdorf and
+Antonie von Schonan were formally betrothed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young couple had long known that they were intended for each other,
+and were perfectly contented therewith.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald, like a good son, was still of the opinion that the selection
+of his future wife was solely the business of his mother, and he had
+quietly waited until she found it convenient to betroth him. Still it
+was agreeable to him that it was just Cousin Toni he was to marry.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had known her since their childhood; she suited him admirably, and
+what was of some importance, she made no demands for the romantic part
+of the engagement, which, with the best will in the world, he could not
+have complied with.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toni exhibited the good taste which Frau Regine credited her with.
+Willy pleased her very much, and the prospect of becoming mistress of
+stately Burgsdorf pleased her still better. So all was in perfect
+accord.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The betrothed couple were at present in the reception room where the
+piano stood and Antonie was entertaining her betrothed with music at
+the request of her father. She herself considered music a very tiresome
+and superfluous affair; but the Chief Forester had insisted that his
+daughter should demonstrate not only her ability as a housekeeper, but
+that she had also been educated in the higher arts.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was walking up and down the terrace with his sister-in-law, with the
+original intention of listening to the music, but instead of that they
+were quarreling again, although they had started out with a peaceful
+conversation about the happiness of the children. This time the quarrel
+seemed to be of a very violent nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I really do not know what to think of you, Moritz,&quot; said Frau von
+Eschenhagen with a very red face. &quot;You do not seem to have any sense of
+the impropriety of this acquaintance. When I ask you who this bosom
+friend of Toni's really is--the one who is expected at Waldhofen--you
+answer me in the calmest manner possible that she is a singer, and
+recently engaged at the Court Theatre. An actress! a theatre princess!
+one of those frivolous creatures----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Regine, do not get so excited,&quot; interrupted von Schonan vexedly.
+&quot;You act as though the poor thing was already lost body and soul,
+because she has appeared on the stage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So she is,&quot; declared Regine; &quot;whoever once enters this Sodom and
+Gomorrah is not to be saved--they go to their ruin there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very flattering to our Court Theatre,&quot; said Schonan drily. &quot;Besides,
+all of us go there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As audience--that is quite different. But I have always been against
+it. Willy has been allowed to attend the theatre but seldom, and then
+only in my company; but while I fulfil my maternal duty,
+conscientiously protecting my son from any touch with those circles,
+you give his future wife over freely to their poisonous influences. It
+is worthy of a cry to heaven!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her voice had grown very loud, partly through indignation and partly
+that she might be heard, for the musical performance in the room, whose
+glass doors stood wide open, was of a rather loud nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lady had a somewhat hard touch and her performance reminded
+one of the working of an ax in hard wood. Although her three listeners
+had strong nerves, a low conversation had become an impossibility.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me explain this matter to you,&quot; said the Chief Forester
+pacifyingly. &quot;I have already told you that this case is an exception.
+Marietta Volkmar is the granddaughter of our good old physician at
+Waldhofen. He had the misfortune to lose his son in the prime of
+life--the young widow followed her husband in the next year, and their
+child, the little orphan, came to her grandfather. That happened when I
+was promoted here to Furstenstein, ten years ago. Dr. Volkmar became my
+house physician; his granddaughter the playmate of my children, and
+because the school in Waldhofen was very poor, I offered to let the
+little one participate in the lessons of my children. The friendship
+dates from then.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Later on, when Toni was sent to boarding school for two years, and
+Marietta went to the city for her musical education, this daily
+intercourse was, of course, broken, but Marietta visits us regularly
+when she comes to her grandfather during her vacations, and I do not
+see why I should prohibit it as long as the girl remains good and
+true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen had listened to the explanation without abating
+her severity in the least, and now she laughed ironically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good and true at the theatre! One knows how things go there, but you
+seem to take it just as easy as this Dr. Volkmar, who looks so
+venerable with his white hair, and yet consents to his granddaughter--a
+young soul entrusted to his care--going on the path to destruction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Schonan made an impatient gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Regine, you are usually such a sensible woman, but you have never
+wished to be reasonable on this point. The theatre and everything
+connected with it has always been under a ban to you. The decision has
+not been an easy one for the doctor. I know that; and if one like me
+can sit in the warm nest and support one's children, one should not
+break the staff over other parents who struggle with bitter cares.
+Volkmar still works night and day with all his seventy years, but the
+practice brings him but little, for our vicinity is poor, and Marietta
+will be quite without means after his death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She ought to have become a governess or companion, then; that is a
+decent vocation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But a miserable vocation. One knows well how the poor things are
+treated and overworked. If a child of mine, whom I loved, had to decide
+her lot in life, and it was told me that she had a fortune in her
+throat and that a splendid future was assured her--well, I should let
+her go on the stage, depend upon that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This confession knocked the bottom out of the barrel. Frau Regine stood
+for a moment quite still in affright; then she said solemnly: &quot;Moritz,
+I shudder at you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't care. If it gives you any pleasure to shudder, keep at it; but
+if Marietta comes to Furstenstein as usual, I shall not repulse her,
+and I also have nothing against Toni's going to see her in Waldhofen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Schonan had also to speak very loud, for his daughter was
+pounding the keys so that the windows rattled, and the strings of the
+piano were seriously endangered. The Chief Forester, while in the heat
+of the controversy, noticed this as little as did his sister-in-law,
+who now replied with much sharpness:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, it is at least a good thing that Toni is to marry soon.
+Then the friendship with this theatre princess will come to an end,
+depend upon that. Such guests are not suffered at our respectable
+Burgsdorf, and Willy will not allow his wife the correspondence which
+seems now to be going on at a lively rate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That means that <i>you</i> will not allow it,&quot; shouted von Schonan,
+mockingly. &quot;Willy has nothing to forbid or allow; he is only the
+obedient servant of his gracious Frau Mamma. It is unjustifiable how
+you keep that boy under your thumb when he is of age, betrothed, and
+soon to be a husband.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen, offended, straightened herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe I am more conscientious with my responsibilities than you
+are. Do you wish to reproach me for raising my son with filial
+reverence and love?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, well; there is a point where conscientiousness ceases and
+maltreating commences. You have already made Willy quite silly
+with your eternal supervision. He did not dare to even propose on his
+own account; when the matter began to get too long for you, you
+interfered as usual. 'Why these preliminaries, children? You shall
+have each other--you wish it, your parents consent, you have my
+blessing--therefore kiss each other and bring the thing to an end.'
+That is your standpoint. I, too, had filial reverence and affection,
+but if my parents had come into my wooing like that they would have
+heard something very different. But Willy accepted it calmly. I truly
+believe he was glad that he did not have to make a formal proposal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The excitement of the twain had again risen to the boiling point, and
+it was now well that the noise inside had so increased that they could
+not hear each other further.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Fraulein Antonie had strength at least in her hands, and as she seemed
+to consider that the most important thing, her performance sounded as
+if a regiment of soldiers were storming an attack.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was too much for her father. He suddenly broke off the conversation
+and entered the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Toni, you do not need to break the new piano,&quot; he said with
+vexation. &quot;What piece are you playing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toni sat at the piano, laboring in the sweat of her brow; not far
+removed sat her betrothed upon a sofa, his head supported by his arm
+and eyes shaded by his hand, apparently quite entranced with the music.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lady turned at her father's question and said in her usual
+slow voice, &quot;I was playing the March of the Janissaries, papa. I
+thought it would please Willy, since he, too, has been a soldier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? But he served as a dragoon,&quot; muttered Schonan, approaching his
+future son-in-law, who did not seem to appreciate the delicate
+attention, for he gave no sign of approval.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willy, what do you say to it? Willy, do you not hear? I actually
+believe he has fallen asleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Alas! the supposition proved correct. While the March of the
+Janissaries thundered over the keys, Willy had softly and sweetly
+fallen asleep, slumbering so soundly that he did not even now awake.
+This seemed too much for his mother, who had also approached. She
+grasped his arm sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Willy, whatever does this mean? Are you not ashamed of yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord, shaken and scolded on all sides, finally aroused
+himself and sleepily gazed around. &quot;What--what shall I---- Yes, it was
+beautiful, dear Toni.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe it,&quot; cried the Chief with an angry laugh. &quot;Do not trouble
+yourself to play any more, my child. Come, we will let your groom-elect
+have his nap out in peace. He has good nerves; one must confess that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Saying which he took his daughter's arm and left the room, where the
+fullest maternal wrath now broke over poor Willibald. Frau von
+Eschenhagen, already provoked by the preceding conversation, did not
+spare her son, but justified only too well the reproaches of her
+brother-in-law. She scolded the engaged and soon-to-be-a-husband young
+man like a schoolboy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This surpasses everything conceivable,&quot; she concluded in highest
+indignation. &quot;Your father was not very much at courting, but if he,
+after two days' betrothal, had fallen asleep while I was entertaining
+him with my music, I should have aroused him very unceremoniously. Now,
+do you go immediately to your fiancée and beg her pardon. She is quite
+right to feel offended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With which she grasped him by the shoulder and pushed him very
+emphatically toward the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy accepted it all very humbly and remorsefully, for he was indeed
+shocked at his untimely slumber; but he could not help it--he had been
+so sleepy and the music was so wearying.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Quite crushed, he entered the next room, where Toni stood, rather
+offended, at the window.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Toni, do not think hard of me,&quot; he began hesitatingly; &quot;it was so
+hot and your playing had something so pacifying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toni turned. That this march, with her playing of it, should be
+pacifying was new to her; but when she saw the crushed mien of her
+betrothed, who stood like a prisoner before her, her good nature
+conquered, and she held out her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I am not angry with you, Willy,&quot; she said cordially. &quot;I do not
+care either for the stupid music. We will do something more sensible
+when we are at Burgsdorf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that we will,&quot; exclaimed Willy, joyfully pressing the offered
+hand. He had not yet aspired to even a kiss upon the hand. &quot;You are so
+good, Toni.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Frau von Eschenhagen entered soon afterward, she found the couple
+in perfect harmony, engaged in a highly interesting conversation about
+dairy affairs, which were somewhat different in the two localities of
+Burgsdorf and Furstenstein. This was a subject over which Willy did not
+fall asleep, and his mother congratulated herself secretly upon this
+splendid daughter-in-law, who showed no inconvenient sensitiveness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man found opportunity almost directly to prove himself
+grateful for the indulgence of his betrothed. Toni complained that a
+package which she had ordered and which was needed for the supper table
+had not yet come. It had arrived safely at the post office, but, it
+seemed, with a wrong address, and had not been delivered to the
+messenger, who in the meantime had been dispatched elsewhere. No other
+servant was at liberty to go, and the time of need for it was drawing
+near. Willibald hastened to offer his services, which were joyfully
+accepted by his fiancée.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Waldhofen was the most important village of the vicinity, but still
+only a small place. It was about half an hour's distance from
+Furstenstein and formed a kind of centre for all the scattered villages
+and hamlets of the Wald.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It looked very desolate and forlorn during the afternoon hours, when
+nobody was on the streets; so thought Herr von Eschenhagen as he walked
+across the market place, where the post office was situated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He finished the errand which had brought him to Waldhofen, and found a
+man to carry the parcel to the castle. Then, since the streets of the
+quiet little place offered no diversion, he turned into a lane which
+led to the high road behind the gardens of the houses.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The path was rather boggy; yesterday's rain had made it quite without a
+foothold in places. Yet Willibald was farmer enough not to care about
+such things, but marched on unconcernedly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was in an exceedingly happy mood. It was surely a pleasant thing to
+be betrothed, and he did not doubt in the least that he would lead a
+very happy life in the future with his good Toni.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment a carriage came toward him, making its way laboriously
+through the boggy soil, and apparently bringing travellers, for a large
+trunk was strapped on behind, and the inside seemed to contain various
+travelling appurtenances.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald could not help wondering why they used this lane, which, in
+its present condition, was very tiresome; indeed the driver seemed
+dissatisfied. He turned in his seat to consult with the traveller, who
+so far had not been visible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It really does not go any further, Fraulein. I told you so before. We
+cannot get through here, the wheels stick in the mud. We are in a fix
+now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is not far now,&quot; said a fresh voice from the inside; &quot;only a
+few hundred paces. Just try it again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is not possible is not possible,&quot; returned the driver with
+philosophical composure. &quot;We cannot get through that mire before us; we
+must turn back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I do not wish to drive through town.&quot; The voice had a spice of
+defiance in it now. &quot;If it is not possible to drive on, I shall
+dismount.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The driver stopped, the door was opened, and a light, slender figure
+sprang from the carriage with such sure aim as to reach a higher spot
+across the mire. There she remained and glanced around searchingly: but
+as the lane made a bend nearby, only a little of it could be
+overlooked. The young lady seemed to observe this with dissatisfaction.
+Then her glance fell upon Herr von Eschenhagen, who, approaching from
+the other direction, now reached the bend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Please, mein Herr, is the lane passable?&quot; she called. He did not
+answer directly, being petrified with admiration of her daring and
+graceful jump. Why, she flew through the air like a feather and yet
+stood firm and safe upon her feet where she landed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you not hear?&quot; repeated the Fraulein impatiently; &quot;I asked if the
+lane is passable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I have walked over it,&quot; said Willibald, somewhat confused by the
+dictatorial questioning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see that, but I have no boots like yours and cannot wade through the
+mire. Is it possible to pass along the hedges? Great heavens! at least
+answer me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I--I believe so. It is somewhat dry over yonder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I shall try, then. Turn back, driver, and deliver my baggage at
+the post office. I will send for it. Wait, I will take that satchel
+with me. Hand it across.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the satchel is too heavy for you, Fraulein,&quot; remonstrated the
+driver, &quot;and I cannot leave the horses alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, this gentleman will carry it for me. It is not far to our
+garden. Please, mein Herr, take the satchel, the small one upon the
+back seat with the black leather lining. But do make haste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The little foot stamped the ground impatiently, for the young lord
+stood there with open mouth. He could not comprehend how a total
+stranger could dispose of him so nonchalantly, nor how so young a girl
+could command in such a way.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the last very ungracious words, however, he made haste to approach
+and take the designated satchel, which seemed the proper thing to be
+done.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So,&quot; she said shortly. &quot;You, driver, stop at the post office, and now
+forward into the bogs of Waldhofen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She picked up her gray travelling dress and walked close to the hedge,
+where the road was somewhat higher and dryer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald, of whom no notice was taken, trotted behind her with the
+satchel. He had never seen anything so graceful as this slender figure,
+which did not reach to his shoulder, and he occupied himself in
+observing this figure, because he had nothing else to do.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl had something exceedingly charming and graceful in her
+motions, as well as her whole appearance; but the small head, with the
+dark hair curling from under her hat, was carried with undeniable
+spirit. The face was rather irregular in outline, but lovely with its
+dark, roguish eyes, while the small, rosy mouth, around which lay a
+line of refractory defiance, and the two dimples in the chin, made it
+perfectly charming. The gray travelling dress, in spite of its
+plainness, was very tasteful and met the requirements of fashion. The
+young traveller apparently did not belong to the home-made villagers of
+Waldhofen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The road around the corner proved indeed somewhat dryer, but one had to
+keep to the little, raised path near the hedge and to jump at times
+over damp places. Conversation was, therefore, not possible, and Willy,
+in truth, never thought of commencing it. He carried the satchel
+patiently, accepting just as patiently the fact that his companion did
+not concern herself in the least about him, until, after ten minutes'
+walk, they stood at the low gate of a garden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl bent over the pickets and pushed an inside bolt; then
+she turned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Many thanks, mein Herr. Please give me my satchel now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In spite of its small dimensions, the bag was rather heavy, much too
+heavy for the little hands outstretched for it. Willibald was seized
+with a sudden attack of chivalry--not a usual fault with him--and
+declared that he would carry it to the house, which was accepted with a
+gracious nod.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They passed through a small, but carefully kept, garden to an old,
+plain house, and entered through the back door into a cool, dusky hall,
+where their arrival was immediately perceived. An old servant rushed
+out of the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fraulein! Fraulein Marietta! Have you come already to-day? Ach, what
+joy----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She got no further, for Marietta flew to her and pressed her little
+hand upon her mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be still, Babette! Speak quietly; I want to surprise him. Is he at
+home?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, the Herr Doctor is in his study. Do you wish to go there,
+Fraulein?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I will steal into the sitting room and sing his favorite song.
+Careful now, Babette; so that he does not hear us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Like a fairy she slipped lightly and noiselessly to the other side of
+the house and opened a door. Babette followed her, not noticing, in the
+joy and surprise of her Fraulein's return, that some one else stood in
+the dark hall. The door was left wide open, a chair was carefully
+moved, and directly a low prelude began in trembling notes, probably
+from a venerable old piano; but it sounded like the music of a harp,
+and then a voice arose, clear and sweet and joyous as a lark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It did not last many minutes, for a door opposite was hastily opened,
+and a white-haired old man appeared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Marietta, my Marietta! is it really you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Grandpapa!&quot; was cried back, joyfully. The song broke off and Marietta
+threw herself upon her grandfather's neck.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You naughty child, how you have frightened me!&quot; he scolded, tenderly.
+&quot;I did not expect you until the day after to-morrow, and intended to
+meet you at the station. Now I hear your voice, and do not dare to
+believe my ears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl laughed merrily as a child. She was more than happy and
+content.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, the surprise has been a complete success, grandpapa. I drove into
+the lane and actually stuck in the bog. I came in the back door. What
+do you want, Babette?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fraulein, the man who brought the bag is still there,&quot; said the old
+servant, who had but just observed the stranger. &quot;Shall I pay him for
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord still stood there with the satchel in his hand. But now
+Dr. Volkmar turned and exclaimed in great embarrassment: &quot;Gracious
+heavens! Herr von Eschenhagen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you know the gentleman?&quot; Marietta asked without much surprise, for
+her grandfather was accustomed to meet all of Waldhofen in his office
+of physician.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly. Babette, take the valise from the gentleman. I beg your
+pardon, mein Herr. I did not know that you were already acquainted with
+my granddaughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, we are not acquainted in the least,&quot; declared the girl. &quot;Will you
+not present the gentleman to me, grandpapa?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, my child. Herr Willibald von Eschenhagen of Burgsdorf----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Toni's betrothed!&quot; interrupted Marietta, gaily. &quot;Oh, how funny that we
+should meet in the middle of a bog! If I had only known, Herr von
+Eschenhagen, I would not have treated you so badly. I let you follow me
+like a regular porter. But why did you not say something?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald did not say anything now, but looked mutely at the little
+hand which was cordially extended to him. Feeling that he had to either
+say or do something, he grasped the rosy little hand in his giant fist
+and squeezed and shook it heartily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh!&quot; cried the young lady, retreating horrified; &quot;you have an awful
+handshake, Herr von Eschenhagen. I believe you have broken my fingers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald turned red with confusion and stammered an excuse.
+Fortunately, Dr. Volkmar now invited him to enter, which invitation he
+accepted silently, and Marietta narrated in a very laughable way her
+meeting with him. She treated her friend's betrothed like an old
+acquaintance, for she had long known of their engagement. She asked him
+about Toni, about the Chief Forester and all the household, her small,
+red mouth rattling on like a mill wheel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still the young lord was almost mute. The clear voice which sounded,
+even in talking, like the twittering of birds, utterly confused him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had only met the doctor yesterday, when the latter had called
+at Furstenstein. There had been some casual mention of a certain
+Marietta--a friend of Toni's--but he did not know anything further, for
+his fiancée was not very communicative.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And this naughty child allows you to stand in the hall without
+ceremony, while she seats herself at the piano to notify me of her
+arrival,&quot; said Volkmar, shaking his head. &quot;That was very naughty,
+Marietta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl laughed and shook her curly head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Herr von Eschenhagen will not be offended at that, and therefore
+he may listen while I sing you your favorite song again. You scarcely
+heard a note of it before. Shall I begin now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without waiting for an answer, she ran to the piano, and again that
+silvery, clear voice arose, entrancing the ear with its charm. She sang
+an old, simple carol, but it sounded as soft and sweet and coaxing as
+if spring and sunshine had suddenly entered the desolate rooms of the
+old house. It spread sunshine over the face of the old, white-haired
+man, where many a line of care and anxiety was visible. He listened
+with a smile, half sad, half happy, to the song which may have reminded
+him of his youth. But he was not the only attentive listener.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord of Burgsdorf, who two hours previously had fallen asleep
+amidst the thunders of &quot;The Janissaries' March&quot;--who, in perfect accord
+with his betrothed, had considered silly music a tiresome thing--now
+listened to those soft, floating sounds as intently as if they brought
+him a revelation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He sat there, bent over, his eyes fixed immovably upon the young girl,
+who apparently put all her soul into the song, moving her head to and
+fro with an infinitely graceful motion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the song ended he breathed deeply and passed his hand across his
+brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My little singing bird,&quot; said Dr. Volkmar, tenderly bending over his
+granddaughter and kissing her brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, grandpapa, my voice has not exactly deteriorated in the last few
+months, has it?&quot; she asked, teasingly, &quot;but it does not seem to please
+Herr von Eschenhagen. He does not say a word about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She glanced with a childish pout over at Willibald, who now also arose
+and approached the piano. A slight flush suffused his face, and his
+usually quiet eyes flashed as he said in a low tone: &quot;Oh, it was
+beautiful, very beautiful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young singer may have been accustomed to other compliments, but she
+felt the deep, honest admiration in the laconic words, and knew very
+well the impression the song had made. She smiled, therefore, as she
+replied: &quot;Yes, the song is beautiful. I have always had a regular
+triumph when I sang it as an addition to my rôle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To your rôle!&quot; replied Willibald, not understanding the expression.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, in the play from which I have just returned. Oh, it has been a
+splendid success, grandpapa. The manager would gladly have prolonged
+it, but I had already given the greater part of my vacation to it, and
+I wished to be with you at least a few weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord listened with increasing astonishment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Play! vacation! manager! What could all that mean? The doctor saw his
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr von Eschenhagen does not know your vocation, my child,&quot; he said,
+quietly. &quot;My granddaughter has been educated for the opera.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How dryly you say that, grandpapa!&quot; cried Marietta, springing up.
+Straightening herself to the fullest height of her dainty figure, she
+added, with mock solemnity: &quot;For five months a member of the highly
+respected Ducal Court Theatre, a person of official honors and renown!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Member of the Court Theatre! Willibald almost shuddered at those awful
+words. The obedient son of his mother shared her disdain of
+&quot;actresses.&quot; Involuntarily he receded a step and glared horrified at
+the young lady who had imparted such awful news to him. She laughed
+merrily at this motion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are not compelled to show so exceeding much respect and awe, Herr
+von Eschenhagen. I will allow you to remain near the piano. Has not
+Toni told you that I am on the stage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Toni--no!&quot; Willibald burst out, having lost his composure completely.
+&quot;But she is waiting for me. I must return to Furstenstein. I have
+tarried here already too long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are very polite,&quot; laughed the girl, gayly. &quot;That is not very
+flattering to us, but since you are engaged you must naturally return
+to your fiancée.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, and to my mamma,&quot; said Willibald, who had a dark feeling that
+something awful threatened him, before which his mother appeared as a
+saving angel. &quot;I beg your pardon, but I have stayed here already too
+long----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stopped, for he remembered that he had already said that once, and
+searched for other words, but could not find any, and, unhappily,
+repeated the phrase for the third time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta almost choked with laughter, but Dr. Volkmar declared politely
+that they did not wish to detain him any longer, and begged him to take
+his regards to the Chief Forester and Fraulein von Schonan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord scarcely heard. He looked for his hat, made a bow,
+stammered a few words of adieu and ran off as if his head was burning.
+He had but one thought--that he must leave as quickly as possible; that
+gay, teasing laugh made him crazy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Volkmar, who had escorted Willibald to the door, returned, his
+granddaughter was wiping the tears from her eyes, quite overcome with
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe something is wrong with Toni's betrothed here,&quot; she cried,
+putting a delicate ringer to her forehead. &quot;At first he ran behind me,
+mutely carrying the bag like a fish wife; then he seemed to thaw at my
+singing, and now he is seized with an attack of something and runs away
+to Furstenstein to his 'mamma,' so quickly that I could not even send a
+greeting to his betrothed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The doctor smiled a little plaintively. He had observed closely and
+guessed whence came this sudden change of manner in his guest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The young man has probably not had much intercourse with ladies,&quot; he
+said, evasively; &quot;and he seems to stand somewhat in awe of his mother,
+but he appears to please his fiancée very well, and that is surely the
+most important thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he is handsome,&quot; said Marietta, somewhat thoughtfully; &quot;even very
+handsome. But I believe, grandpapa, he is also very stupid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime Willibald had run like a storm to the next corner,
+where he came to a standstill and tried to collect his thoughts, which
+were in great confusion. It was a long time before he succeeded, but he
+looked back once more to the doctor's house before he walked on.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What would his mother say to it? She who had placed the whole world of
+actresses under a ban; and she was right. Willy plainly felt that
+something bewitching belonged to the tribe; one had to beware of them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But what if this Marietta Volkmar should take a notion to visit her
+friend at Furstenstein? The young lord ought to have been horrified at
+the thought, and was convinced that he was horrified; but with all that
+the strange flash returned to his eyes. He suddenly saw in the
+reception room, at the piano where Toni had been a little while ago, a
+small, delicate figure, whose dark, curly head moved to and fro like a
+bird, and the thunder of the march changed into the soft, rippling
+notes of the old carol, while between all again sounded the gay,
+silvery laugh which also was music.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And all this loveliness must be ruined and lost because it belonged to
+the stage! Frau von Eschenhagen had often expressed such an opinion,
+and Willibald was too good a son not to consider her an oracle. But he
+heaved a deep sigh, and murmured: &quot;Oh, what a pity; what a great pity!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">About half way between Furstenstein and Rodeck, where the forest
+mountains rose to their greatest height, lay the Hochberg, a popular
+resort for sight-seeing on account of its magnificent views. The old
+stone tower upon its summit, the last remnant of an otherwise totally
+demolished castle ruin, had been made an object of interest, and at its
+foot nestled a little inn, which entertained numerous guests from the
+neighborhood. Strangers did not often come into these almost unknown
+forest mountains and valleys. Visitors of any sort were somewhat rare
+now in the fall, but to-day's beautiful weather had enticed several
+people out on the trip. Half an hour ago two gentlemen had arrived on
+horseback, attended by a groom, and now a carriage, bringing more
+sight-seers, drove up to the inn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Upon the flat roof of the tower, near the stone breastwork, stood the
+two gentlemen, the younger one zealously occupied in pointing out and
+explaining the various points of interest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, our Hochberg is renowned for its views.&quot; he said. &quot;I was obliged
+to show them to you, Hartmut. Is not the view over this wide, green
+forest ocean incomparable?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut did not answer; he seemed to be looking through the glass for
+some distant point.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is Furstenstein? Ah, there. It seems to be an enormous old
+structure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, the castle is worth seeing,&quot; assented Prince Adelsberg. &quot;But,
+outside of that, you were wise to remain at home the other day; I was
+bored to death by the visit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? You seemed to think a great deal of the Chief Forester.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, I like to chat with him; but he had driven out and returned
+only just before I left. His son is not at Furstenstein. He is studying
+at the school for foresters, so I had to wait upon Fraulein von
+Schonan; but that pleasure was not exactly interesting. A word every
+five minutes and a minute to every word. Very many domestic virtues,
+but very little behind the forehead. I kept the conversation going by
+the sweat of my brow, and then had the honor of meeting the betrothed
+of the Baroness--a genuine, undiluted country squire, with a very
+energetic mamma, who has him and the future daughter-in-law under
+complete control. We had an exceedingly brilliant conversation, finally
+landing on turnip culture, in which I was thoroughly instructed. The
+visit was bearable only when the Chief Forester returned with his
+brother-in-law, the Baron Wallmoden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow still held the glass directed upon Furstenstein, listening,
+apparently, indifferently. Now he repeated questioningly: &quot;Wallmoden?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The new Prussian Ambassador to our court, a genuine diplomat in
+appearance; aristocratic, cool and buttoned up to the chin; also having
+very agreeable manners. Her Excellency, the Frau Baroness, was not
+visible, which I bore with composure, since the husband already has
+gray hair, and consequently the lady would probably be of an age which
+one approaches only with veneration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A peculiarly bitter expression played around Hartmut's lips as he now
+lowered the glass.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had kept his encounter with Frau von Wallmoden from his friend. Why
+mention the name? He wished to be reminded of it as little as possible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But our romantic forest solitude will soon be ended,&quot; continued Egon.
+&quot;I heard from the Chief Forester that the court will come to
+Furstenstein this year for the hunting season, and I can then expect a
+visit from the Duke. I am not very delighted at the prospect, for my
+highly honored uncle has a habit of holding forth to me just as
+frequent and just as impressive moral sermons as Stadinger, and I must
+naturally keep the peace then. But I shall present you at this visit,
+Hartmut. You consent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you consider it necessary, and the etiquette of your court
+allows----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bah! the etiquette is not so strictly adhered to with us. Besides, the
+Rojanows belong to the nobility of your country, do they not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, you are in every case entitled to the presentation. I
+consider it by all means desirable, for I have set my mind on seeing
+your 'Arivana' at our Court Theatre; and as soon as the Duke knows you
+and your work, that will be done beyond a doubt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words betrayed the passionate admiration the young Prince felt for
+his friend; but the latter only shrugged his shoulders slightly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Possibly, particularly if you plead for me; but I do not like to
+succeed under protection. I am no poet of renown. Indeed, I'm not sure
+whether I am a poet; and if my work cannot smooth a way for itself----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You would be obstinate enough to keep it from publicity; that is like
+you. Have you no ambition at all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps only too much, and from that arises originally what you call
+my obstinacy. I never could bow down and subordinate myself in life. I
+could not; my whole nature rose against it, and I am not at all suited
+to the ways of your court.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who told you that?&quot; laughed Egon. &quot;They will flatter and spoil you
+there, just like everywhere else. It is your nature to rise everywhere
+like a meteor, and one does not expect these stars to travel in old
+routes. Besides, you have from the start the exceptional position of
+guest and foreigner, and when you are once summoned by the halo of
+poesy, then----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then it is with that you intend to keep me here in your country?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, yes. I do not think that I alone possess the power to keep
+you here permanently, you wild, restless guest; but a rising poet's
+name is a fetter which one does not slip off so easily, and I have
+sworn to myself since this morning not to let you go again at any
+price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow started and looked at him inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why just since this morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is my secret for the present,&quot; said Egon, jestingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, more guests are coming here, it seems.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A step was heard upon the narrow, winding stone stairs, and the bearded
+face of the tower watchman appeared at the opening which led to the
+platform.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Please take care, gracious lady,&quot; he said, warningly, looking back
+with concern; &quot;the last steps are very steep and much worn. So, now we
+are at the top.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He offered a helping hand to the lady who followed him, but she did not
+need it, ascending easily with effort.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a beautiful girl!&quot; whispered Prince Adelsberg to his friend, who,
+instead of replying, made a deep and formal bow before the lady. She
+could not conceal a certain surprise at the sight of him. &quot;Ah, Herr
+Rojanow, you here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am admiring the view from the Hochberg, which may also have
+attracted you, Your Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The face of the Prince betrayed boundless astonishment when the
+&quot;beautiful girl&quot; was called &quot;Excellency,&quot; and when he saw that she was
+not a stranger to his friend. He speedily drew near for an introduction
+to this acquaintance, and Hartmut could not avoid presenting the Prince
+Adelsberg to the Baroness Wallmoden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He touched upon the forest encounter very lightly, for the lady found
+it convenient to-day to enshroud herself in her haughty reserve. It was
+hardly necessary, for Rojanow observed the strictest reticence. Both
+seemed decided to treat the acquaintance as a very slight and formal
+one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon had thrown a glance of the liveliest reproach upon his friend. He
+could not understand how Hartmut could have kept such a meeting to
+himself; but, after that, he cast himself with ardor into the
+conversation. He announced himself a neighbor, mentioned his recent
+call at Furstenstein, and expressed his regret at having missed Frau
+von Wallmoden at that time. A conversation was commenced, in which the
+Prince exhibited his amiability and vivacity, while retaining the
+reserve of etiquette. He knew from the beginning that he stood before
+the wife of the Ambassador, whom one could not approach with a bold
+compliment, as Hartmut had ventured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Finally his happy, unaffected good humor succeeded in diminishing the
+icy atmosphere which surrounded the beautiful woman, and he had the
+good fortune of being permitted to show and explain to her the
+surrounding country.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut did not join in the conversation with his usual vivacity, and
+when he again drew out the glass from his pocket, at the Prince's
+request, he suddenly missed his letter-case.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The watchman offered at once to look for it, but Rojanow declared he
+would do it himself. He remembered exactly the place where something
+had slipped to the floor when he came up the stairs, which he had not
+noticed at the time. It was the letter-case, no doubt, and he would
+find it with little trouble and return. Saying which, he bowed and
+departed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Under other circumstances Egon would doubtless have thought it strange
+that his friend should refuse the offer of the old man and take upon
+himself the trouble of searching the dark stairway, but he was at
+present so totally occupied with his office of explanatory exhibitor
+that he did not seem to regret being left alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Wallmoden had accepted the glass which he offered her and
+followed with apparent attention his explanations as he pointed out all
+the various heights and villages.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And over yonder, behind those hills, lies Rodeck,&quot; he concluded; &quot;the
+little hunting lodge where we live like two hermits, cut off from all
+the world, having only the company of monkeys and parrots, which we
+brought from the Orient, and which have already become quite
+melancholy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not look at all like a hermit, Your Highness,&quot; said the young
+Baroness, with a fleeting smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In truth, I have not much taste for it; but at times Hartmut has
+perfect attacks of the ailment, and then I bury myself in solitude for
+weeks for his pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut! That is a thoroughly German name, and it is also surprising
+that Herr Rojanow speaks German with such fluency and without even a
+foreign intonation. Yet he introduced himself to me as a foreigner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly. He comes from Roumania, but was raised by relatives in
+Germany, from whom also he may have inherited the German name,&quot; said
+the Prince, simply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was plainly to be seen that he knew nothing further of the origin of
+his friend. &quot;I became acquainted with him at Paris, when I was about to
+begin my trip to the East, and he decided to accompany me. It was my
+good star of fortune that brought him to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem infatuated with your friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something like disapprobation in the tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Your Excellency, I am indeed,&quot; affirmed Egon, warmly; &quot;and not I
+alone. Hartmut is one of those genial natures who conquers and wins
+people by storm wherever he appears. You should see and hear him when
+he is heart and soul enthusiastic. Then his soul flames like fire into
+yours. He envelops everything with his warmth; one has to follow where
+his flight leads.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The enthusiastic eulogy found a very cool listener. The young lady
+seemed to bend all her attention upon the landscape, as she replied:
+&quot;You may be correct. Herr Rojanow's eyes betray something of it, but
+such fiery natures make upon me an impression more uncanny than
+sympathetic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps because they bear the demoniac lines which are peculiar to
+genius. Hartmut has them. He startles me sometimes, and yet the dark
+depths of his nature draw me irresistibly to him. I have actually
+forgotten how to live without him and shall try everything to retain
+him in our country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In Germany? You will hardly succeed in that, Your Highness. Herr
+Rojanow has a poor opinion of our fatherland. He betrayed that to me
+the day before yesterday in rather an offensive way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince became attentive. The words at once explained the cold
+reserve, which was not usually Hartmut's manner toward a beautiful
+woman, and which had surprised him at the first moment. But he smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, that was the reason why he did not speak of the encounter. Your
+Excellency has probably shown him your displeasure. It serves him
+right. Why does he prevaricate with such persistency? He has irritated
+me often enough with this assumed depreciation, which I accepted then
+in good faith; but I know better now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not believe in it?&quot; Adelaide suddenly turned from the view to
+the speaker.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I have the proof of it in my hands. He is infatuated with our
+German land. You look at me incredulously, Your Excellency. May I
+impart a secret to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was looking for Hartmut this morning in his room, but did not find
+him, I found, instead, a poem upon his desk, which he had probably
+forgotten to lock up, for it was surely not intended for my eyes. I
+stole it, without any compunction of conscience, and carry the spoils
+still with me. Will you permit me to read it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not understand the Roumanian language,&quot; said Frau von Wallmoden,
+with cool satire. &quot;Herr Rojanow has scarcely condescended to compose a
+poem in German.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Instead of answering, Egon drew out the paper and opened it. &quot;You are
+prejudiced against my friend; I see it. But I do not like you to regard
+him in the wrong light in which he has placed himself. May I justify
+him with his own words?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words sounded indifferent, and yet Adelaide's gaze was riveted with
+a strange expectancy upon the paper, which seemed to contain only a few
+hastily written stanzas. Egon read.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were German verses, indeed; but of a perfection and harmony which
+could belong only to a master of the language. The pictures they
+conjured up before the listener were strangely familiar. Deep, dreamy
+forest solitude, touched by the first breath of approaching autumn;
+endless green depths which beckoned and charmed irresistibly with their
+twilight shadows; aromatic meadows flooded with sunlight; small, still
+waters, which gleamed in the distance, and the foaming forest brook
+roaring down from the heights.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And this picture had taken on life and language. That which whispered
+in it was the old, old song of the forest itself; its murmuring and
+rustling--its mysterious working gathered into words which enchanted
+the ear of the listener like melody, while through it all floated and
+moaned a deep, unspeakable longing for this forest peace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince read warmly at first, then with great enthusiasm. Now he
+dropped the sheet and asked triumphantly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young Baroness had listened spellbound. She did not look at the
+reader, but stared motionless into the blue distance. At the question
+she started slightly and hastily turned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What did you say, Your Highness?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is this the language of a depredator of our fatherland? I believe
+not,&quot; said Egon in most decided tones, but greatly as he was engrossed
+with his friend's poetry, he could still notice how exceptionally
+beautiful Frau von Wallmoden looked at this moment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Of course, it must have been the setting sun which lent the rosy
+coloring to her face and the brilliancy to her eyes, for her bearing
+was as cold as her answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is really surprising that a foreigner should command the German
+language so perfectly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon looked at her in amazement. Was this all? He had expected a
+different impression. &quot;And what do you think of the poem itself?&quot; he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite excellent. Herr Rojanow seems indeed to possess much poetic
+talent. But here is your glass, Your Highness. I thank you. I must be
+thinking of the descent now, as I do not wish to keep my husband
+waiting too long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon folded up the paper slowly and deposited it in his breast pocket.
+He felt the icy breath now surround again the beautiful woman, which
+chilled him to the heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I already have the honor of an acquaintance with His Excellency,&quot; he
+said. &quot;May I renew it today?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A slight bow gave the permission to accompany her. They left the
+platform, but the Prince had grown somewhat monosyllabic. He felt
+offended for his friend, and now regretted having given this poetry,
+the beauty of which carried him away, to a lady who had no
+understanding of, nor appreciation whatever for, poetry.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut descended the stairs slowly after his leave-taking, the lost
+letter-case resting safely in its usual place. It had served its
+purpose as a pretext to free its possessor a little while.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide von Wallmoden had casually mentioned having come with her
+husband, who remained down at the inn because he disliked the
+troublesome climbing of the steep stairs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut could not therefore evade a meeting with him, but it should at
+least take place without witnesses. If Wallmoden should recognize the
+son of his friend, whom he had known only as a boy, he might not be
+able to master his surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut did not fear this meeting, even if it were inconvenient and
+uncomfortable to him. There was but one face in the whole world he
+feared--only one face to which he would not dare lift his eyes--and
+that face was far away; probably he would never see it again. Every one
+else he met with the proud defiance of a man who had only done right in
+withdrawing from a hated vocation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was decided upon not permitting any expression of reproach, but, if
+he should be recognized, to request the Ambassador in the most decided
+manner to consider certain old connections, with which he had so
+totally broken, as no longer existing. With this conclusion he emerged
+into the open air.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert Wallmoden sat with his sister upon the little veranda of the
+inn. The Chief Forester had been too much occupied with the approaching
+arrival of the court, the hunting expeditions of which he had to
+arrange, to accompany the party. The betrothed couple had also remained
+at home; but the day for the little trip could not have been more
+pleasant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This Hochberg is really worth seeing,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen, her
+eyes roaming over the country. &quot;We have almost the same view here as
+upon the top of the tower. Why climb and overheat oneself and lose
+one's breath on those never-ending steps?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Adelaide was of a different opinion,&quot; replied Wallmoden, with a casual
+glance at the tower. &quot;She does not know fatigue nor how to get
+overheated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And also how not to catch cold. She proved that the day before
+yesterday, when she came home drenched through. She did not catch the
+least cold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nevertheless, I have requested her to take an escort for her future
+walks,&quot; said the Ambassador, calmly. &quot;To get lost in the forest, wade a
+creek, and be guided to the right path by the first hunter one comes
+across are things which must not occur again. Adelaide agreed with me
+and promised immediately to obey my wishes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, she is a sensible woman, a thoroughly healthy nature from which
+anything romantic or adventurous is far removed,&quot; complimented Regine.
+&quot;But there seem to be more visitors upon the tower. I thought we should
+be the only guests to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden looked indifferently at the tall, slender gentleman who now
+emerged from the small tower door and walked toward the inn. Frau von
+Eschenhagen also looked at him carelessly; but suddenly her glance grew
+keener, and she started.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herbert--look!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That stranger there. What a strange resemblance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To whom?&quot; asked Herbert, growing more attentive and looking sharply at
+the stranger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To--impossible! That is not only a resemblance. It is he himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She sprang up, pale with excitement, and her look fastened itself upon
+the features of the man just now putting his foot upon the first step
+of the veranda. She met his eyes, those dark, glowing eyes, which had
+so often shone upon her from the face of the boy, and the last doubt
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut--Hartmut Falkenried--you----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was suddenly silenced by Wallmoden's laying his hand heavily upon
+her arm and saying slowly, but with emphasis: &quot;You are mistaken,
+Regine. We do not know this gentleman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stopped short when he caught sight of Frau von Eschenhagen, who
+had been hidden by the foliage. He was not prepared for her presence.
+At the moment he recognized her the words of the Ambassador reached his
+ear. He knew that icy tone only too well; it forced the blood to his
+brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herbert!&quot; Regine looked doubtingly at her brother, who still held her
+by the arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We do not know him,&quot; he repeated in the same tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it possible that I have to tell you that, Regine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She understood now his meaning. With a half threatening, half painful
+glance, she turned her back upon the son of her friend and said, with
+deep bitterness:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right. I was mistaken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut started, and in rising anger he drew a step nearer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr von Wallmoden!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you speak to me?&quot; The tone was as stinging and scornful as before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have anticipated my wishes, Your Excellency,&quot; said Hartmut,
+forcing himself to be calm. &quot;I wished to ask you not to recognize me.
+We are strangers to each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He turned and walked off defiantly, tall and erect, and entered the
+house by another door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden looked after him with darkened brow. Then he turned to his
+sister.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Could you not control yourself better, Regine? Why have a scene at
+such a meeting? This Hartmut does not exist any longer for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine's face betrayed only too well how much this encounter had
+shocked her. Her lips still quivered as she replied:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am no practiced diplomat like you, Herbert. I have not learned to be
+still when one whom I thought dead or ruined suddenly appears before
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dead? that was hardly to be expected at his age. Ruined, corrupted?
+that might be nearer it. His life up to the present moment has lain in
+that direction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you know about it?&quot; Frau von Eschenhagen started with surprise. &quot;Do
+you know of his life?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Partly. Falkenried was too much my friend for me not to investigate
+what became of his son. Of course, I was silent to him as well as you
+concerning it; but as soon as I had returned to my office that time, I
+used our diplomatic relations, which reach everywhere, to inquire about
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, what did you learn?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Principally only that which was to be expected. Zalika had turned her
+steps directly homeward with her son. You know that her stepfather--our
+cousin Wallmoden--was already dead when she returned to her mother
+after the divorce. The connections on our side were thereby broken off,
+but I learned that shortly before Zalika's reappearance in Germany she
+had come into the possession of the Rojanow estates.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zalika? Did she not have a brother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he had charge of the estates for ten years, but died, unmarried,
+from an accident while hunting, and, since his mother's second
+marriage had resulted in no descendant, Zalika entered now upon the
+inheritance--at least in name--for through the reckless management of
+the Bojar, the most of it belonged to the Jews. Nevertheless, she now
+felt herself master, and planned the <i>coup</i> of getting possession of
+her son. The old, wild life was then continued upon the estates for a
+few years, with senseless management, until everything was gone. Then
+mother and son, like a couple of gypsies, went out into the wide
+world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden narrated this with the same cold contempt which he had shown
+to Hartmut, and the same horror and aversion were pictured in the face
+of his sister--that strictly duteous and moral lady. Nevertheless, a
+certain degree of sympathy was in her voice as she asked: &quot;And you have
+not heard anything of them since?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, several times. A casual mention of the name led me to the track.
+While I was at the embassy at Florence, they were in Rome; a few years
+later they appeared in Paris, and there I heard of the death of Frau
+Zalika Rojanow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So she is dead,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen, in a low voice. &quot;What do
+you think they have lived on all these years?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do all adventurers who wander homeless over the world live on?
+They may perhaps have saved something from the wreck, perhaps not. At
+any rate, they visited all the salons in Paris and Rome. A woman like
+Zalika finds help and protection everywhere. She had the title of
+nobility as daughter of a Bojar, and the forced sale of the Roumania
+property was probably not known, so it played a prominent part in their
+success. Society opens its doors only too quickly to this element if it
+knows how to keep up appearances, which seems to have been the case
+here. By what means, that, of course, is another question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But Hartmut, whom she forcibly carried into such a life--what of him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An adventurer--what else?&quot; said the Ambassador, with intense
+harshness. &quot;He always had an inclination that way; he will have
+developed finely in such a school. I have not heard anything of him
+since the death of his mother, three years ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you kept it a secret from me?&quot; said Regine, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wished to spare you. You had taken this scoundrel--this Hartmut--too
+much into your heart. I was afraid you might be carried away in a hint
+to Falkenried.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You took unnecessary pains. I have ventured but once to speak of
+the past to Falkenried. He looked at me--I shall never forget that
+look--and said, with an awful expression: 'My son is dead--you know
+that, Regine. Let the dead rest!' I shall certainly not mention that
+name to him again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I do not need to caution you when you return home,&quot; replied
+Wallmoden. &quot;But you ought not to speak of it to Willibald, either. His
+good nature might play him a trick when he learns that his once great
+friend lives in the neighborhood. It is best for him to hear nothing of
+it. I shall certainly ignore this <i>gentleman</i> at a possible second
+meeting, and Adelaide does not know him at all. She does not even know
+that Falkenried had a son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He broke off and arose, for his young wife now appeared in the door of
+the tower.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Prince Adelsberg renewed the acquaintance of yesterday and inquired
+innocently if his friend, Rojanow, had passed by here. He could not
+explain his absence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A glance from Wallmoden warned his sister, who was proof this time
+against surprise. Wallmoden himself regretted not having seen the
+gentleman, and said that he was just about to leave with his wife and
+sister, having only awaited the former's return. The order for the
+carriage was given at once, to which Egon accompanied them, taking
+leave of them with a deep bow, but following the carriage with
+attentive eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stood alone at a window of the inn, also observing the
+departure. The same ashy paleness again overspread his face, which had
+gleamed there at the first mention of the name of Wallmoden; but now it
+was the whiteness of a wild anger which almost shocked him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had expected questions and reproaches, which, of course, he had
+intended to refute haughtily; but was met instead with a complete
+ignoring, which was a deadly insult to his pride. Wallmoden's harsh
+warning to his sister, &quot;We do not know him--have I to remind you of
+that?&quot; had wrought up his whole being. He felt the annihilation
+contained in it. And the woman, who had always shown him a mother's
+love--even Frau von Eschenhagen--had joined her brother in turning her
+back upon him, as upon a person one is ashamed to have once known. This
+was too much.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, here you are!&quot; Egon's voice came from the door. &quot;You disappeared
+as if the earth had swallowed you. Has the unlucky letter-case been
+found?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow turned. He was obliged to recall the pretext he had used.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, indeed,&quot; he answered absently, &quot;it lay upon the stairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, the guide would have found it just as well. Why did you not come
+back? Very polite of you to leave Frau von Wallmoden and me without
+ceremony. You have not even taken leave of the lady. His Excellency's
+highest displeasure is sure to fall upon you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall know how to bear the misfortune,&quot; said Hartmut, shrugging his
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince drew near and laid his hand jestingly upon his friend's
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? It is probably because you fell into disgrace yesterday. It is not
+your usual way to run off where the entertainment of a beautiful lady
+is concerned. Oh, I know all about it. Her Excellency has given you a
+lecture over your loving tirades against Germany, and the spoiled
+favorite has been offended. Why, one could afford to be told the truth
+by such lips.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem to be quite transported,&quot; sneered Hartmut. &quot;Beware lest the
+husband be not jealous in spite of his years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a strange couple,&quot; said Egon musingly, as if lost in thought;
+&quot;that old diplomat, with his gray hair and immovable face, and his
+young wife with her brilliant beauty like----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An aurora which rises from a sea of ice. It is only a question of
+which stood furthest below zero.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young Prince laughed heartily. &quot;Very poetical and very malicious;
+but you are not far wrong. I have also felt something of this polar
+breath touching me chillingly several times; but that is my luck.
+Otherwise I would fall hopelessly in love with the beautiful
+Excellency. But I think it is time for us to leave, <i>nicht wahr?</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He went to the door to call the groom. Hartmut following, threw one
+more glance out to where, through an opening in the forest, the
+Ambassador's carriage was again visible, and his hands clinched
+involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We shall speak yet, Herr Wallmoden,&quot; he muttered. &quot;I shall remain now.
+He shall not think that I fly from his presence. I shall allow Egon to
+present me at court, and exert my utmost to make my work a success. We
+shall see then if he dares treat me like a first-class adventurer. He
+shall pay for that tone and look!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Everything at Furstenstein was in a state of preparation for the
+arrival of the Court. Their stay was to be of longer duration than for
+a short hunting expedition; they were to remain several weeks, for
+which time the Duchess also was expected. The upper stories of the
+castle, with their numerous suites of rooms, were being aired and put
+in order. A portion of the court officials and servants had already
+arrived. Extensive and festive preparations were also being made in
+Waldhofen, through which the Court was to pass on its way to the
+castle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden's stay, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have been
+short, was prolonged. The Duke, who was pleased to distinguish the
+Ambassador in every way, had heard of his attending a family fête at
+Furstenstein, and had expressed a wish to find him and his wife still
+there. The invitation was equivalent to a command which had to be
+obeyed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen and her son also wished to remain to look at the
+Court in close proximity; and the Chief Forester, who wished to
+distinguish himself in the probably extensive hunts, held daily
+conferences with the Head Forester and his subordinates, and put the
+whole forestry in motion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was much bustle already about the castle. A sound of merry
+chattering and clear laughter came from Fraulein von Schonan's room.
+Marietta Volkmar had come to her friend for an hour, and as usual there
+was no end to the talking and laughing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toni sat near the window, and Willibald, who was acting as guard at his
+mother's command, stood beside her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen so far had not had her way about the intercourse
+of the two girls. Her brother-in-law had remained obstinate, and even
+her future daughter-in-law, usually so compliant, rendered unexpected
+resistance when the subject was broached.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot, dear Aunt,&quot; Toni had answered. &quot;Marietta is so sweet and
+good that I cannot offend her so bitterly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sweet and good! Frau Regine shrugged her shoulders over the
+inexperience of the young girl, whose eyes she did not wish to open,
+but she felt bound to interfere, and concluded to act diplomatically
+this time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald, accustomed to confess everything to his mother, had narrated
+to a fine point the encounter with the young singer. Frau von
+Eschenhagen had naturally been beside herself to think that the master
+of Burgsdorf should have carried a satchel behind the &quot;theatre
+princess!&quot; On the other hand, she heard the description of his horror
+upon learning who this lady really was, and his running away, with high
+pleasure, and thought it exceedingly praiseworthy that he objected to
+the rôle of guard over the girl. Of course he disliked every touch with
+such a person; but since his mother found it beneath her dignity to
+attend these meetings, he <i>must</i> protect his bride-elect.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was given the curt command to never leave the young ladies alone,
+but to report explicitly how this Marietta actually behaved herself.
+After the first report, which would undoubtedly be atrocious, Frau
+Regine would impress upon her brother-in-law's conscience the frivolous
+association he had allowed his child; would call upon her son as
+witness, and request emphatically the breaking off of the friendship.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald had finally consented. He had been present when Fraulein
+Volkmar made her first visit to Furstenstein. He had accompanied his
+fiancée when she returned the call at Waldhofen, and now stood at his
+post to-day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Antonie and Marietta talked about the expected arrival of the Court,
+and the former, who had but little taste in dress, asked her friend's
+advice, which was gladly given.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What must you wear? Roses, of course,&quot; said Marietta; &quot;white or
+delicate-colored ones. They will look lovely with the dainty blue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I do not like roses,&quot; declared Toni. &quot;I intended to wear
+asters----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then why not sunflowers? Do you wish to appear autumnal in spite of
+everything, although you are a young girl and a bride-elect? And how
+can you help liking roses? I love them passionately and use them at
+every opportunity. I wanted so much to wear a rose in my hair at the
+Mayor's party to-night, and am quite unhappy because none are to be
+found anywhere in Waldhofen. Of course it is late in the season.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The gardener has roses in the hothouse,&quot; remarked Antonie in the
+sleepy manner which was such a sharp contrast to her vivacious friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The latter shook her head laughingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They are doubtless for the Duchess' use, and we poor mortals dare not
+venture to ask for one. What's the use? I must deny myself that
+pleasure---- But to return to the dress question. You are quite
+superfluous in this, Herr von Eschenhagen. You do not understand a
+thing about it and must be bored to death, but in spite of it you do
+not waver nor move; besides, what is there so remarkable about me that
+you look at me so constantly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words sounded very ungracious. Willy started, for the last reproach
+was well founded. He had been meditating upon how a fresh, half-open
+rose would look in the dark, curly locks, and, of course, had to
+subject the curls and the head belonging to them to a minute
+observation, which his fiancée had passed unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Willy, go,&quot; she now said good-naturedly. &quot;You must really feel
+bored over our dress affairs, and I have much to talk over yet with
+Marietta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just as you wish, dear Toni,&quot; returned the young lord; &quot;but may I not
+come back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course, as soon as you wish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald left the room, not in the least remembering that he was
+deserting his post. He was thinking of something quite different as he
+stood for a few moments in the little ante-room. In consequence of this
+meditation he finally descended the stairs and turned his steps
+straight to the house of the castle gardener.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had scarcely left when Marietta sprang up and exclaimed with comic
+vehemence: &quot;Gracious heavens! what a tiresome couple you are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Marietta----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, whether you are offended or not, I declare it is a sacrifice to
+friendship to stand it in your presence, and I had anticipated such a
+jolly time when I heard you were engaged. You were never particularly
+lively, but your betrothed seems to have lost his speech entirely. How
+did you manage to become engaged? Did he actually speak then, or did
+his mamma attend to that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stop your foolishness,&quot; replied Antonie, displeased. &quot;Willy is only so
+silent in your presence. He can be quite entertaining when we are
+alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, over the new threshing machine he has bought. When I came I
+listened a moment before I entered. He was singing the praise of the
+before-mentioned threshing machine, and you were listening attentively.
+Oh, you will reign as a model couple, but--may heaven protect me in
+mercy from such a marriageable blessing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are very naughty. Marietta,&quot; said the young Baroness, now really
+angry, but her mischievous little friend instantly clung to her neck.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't be mad, Toni. I do not mean any harm, and wish you happiness
+with all my heart, but you see my husband has to be of a different
+nature.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, and how, pray?&quot; asked Toni, half pouting, half reconciled by the
+coaxing plea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;First, he has to be under my command, and not under his mother's.
+Second, he must be a genuine man in whose protection I feel safe. He
+need not talk much--I do that--but he must love me so much--so much
+that he will not talk about papa or mamma, or his estates, or the new
+threshing machine, but let them all go if only he has--me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toni shrugged her shoulders with compassionate superiority.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have very childish views at times, Marietta--but now let us talk
+about the dresses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, we will, before your elect returns and posts himself at our side
+like a guard. He has a remarkable talent for mounting guard. Now, you
+wear with the blue silk----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The pending question was not destined to receive a solution this time,
+either, for the door opened and Frau von Eschenhagen entered, calling
+for Antonie, whose presence was desired elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Antonie arose obediently and left the room. Frau Regine made no effort
+to follow her, but took her vacant seat at the window instead.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reigning mistress of Burgsdorf was not diplomatically inclined like
+her brother; she had to interfere everywhere with force. She had become
+impatient, for Willy had as good as reported nothing. He grew red and
+stammered every time he should have repeated what the &quot;theatre
+princess&quot; had said and done, and his mother, who would not believe in a
+harmless girls' chat, concluded to take the affair in her own hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta had dutifully risen at the entrance of the older lady, whom
+she had scarcely seen at the first visit, and whose hostile bearing she
+had not observed in the joy of the first meeting. She only thought that
+Toni's future mother-in-law had little friendliness about her, but
+troubled herself no further about the severe lady who was now measuring
+her from head to foot, with the stern mien of a judge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In point of fact this Marietta looked just like other young girls, but
+she was pretty--very pretty, which was that much worse. She wore her
+hair in short curls--that was improper; other bad attributes would
+doubtless make their appearance in the conversation which was now
+begun.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a friend of the fiancée of my son?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, gracious lady,&quot; was the unembarrassed rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A friendship which dates from childhood, as you were raised in the
+house of Dr. Volkmar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly; I lost my parents very early.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite right; my brother-in-law told me so. And to what calling did
+your father belong?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He was a physician like my grandpapa,&quot; replied Marietta, more amused
+than surprised at this examination, the object of which she did not
+guess. &quot;My mother was also the daughter of a physician--a whole medical
+family, is it not? Only I have taken a different course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alas, yes,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen with emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl looked at her with surprise. Was that a jest? The mien
+of the lady was not at all mirthful, though, as she continued: &quot;You
+will admit, my child, that if one has the good fortune to come from an
+honorable and respected family, one ought to show oneself worthy of it.
+You ought to have chosen your vocation accordingly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mon Dieu! but I could not study medicine like my father and
+grandfather,&quot; exclaimed Marietta, breaking into an amused laugh. The
+affair gave her endless fun, but the remark displeased her stern judge,
+who replied with considerable sharpness:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are, God be thanked, plenty of proper vocations for a young
+girl. You are a singer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, gracious lady, at the Court Theatre.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it. Are you disposed to accept a dismissal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The question was put so suddenly, in such a domineering tone, that
+Marietta involuntarily retreated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was still of the opinion that the lord of Burgsdorf, with his
+obstinate silence and stormy leave-taking, was not quite sane, and now
+she was struck by the thought that it might be a family failing which
+he had inherited from his mother, for it was very apparent that
+everything was not quite right with her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A dismissal?&quot; she repeated. &quot;But why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For the sake of morality. I am willing to offer you a helping hand.
+Turn aside from this path of frivolity and I pledge myself to find a
+place as companion for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now at last the young singer comprehended the object of the
+conversation. Half angrily and half scornfully she tossed back the
+little, curly head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must thank you for it, but I love my work and cannot think of
+exchanging it for a dependent position. I am not fit, anyway, for an
+upper maid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have expected this answer,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen with a grim
+nod of the head, &quot;but I consider it my duty to once more appeal to your
+conscience. You are still very young and are therefore not responsible
+to a great extent for it; the heaviest reproach falls on Doctor
+Volkmar, who allowed the daughter of his son to accept such a calling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gracious lady, I must beg you to leave my grandfather entirely out of
+the question,&quot; cried Marietta indignantly. &quot;You are Toni's future
+mother-in-law--otherwise I should not have stood this examination--but
+I will not suffer an insult to my grandfather from anybody on the
+earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In their excitement the two ladies had not noticed that the door
+leading to the ante-room had opened quietly, and that Willibald had
+appeared. He was much surprised when he saw his mother, and hastily
+thrust in his pocket something that he carried carefully wrapped in
+paper, but he remained standing in the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not intend to argue with you,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen in lofty
+tones, &quot;but since I am Toni's future mother-in-law, I have the right to
+warn her of a friendship which does not seem proper to me. Pray do not
+misunderstand me. I am not haughty. The granddaughter of Dr. Volkmar
+would be quite welcome to a continuance of friendship, but a lady from
+a theatre probably has all of her connections in theatrical circles,
+and here at Furstenstein---- I hope you understand me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, I understand you, gracious lady,&quot; cried Marietta, whose face
+was suddenly suffused by a deep blush. &quot;You do not need to say anything
+more. I ask but for one more word. Is Herr von Schonan--is Antonie--of
+the same opinion as yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Chiefly so as to the matter of it, but, of course, they do not
+wish--with explanations--to----&quot; A very graphic shrug finished the
+sentence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The otherwise just and truth-loving woman did not even feel that she
+was plainly telling an untruth. So taken up with her idea was she that
+she was firmly convinced that the Chief Forester kept up the
+intercourse only through a spirit of spite, and Antonie through her
+good nature, although it must be uncomfortable to them, and she was
+firmly decided to bring this thing to an end.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">But something unexpected happened now. Willibald, who still stood upon
+the threshold, advanced into the room and exclaimed, half entreatingly,
+half reproachfully: &quot;But, mamma!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it you, Willy? What do you want here?&quot; demanded Frau von
+Eschenhagen, noticing him for the first time, and to whom the
+interruption was very unwelcome.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald saw very well that his mother was very ungraciously inclined,
+and was accustomed always to retreat when he found her in that mood,
+but today, with unusual courage, he remained. He drew nearer and
+repeated, &quot;But, mamma, I beg of you--Toni has never thought of Fraulein
+Volkmar's----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How dare you! do you wish to accuse me of an untruth?&quot; the angered
+mother flamed. &quot;What is it to you that I speak with Fraulein Volkmar?
+Your fiancée is not here--you see that--therefore leave us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord grew darkly red at this tone, to which he was
+accustomed; he seemed to feel shame at the treatment because of the
+young girl, and looked as if he would offer some resistance, but at a
+threatening, &quot;Well, did you not hear?&quot; the old habit conquered. He
+turned hesitatingly and actually left the room, but the door remained
+slightly ajar.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta looked after him with scornfully curled lips, then turned to
+her opponent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may rest assured, gracious lady, that I have come to Furstenstein
+for the last time. As the Chief Forester received me with his usual
+cordiality, and Antonie with the old affection, I did not comprehend
+that I now bear a stain in their eyes. I certainly would not have made
+myself troublesome otherwise. It shall not happen again--no, never!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her voice faltered; with effort she suppressed the tears, but they
+trembled bitterly and plaintively around the little mouth, and Frau von
+Eschenhagen felt that she had gone too far in her management of the
+case.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did not wish to offend you,&quot; she said soothingly. &quot;I only intended
+to make clear to you----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You did not wish to offend me and yet tell me such things,&quot;
+interrupted the young girl in an outburst of anger. &quot;You treat me like
+an outcast, who should not dare to approach decent circles, because I
+earn my living, and give pleasure to mankind with a gift which God has
+given me. You abuse my good, dear old grandfather, who has made such
+painful sacrifices for my education, who has let me go into the world
+with such a heavy heart. Bitter tears stood in his eyes when he drew
+me once more into his arms at parting and said: 'Remain good, my
+Marietta--one can be good in every position. I can leave you nothing.
+If I should close my eyes in death to-day or to-morrow you would have
+to struggle for yourself.' And I have remained good, and I will remain
+good, even if it is not made easy for me as it is for Toni, who is the
+daughter of a rich father, and only leaves her paternal home to go to
+the home of her husband. But I do not envy her the good fortune of
+calling you mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fraulein Volkmar, you forget yourself,&quot; cried Regine, highly offended,
+rising to her fullest height; but Marietta was not intimidated, she
+only grew more excited.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no; it is not I who forget myself. You are the one--you who
+insult me without cause, and I know that the Chief Forester and Antonie
+are under your influence if they turn from me. Nevertheless, I do not
+want any kindness nor friendship which cannot stand more firmly,
+and I am done with a friend who gives me up at the request of her
+mother-in-law--done with her once for all. Tell her so, Frau von
+Eschenhagen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She turned and left the room with a stormy gesture, but in the
+ante-room the carefully preserved composure gave way; pain overcame
+anger, and the bravely suppressed tears burst forth hotly. The young
+girl leaned her head against the wall in passionate, bitter sobbing
+over the insult.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hearing her name called in a low, timid voice, she looked up and saw
+Willibald von Eschenhagen standing before her, holding out the paper
+which he had dropped so hastily into his pocket. It was folded back
+now, and disclosed a rose branch, bearing a wonderfully beautiful and
+fragrant blossom with two half-open buds.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fraulein Volkmar,&quot; he repeated, stammering, &quot;you wished a rose--please
+accept----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mute apology for his mother's rudeness could be plainly seen in his
+eyes and his whole bearing. Marietta suppressed her sobs, but the tears
+still glistened in the dark eyes, which looked at him with an
+inexpressibly contemptuous expression.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I thank you, Herr von Eschenhagen,&quot; she replied sharply. &quot;You have
+probably heard what has been said in there and have also probably
+received a command to shun me. Why do you not obey?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My mother has done you wrong,&quot; Willibald said half aloud, &quot;and she
+also spoke without the knowledge of the others. Toni does not know
+anything about it, believe me----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So you knew that and did not offer a word of contradiction!&quot; the girl
+interrupted, scarlet with anger. &quot;You listened to your mother insulting
+and offending a defenseless girl and did not have chivalry enough to
+oppose it! Oh, yes, you tried it, but were scolded and sent off like a
+schoolboy and--bore it meekly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald stood there as if thunderstruck. He had, indeed, felt the
+injustice of his mother deeply, and wished to make it good to the best
+of his ability, and now he was treated like this! He stared at Marietta
+in deep perplexity, while she only grew angrier at his silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And now you come and bring me flowers,&quot; she continued, with increasing
+passion, &quot;secretly--behind your mother's back, and think that I will
+accept such an apology! You would better learn first how a <i>man</i>
+deports himself when he is witness to such injustice. But now--now I
+will show you what I think of your present and of you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She tore the paper with its contents out of his hand, threw it on the
+ground, and in the next second her little foot stamped upon the
+fragrant blossoms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My, Fraulein----&quot; Willibald wavered between shame and indignation, but
+a stern glance from the hitherto saucy eyes silenced him, and the poor
+roses were finished by a push from the small foot.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So--now we are at the end. If Toni really knows nothing of this affair
+I shall be sorry, but in spite of it I must remain away in the future,
+for I will not expose myself to fresh insults. May she be happy. I
+could not be in her place. I am a poor girl, but I would not accept a
+man who is still afraid of his mother's switch--no, not if he were ten
+times lord of Burgsdorf!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With which she disappeared, and left the poor lord standing alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willy, what does this mean?&quot; demanded the voice of Frau von
+Eschenhagen, who appeared in the door. As no reply came, she approached
+her son with threatening mien.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was certainly a strange scene which I had to look upon. Will you be
+so good as to explain what it really meant? That little thing actually
+glared with anger and said the most impertinent things to your face,
+and you stood there like a sheep, without defending yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because she was right,&quot; murmured Willibald, still looking at the
+roses.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She was what?&quot; demanded the mother, who could not believe that she had
+heard aright.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord raised his head and looked at her. He had a peculiar
+expression on his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She was right, I say, mamma. It is true, you have treated me like a
+schoolboy. I ought not to have submitted to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Boy, I believe you are not in your senses,&quot; said Frau Regine, but
+Willibald started in irritation:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am no boy. I am lord of Burgsdorf and twenty-seven years old. You
+forget that always, mamma, and I have forgotten it always--but now I
+recall it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen looked with boundless astonishment at her hitherto
+obedient son, who was now suddenly making resistance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I actually believe you would like to be rebellious, my boy. Do not
+try; you know I will not permit it. What possesses you suddenly to be
+so arbitrary? While I try to end a highly improper intercourse and put
+aside this Marietta, you go and, behind my back, actually offer an
+apology for it--even offer her the roses which you had intended for
+your betrothed. Although I do not know how you came to do it, it is the
+first time in your life--but Toni will not thank you for it. It served
+you right that the little witch crushed them. You will leave such
+foolishness alone in the future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She scolded him in the usual tone without taking any notice of his
+rebellion, but Willibald took it wrongly this time. He who had but ten
+minutes before hidden the flowers in his pocket with fear now had a
+touch of heroism. Instead of leaving his mother in her belief and
+hushing the dangerous storm, he positively challenged it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The roses were not destined for Toni at all, but for Fraulein
+Volkmar,&quot; he explained defiantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For----&quot; the word choked the terror-stricken woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For Marietta Volkmar! She wanted to wear a rose in her hair to-night,
+and since there were none to be had in Waldhofen, I went to the castle
+gardener and got those flowers. Now you know it all, mamma.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen stood there like a pillar of salt. She had turned
+ashy pale, for suddenly a light had dawned upon her, but it showed her
+something so awful that she lost both speech and motion for a while.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But her old fire returned. She grasped her son's arm as if she meant to
+have him in any case and said curtly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willy--we leave to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave!&quot; he repeated. &quot;For where?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Home. We depart to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock, so that we can catch
+the fast train and arrive at Burgsdorf the day after to-morrow. Go
+immediately to your room and pack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the commanding tone made no impression whatever on Willy this time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall not pack,&quot; he declared sullenly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall pack. I command you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; defied the young lord. &quot;If you want to leave so badly, mamma, you
+can leave--I remain here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was unheard of, but it dispelled the last doubt and the energetic
+woman, who still held her son in her grasp, now shook him fiercely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Boy, wake up! Come to your senses! I believe you do not know what is
+the matter with you. I will tell you then. You are in love--in love
+with this Marietta Volkmar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She threw the last words at him with annihilating emphasis, but
+Willibald was not in the least annihilated. He stood quite still from
+surprise for a moment. He had not thought of that, but now it began to
+dawn upon him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh,&quot; he said with a deep sigh, and something like a smile flitted over
+his features.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'Oh!' is that your whole answer?&quot; burst forth the enraged mother, who
+had hoped for a denial. &quot;You do not even deny it? And I have to live to
+see that in my own son whom I have raised--who has never been allowed
+to leave my side! While I put you there as a guard during those
+previous visits to your fiancée she bewitches you--that is plain--and
+even plays the virtuous, deeply offended one before you--this----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mamma, stop; I cannot allow it,&quot; interrupted Willibald, irritated
+beyond silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You cannot allow it? What does it mean----&quot; Frau von Eschenhagen
+suddenly paused and looked toward the door, listening. &quot;Toni is
+returning, there--your betrothed, to whom you have pledged your word,
+who wears your ring. How will you account to her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had finally struck the right chord. The young lord started at this
+thought and bowed his head mutely when Antonie entered, quite
+unconcerned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have returned already, Willy?&quot; she asked. &quot;I thought--but what is
+it? Has anything happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; answered Frau Regine, grasping the reins, as usual, decisively.
+&quot;We have just received a communication from Burgsdorf which forces us
+to depart to-morrow morning. You need not be frightened, my child, it
+is nothing dangerous--only a foolishness&quot;--she laid sharp emphasis on
+the word--&quot;a foolishness which has been committed, but which will be
+removed just as speedily by quick interference. I will tell you all
+about it later, but for the present nothing can be done but by our
+departure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Curiosity was not one of Antonie's faults, and even this quite
+unexpected news was not able to ruffle her composure. The statement
+that nothing serious was concerned satisfied her entirely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Must Willy leave also?&quot; she asked without particular enthusiasm.
+&quot;Cannot he at least remain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Answer your fiancée yourself, Willy,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen,
+fixing her sharp, gray eyes upon her son. &quot;You know best what the
+circumstances are. Can you really consent to stay here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A short pause. Willibald's glance met his mother's; then he turned away
+and said in a suppressed voice, &quot;No, Toni, I must go home--nothing else
+is possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toni accepted the decision, which would have pained another girl
+deeply, with moderate regret, and began to inquire directly where the
+travelers would dine to-morrow, since the fast train had no stoppage
+anywhere. This seemed to grieve her as much as the separation, but she
+finally concluded that it would be best for them to take a lunch along
+to eat on the train.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen felt triumphant when she went to her
+brother-in-law to notify him of their departure, for which she had
+already found a pretext.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Many a thing could happen on the large estates to afford an
+explanation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Naturally, the Chief Forester must not learn the truth any more than
+his daughter, although he had caused the whole trouble in his
+blindness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine did not doubt in the least that as soon as she removed her Willy
+from the fascinating circle of this &quot;witch&quot; he would return to reason.
+Had he not shown it just now?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She would not see that honor toward his betrothed alone had conquered,
+and that it had been a terrible mistake to expose his feelings to
+another.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wait, my boy,&quot; she muttered grimly. &quot;I will teach you to commence such
+things, and to rebel against your mother. When once I have you at
+Burgsdorf, may God have mercy on you!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">On the appointed day the Duke, with the Duchess and a numerous suite,
+arrived at Furstenstein, and the life full of splendor which had been
+led in former times began again in the wide, beautiful hunting grounds
+of the Wald.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The present sovereign was no ardent huntsman, and the hunting lodge of
+his ancestors had stood deserted for years, or was occupied only at
+long intervals for a brief visit. Now, when a prolonged stay was
+anticipated, the spacious castle scarce afforded room enough for the
+guests; a part of them were quartered in neighboring Waldhofen, which
+made the little town, as well as the entire vicinity, very festive in
+joyful excitement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The owners of the neighboring castles and villas, who, like Prince
+Adelsberg, belonged to the best families of the land, were induced by
+the arrival of the Court to take up their fall quarters there, too.
+Nearly everybody had brought numerous guests, and so an unusual life
+and bustle developed in the silent Wald, the centre of which activity
+being, of course, Furstenstein.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The castle shone to-night in fullest splendor; every window of the
+upper floor was lighted, and in the court torches threw their red light
+upon the walls and towers gray with age.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the occasion of the first large fête since the arrival of the
+princely family, to which were asked all the nobility of the
+neighborhood, the higher officials of the district, and, in short,
+everybody who had any claim upon their sovereign's notice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The castle, which was built in a grand style, contained a number of
+gorgeous rooms of state, which, with their old-fashioned but costly
+furnishings, and the brilliant company moving through them, afforded a
+decidedly splendid spectacle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife of the Prussian Ambassador was a new star among the
+ladies present. Mourning for her father, who had died shortly after her
+marriage, had kept her from all festivities, and she entered to-day for
+the first time this brilliant circle, where the position of her husband
+assured her a prominent place, and where she was being treated by the
+Duke and Duchess with noticeable distinction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The rising of this new star was noticed by the ladies, of course, with
+some displeasure. They found Frau von Wallmoden very haughty in her
+cool composure, and that she had very little occasion for such bearing;
+for, of course, they all knew that she was a born burgher, who did not
+properly belong in this circle, even if her father's wealth and his
+prominent position with the industries of the country gave her a
+certain distinction. Nevertheless, she moved upon the foreign soil with
+a strange ease--the husband must have schooled her well for this first
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen were of a different opinion. They found that His
+Excellency the Ambassador had proved his talent most strikingly in his
+own cause. He who already stood upon the border of old age had
+understood how to gain, with the hand of this young, beautiful wife, a
+fortune extensive enough in itself, but magnified by rumor into the
+immeasurable. For this he was envied on all sides.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden did not seem at all surprised at the impression which the
+beauty and stateliness of his wife too apparently caused, but accepted
+it as something natural. He had expected nothing else; the contrary
+would have surprised him in the highest degree.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At present he was standing in a window recess with his brother-in-law,
+the Chief Forester, and after exchanging a few indifferent remarks
+about the fête and the guests, he asked casually: &quot;What sort of person
+is that whom Prince Adelsberg has introduced? Do you know him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You mean the young Roumanian?&quot; said Schonan. &quot;No; I see him to-day for
+the first time, but have heard of him before. He is the bosom friend of
+the Prince, whom he accompanied upon his Eastern travels, and a young
+man handsome as a picture--his eyes positively sparkle with fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He impresses me as an adventurer,&quot; remarked Wallmoden coldly. &quot;How
+does he happen to have an invitation? Has he been presented to the
+Duke?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, at Rodeck, if I am not mistaken; the Duke was there recently.
+Prince Adelsberg loves to throw etiquette aside as much as possible.
+But this invitation to-day signifies no acceptance, since everybody has
+been asked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nevertheless, one should hesitate about bringing such elements near
+one before they come well recommended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Everything must be certified to with letter and seal with you
+diplomats,&quot; laughed the Chief. &quot;This Rojanow has certainly something
+aristocratic about him, and one is never so strict, anyway, with a
+foreigner. I can well understand that our sovereigns like to hear and
+see something different from the usual court circle, which presents the
+same old tiresome face from year to year. The Duke appears to be quite
+captivated already with the Roumanian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it seems so,&quot; muttered Wallmoden, upon whose brow a cloud
+gathered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But why should this concern us?&quot; remarked Schonan. &quot;I will go now and
+look for Toni, who has to appear now everywhere without her betrothed.
+That was another notion of Regine's. She departed from us with her son
+like a skyrocket. Your sister cannot be detained as soon as the beloved
+Burgsdorf is brought into question. If she had only left Willy with us!
+Everybody wonders that my future son-in-law should take his departure
+before the fête. I cannot understand it at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A stroke of good fortune that they are gone,&quot; thought Wallmoden, as
+his brother-in-law left him. &quot;If Willibald had met his former friend
+and playmate here unexpectedly another scene similar to that upon the
+Hochberg might have occurred. But who would have thought that Hartmut
+would carry his defiance so far as to appear in a circle where he was
+sure to meet the Ambassador?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Prince Adelsberg, who held in this circle one of the highest positions
+through his name and relationship to the reigning house, had, indeed,
+succeeded with the presentation of his friend, and the Duke seemed to
+have had a very favorable opinion of him from the first meeting at
+Rodeck, for he now himself presented this young stranger to the
+Duchess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This Rojanow, with the captivating charm of his personality and the
+foreign air which surrounded him, was, indeed, an extraordinary person,
+who had only to appear to cause general observation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To-day he displayed lavishly all the brilliant attributes which were at
+his command. His conversation sparkled with life and spirit, his fiery
+temperament, which betrayed itself involuntarily, gave to everything he
+said and did a peculiar charm, while he proved himself in every respect
+master of society forms and customs. In short, the prophecy of the
+Prince was fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut knew how to conquer everybody here by storm, and had hardly put
+his foot upon the soil when he reigned there by the power of his
+magnetism.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This could not pass unnoticed by the Ambassador, even if he did not
+come into direct contact with the Roumanian. It was not difficult to
+evade each other in the throng of guests, and a meeting was not desired
+on either side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden walked through a side room, where the Duke's sister, the
+Princess Sophie, had gathered a large circle around her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Princess, who had married the younger son of a princely house, had
+very early become a widow, and had lived since then at the court of her
+brother, where she was not in the least popular. While the Duchess
+charmed everybody who came into her presence by her grace and kindness,
+the older sister was considered haughty and <i>intriguante</i>. Everybody
+stood in fear of the lady's sharp tongue, which had a habit of saying
+something disagreeable to each and every one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Wallmoden did not escape this fate. He was graciously beckoned
+to and received flatteries on the beauty of his wife, which was not to
+be denied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I offer you my congratulations, Your Excellency. I was quite surprised
+when your young wife was presented to me, for I had naturally expected
+to see an elderly lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The &quot;naturally&quot; sounded very malicious, for Princess Sophie had known
+for months that the wife of the Prussian Ambassador was only nineteen
+years old, but he smiled in the most amiable way as he replied: &quot;Your
+Highness is very gracious. I can only be grateful that my wife has had
+the good fortune to make a favorable impression upon you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you cannot doubt it. The Duke and Duchess are quite of my opinion.
+Frau von Wallmoden is really a beauty--Prince Adelsberg seems to think
+so, too. Perhaps you have not observed as yet how very much he admires
+your wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Your Highness, I have observed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really? And what do you say to it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I?&quot; inquired Wallmoden with perfect tranquillity. &quot;It rests solely
+with my wife as to whether she will permit the admiration of the
+Prince. If she finds pleasure in it---- I do not give her any rules in
+this respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An enviable confidence which our young gentlemen ought to pattern
+after,&quot; said the Princess, vexed that the arrow had missed its aim. &quot;It
+is surely very agreeable to a young wife if the husband is not jealous.
+Ah, there is Frau von Wallmoden herself, with her cavalier, of course,
+at her side. My dear Baroness, we were just speaking of you.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide von Wallmoden, who had just entered in company with Prince
+Adelsberg, bowed her recognition of the Princess' notice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She made, indeed, a brilliant picture to-night, for the splendid court
+toilet enhanced her beauty triumphantly. The costly brocade of the
+white dress, which fell to her feet in heavy folds, suited the slender
+figure admirably. The pearls encircling her throat and the diamonds
+which sparkled in her blond hair were perhaps the most costly of any
+worn to-night; but more sharply than ever appeared the cold and serious
+expression of the young wife. She did not in the least resemble others
+of her age who were also married, but who claimed the right of youth to
+dress in dainty laces and flowers. She possessed nothing of their
+brightness--the urbane amiability which was so fully brought to view in
+them. The severe, serious expression which was an inheritance from her
+father, and so indelibly stamped in her nature, betrayed itself in her
+character.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon kissed his exalted aunt's hand, and had been honored with a few
+gracious words, but from the first, the amiable attention of Her
+Highness was quite taken up by the young Baroness, who was immediately
+drawn into conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was just expressing my pleasure to His Excellency that you find
+yourself so quickly at home in our court circle, dear Baroness. You
+enter these circles to-day for the first time, if I understand aright,
+and have lived hitherto in entirely different surroundings. You were
+born a----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stahlberg, Your Highness,&quot; was the calm rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite right. I remember the name, which has been spoken several times
+in my presence. It is honorably known in your native town, I presume.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most gracious aunt, you must permit me to inform you better,&quot; joined
+in Prince Adelsberg, who seldom permitted an opportunity of vexing his
+most gracious aunt to pass by. &quot;The factories of Stahlberg are
+world-renowned. They are as well known across the ocean as they are
+here. I had an opportunity to learn all about them when I was in
+Northern Germany several years ago, and I can assure you that those
+works those iron foundries and factories, with their colonies of
+officers and their army of workmen, can well vie with many a small
+principality, whose sovereign, though, is not such an absolute ruler as
+was the father of Her Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Princess cast anything but a friendly glance at her nephew; his
+interference was not desired.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed! I had no idea of such magnificence,&quot; she said in her most
+caustic tone. &quot;We may, perhaps, then greet His Excellency as such a
+ruler?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only as administrator, Your Highness,&quot; rejoined the Ambassador. &quot;I am
+only the executor of my father-in-law's will, and guardian of my young
+brother-in-law, to whom the works will go when he attains his
+majority.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, so? The son will probably know how to keep the inheritance. It is
+really astonishing what the energy of a single man can do in these
+days, and it is so much more praiseworthy if he, like the father of our
+dear Baroness, has come from humble circles. At least I believe I have
+heard so, or am I mistaken?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Princess Sophie knew very well that these remarks about the origin of
+his father-in-law were unpleasant to the Ambassador, a man of old
+Prussian nobility, and it caused her great satisfaction that the
+surrounding circle did not lose a word of the conversation, which was
+intended principally to humble the lady of burgher descent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But she was mistaken if she counted upon the Baroness falling into
+embarrassment or evasion. Instead of that she drew herself up in all
+her pride.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Highness is quite correctly informed. My father came to the
+Capital a poor boy without means. He had to struggle hard, and worked
+for years as a humble laborer, before he laid the foundation to his
+later enterprises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How proudly Frau von Wallmoden says that!&quot; cried the Princess,
+smiling. &quot;Oh, I love this filial attachment above everything. So Herr
+Stahlberg--or perhaps <i>von</i> Stahlberg?--the large manufacturers often
+bear a title----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My father did not bear it, Your Highness,&quot; replied Adelaide, meeting
+the glance of the royal lady calmly and openly. &quot;A title had indeed
+been offered him, but he refused it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador pressed his thin lips together. He could but find the
+remark of his wife very undiplomatic. The features of the Princess
+assumed an angry expression, and she returned with biting sarcasm:
+&quot;Well, then, it is a good thing that this aversion has not descended to
+the daughter. His Excellency will know how to value it. I beg your
+escort, Egon. I should like to look for my brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She bowed to the circle and glided away on the arm of the Prince, whose
+bearing plainly said:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now comes my turn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was not mistaken. Her Highness had no thought of finding the Duke,
+but took a seat in the adjoining room with her young relative, whom she
+wished to have to herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At first her anger burst forth at the unbearably haughty Frau von
+Wallmoden, who boasted of her father's burgher pride, while she had
+married a Baron from vanity, for she could not possibly feel any
+affection for a man old enough to be her father. Egon was silent as to
+that, for he had already put the same question to himself, How had this
+unequal match come to take place? without finding an answer to it; but
+his silence was now an offence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Egon, have you nothing to say? But you seem to have sworn
+allegiance to this lady; you have been constantly at her side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do homage to beauty wherever I meet it; you know that, most gracious
+aunt,&quot; expostulated the Prince. But alas! he only called forth another
+storm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, alas! I know that. In this respect you are of incomprehensible
+heedlessness. Perhaps you do not remember all my admonishings and
+warnings before your departure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, only too well,&quot; sighed Egon, who even now felt quite stifled with
+the remembrance of the endless lecture which he had had to endure at
+that time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really? But you have not returned any more sensible or sedate. I have
+heard things---- Egon, there is only one salvation for you--you must
+marry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For heaven's sake, anything but that!&quot; Egon started up so terrified
+that Princess Sophie opened her fan indignantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you mean by that?&quot; she asked in cutting tones.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, only my un worthiness to enter into that state. Your Highness
+yourself have often assured me that I was particularly fitted to make a
+wife <i>unhappy</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If the wife does not succeed in bettering you, of course. I do not
+despair yet of that. But this is not the place to speak of such things.
+The Duchess is planning a visit to Rodeck, and I intend to accompany
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a charming idea!&quot; exclaimed Egon, who was almost as much
+terrified by the proposed visit as by the thought of marriage. &quot;I am
+really proud that Rodeck, which is usually such a small, tiresome
+forest nook, can just now furnish you with some curiosities. I brought
+many things from my travels, among them a lion, two young tigers,
+several snakes----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But not live ones?&quot; interrupted the horrified lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course, Your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, mon Dieu! one is not sure of one's life there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, it is not so dangerous, although some of the beasts have broken
+away from us already--the people are so careless at feeding time; but
+they have always been secured again, and have not done any harm as
+yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As yet? That is a charming prospect, indeed,&quot; said the Princess
+angrily. &quot;You put the whole neighborhood in danger. The Duke ought to
+prohibit you such dangerous playthings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope not, for I am just now seriously occupied in attempting to tame
+some of them. But besides these I can show you many domestic things
+that are worth looking at. There are several girls among my servants
+from this vicinity who look charming in their peasant costumes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon shuddered at the thought of his female servants &quot;with wagging
+heads,&quot; whom he still employed under Stadinger's careful eye, but he
+had speculated correctly. His gracious aunt was indignant and measured
+him with an annihilating glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? You have such as that at Rodeck!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly. There is Lena in particular, the granddaughter of my
+steward, a charming little thing, and when you give me the honor of
+your visit, most gracious aunt----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall leave it alone,&quot; interrupted the incensed lady, using her fan
+violently. &quot;It must be a peculiar household which you carry on at
+Rodeck with the young foreigner whom you have, perhaps, also brought as
+a curiosity from your travels. He has the face of a perfect brigand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My friend Rojanow! He has been pining a long time to be presented to
+Your Highness. You permit it, I hope?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without waiting for an answer he hastened away and took possession of
+Hartmut.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now it is your turn,&quot; he whispered, dragging him along
+unceremoniously. &quot;I have been the victim long enough, and my most
+precious aunt has to have some one whom she can roast slowly. She
+insists upon marrying me off-hand, and you have the face of a perfect
+brigand, but, thank God! she does not come to Rodeck. I have taken care
+of that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the next moment he stood before Her Highness, introducing his friend
+with his blandest smile.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Wallmoden had lingered in the circle a few moments after the
+departure of the Princess; then, with his wife on his arm, he walked
+slowly through the suite of rooms, greeting an acquaintance here,
+conversing briefly there, until they finally reached the last of the
+reception rooms, which was rather deserted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The tower room, opening directly from this, was not generally used in
+entertainments, but for tonight it had been transformed into a small,
+cosy apartment with curtains and carpets and a picturesque group of
+plants, and, with its dim lights, offered a pleasing contrast to the
+blinding flood of light and the commotion of the other rooms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was quite vacant now, which the Ambassador seemed to have counted
+upon when he entered with his wife and offered her a seat upon a divan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must draw your attention to the fact, Adelaide, that you did an
+unwise thing just now,&quot; he began in a low tone. &quot;Your remark to the
+Princess----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Was self-defense,&quot; finished the young wife. &quot;You must have felt, as
+well as I did, what the object of the conversation was.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nevertheless, at your first appearance you have made for yourself an
+antagonist whose enmity can materially render your own and my position
+more difficult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yours?&quot; Adelaide looked at him in surprise. &quot;Are you, the Ambassador
+of a great power, to ask the grace of a malicious woman who happens to
+be related to a ducal family?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child, you do not understand,&quot; returned Wallmoden coldly. &quot;An
+intriguing woman can be more dangerous than a political opponent, and
+Princess Sophie is well known in that line. Even the Duchess is known
+to be in fear of her malicious tongue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the Duchess' affair. I am not in fear of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Adelaide,&quot; said the Ambassador, with a superior smile, &quot;that
+proud turn of your head is very becoming to you, and I approve entirely
+of your making yourself unapproachable with it in other circles, but
+you will have to leave it off at Court, as well as several other
+things. One does not give royalty a lesson before so many observers,
+and you did that when you spoke of the refusal of the title. In any
+case, it was not necessary for you to lay so much stress upon the
+descent of your father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Should I perhaps have denied it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, for it is a well-known fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of which I am as proud as was my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you are not Adelaide Stahlberg any longer, but the Baroness
+Wallmoden.&quot; The voice of the Ambassador had acquired a certain
+sharpness. &quot;And you will admit that it is very contradictory to boast
+of your burgher pride when you have given your hand to a man of the old
+nobility.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A slight bitterness quivered around the lips of the young wife, and
+although the conversation had been carried on in low tones, her voice
+sank even lower as she returned: &quot;Perhaps you have forgotten, Herbert,
+why I gave you my hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you had cause to regret it?&quot; he asked instead of replying.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; said Adelaide, drawing a deep breath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should think you could be satisfied with the position you have at my
+side. Besides, you remember that I did not compel you. I left you
+perfectly free choice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The wife was silent, but the bitter expression did not leave her lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden arose and offered his arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must permit me, my child, to come to your assistance sometimes in
+your inexperience,&quot; he said in his usual polite tone. &quot;So far I have
+had every reason to be satisfied with your tact and manner. To-day is
+the first time I have had to give you a hint. May I ask if you are
+ready to return?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should like to remain here a few moments longer,&quot; said Adelaide in a
+smothered voice. &quot;It is so insufferably hot in the salons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just as you desire, but I beg that you will not remain too long, as
+your absence would cause remark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He saw and felt that she was offended, but found it expedient not to
+notice it. Baron Wallmoden, in spite of all his politeness and
+attention, understood that in the training of his wife such kinds of
+sentiment must not be encouraged. He left the room, and Adelaide
+remained alone. She leaned her head upon her hand, and with unseeing
+eyes stared at the group of plants near her, whispering almost
+inaudibly: &quot;Free choice--O, my God!&quot;</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20px">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime Prince Adelsberg and his friend were being most
+graciously dismissed. They bowed low before the Princess, who arose and
+left the salon with an unusually mild expression on her sharp features.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, I believe you can magnetize,&quot; said Egon under his breath. &quot;I
+have seen many examples of your irresistibility, but that my most
+gracious aunt has a regular attack of affability in your presence is
+something never heard of before. It puts all your other victories into
+the shade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, the reception was cool enough,&quot; laughed Hartmut. &quot;Her Highness
+really seemed to take me for a brigand at first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But in ten minutes you stood in the full sunshine of her grace, and
+have been dismissed a prime favorite. Do tell me what you have in you
+that everybody, without exception, bows to your charm. One might well
+believe in the old fairy tale of the rat-catcher.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again the harsh, repulsive sarcasm which took for a moment every beauty
+from his face, passed over Hartmut's lips, giving him a satanic
+expression.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand how to play the thing they like best to hear. It has a
+different sound to every one, but if one knows how to strike the right
+chord, none can resist it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;None?&quot; repeated Egon, while his glance passed searchingly through the
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not one, I tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you are a pessimist in this respect. I at least recognize some
+exceptions. If I only knew where Frau von Wallmoden was. I cannot see
+her anywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;His Excellency is probably reading her a lecture upon the undiplomatic
+remark of a short time since.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you also hear it?&quot; asked Egon quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; I stood in the door.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I do not in the least begrudge our most gracious one the lesson.
+Naturally she was beside herself about it, but do you really believe
+that the Ambassador---- Hush! there he is himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was, indeed, the Ambassador before them, just returning from the
+tower room. An encounter now could not be avoided, and the young
+Prince, who had no idea of the existing connection, hastened to
+introduce his friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Allow me, Your Excellency, to make good a neglect which was forced
+upon me that day upon the Hochberg by the disappearance of my friend. I
+only found him after your departure. Herr Hartmut Rojanow, Baron von
+Wallmoden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The eyes of the two men met. The sharp, penetrating eyes of the one met
+the expression of challenging defiance in the other, but Wallmoden
+would not have been the finished diplomat he was if he were not equal
+to the present moment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His greeting was cool but polite, only he turned to the Prince alone
+with his answer, regretting not being able to chat with the gentlemen,
+since he was called to the Duke.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The whole meeting had lasted but two minutes, but it had taken place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;His Excellency is more taciturn to-day than usual,&quot; remarked Egon,
+walking on. &quot;Whenever I see this cold, diplomatic face before me I have
+a chill, and feel a pressing desire to seek warmer zones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Therefore we follow so persistently the track of the beautiful, cold
+aurora,&quot; said Hartmut, teasingly. &quot;Whom do we really seek in this walk
+through the rooms which you continue so untiringly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Chief Forester,&quot; said the Prince, vexed at seeing himself
+betrayed. &quot;I wish to make you acquainted with him, but you are in one
+of your railing moods to-day. Perhaps I may find Schonan over yonder in
+the armory. I shall look there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He took a speedy departure, and actually turned his steps to the
+armory, where the ducal couple was at present, and where he also
+believed Adelaide von Wallmoden to be. But, unfortunately, at the
+entrance he again crossed the path of his most gracious aunt, who took
+possession of him. She wished for more particulars of the interesting
+young Roumanian who stood, indeed, in the sunlight of her favor, and
+her impatient nephew had to answer all her questions willingly or
+otherwise.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The fête progressed; the assembly glided to and fro as Hartmut walked
+slowly and apparently purposelessly through the long suite of reception
+rooms. He, too, looked for some one, and was more successful than Egon.
+A hasty glance into the tower room, the entrance of which was partly
+concealed by heavy portières, showed him the hem of a white train which
+floated over the floor, and the next moment he had crossed the
+threshold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide von Wallmoden was still sitting in the same position, and
+slowly turned her head toward the intruder. Suddenly she started, but
+only for an instant, then with her habitual composure she returned the
+deep bow of the young man who remained standing at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope I have not disturbed Your Excellency,&quot; he said. &quot;I fear you
+came here for solitude into which I have broken suddenly, but it
+happens quite unintentionally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I only took refuge here from the smothering heat of the salons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The same cause brought me here, and since I did not have the honor
+to-day to greet you, permit me to do so now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words sounded very formal. Rojanow had drawn nearer, but remained
+standing at a respectable distance. Nevertheless, the start at his
+entrance had not been passed by unobserved by him. A peculiar smile
+hovered around his lips as he directed his eyes upon the young
+Baroness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had made a gesture as if to rise and leave the room, but seemed to
+remember in time that so sudden a move would look like flight. She
+remained seated and leaned over the plants. Absently she picked one of
+the large crimson japonicas as she replied to the question about her
+health, but that line of severe will-power appeared again, sharply and
+distinctly, just as in that moment when she stood in the middle of the
+brook. That day she had stepped without hesitation into ankle-deep
+water rather than accept the help which was offered her; but that had
+occurred in the forest loneliness. No such obstacle had to be overcome
+here in the ducal castle, filled with the pomp of a fête; but the man
+with the dark, consuming glance was here, and he did not remove his
+eyes from her face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Shall you remain at Rodeck any length of time?&quot; asked Adelaide in the
+indifferent tone with which remarks are exchanged in society.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Probably a few weeks longer. Prince Adelsberg will hardly leave his
+castle as long as the Duke is at Furstenstein. I intend to accompany
+him to the Residenz later on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And we shall then learn to know you as a poet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Me, Your Excellency?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I learned so from the Prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, that is only Egon's idea,&quot; said Hartmut, lightly. &quot;He has settled
+it in his mind that he must see my Arivana upon the stage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Arivana! A strange title.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is an Oriental name for an Indian legend, whose poetical charm had
+prepossessed me so strangely that I could not resist the temptation to
+form it into a drama.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And the heroine of the drama is Arivana?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; that is only the name of an ancient, sacred spot, around which
+this legend clings. The name of the heroine is--Ada.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow uttered the name softly, hesitatingly; but his eyes flamed up
+triumphantly, as he saw again the same slight quiver he had seen at his
+entrance. Slowly he approached a few steps, continuing: &quot;I heard the
+name for the first time upon India's soil, and it had a sweet foreign
+sound for me, which I retained for my heroine, and now I learn here
+that the abbreviation of a German name is just like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of the name Adelaide--yes. I was always called so at home; but it is
+nothing peculiar that the same sounds return in different languages.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words sounded repellent, but the young wife did not lift her eyes;
+she gazed fixedly upon the flower with which her fingers toyed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly not,&quot; assented Hartmut; &quot;I only noticed it. It was no
+surprise, since all legends are repeated in all nations. They have a
+greater or less difference in appearance, but that which lives in
+them--the passion, the happiness and joy of the people--that is the
+same everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot argue about that with a poet, but I do believe that our
+German legends possess other features than the Indian dreams of myths.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps so, but if you look deeper you will find these features
+familiar. This Arivana myth, at least, has similar lines. The hero, a
+young priest who has consecrated body and soul to his deity--the
+sacred, burning fire--is overwhelmed by earthly love, with all its
+fervor and passion, until his priestly vow perishes in its intensity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stood quietly and respectfully before her, but his voice had a
+strangely suppressed sound, as if, hidden behind this narrative, there
+was another and secret meaning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the Baroness raised her eyes and directed them fully and
+seriously upon the face of the speaker. &quot;And--the end?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The end is death, as in most mystic legends. The breaking of the vow
+is discovered, and the guilty ones are sacrificed to the offended
+deity; the priest dies in the flames with the woman he loves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A short pause followed. Adelaide arose with a rapid movement. She
+apparently wished to break off the conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right; this legend has something familiar, if it were only the
+old doctrine of guilt and atonement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you call that guilt, gracious lady?&quot; Hartmut suddenly dropped the
+formal title. &quot;Well, yes, by man it is called guilt, and they too
+punish it with death, without thinking that such punishment can be
+ecstasy. To perish in the flames after having tasted of the highest
+earthly happiness, and to embrace this happiness even in death--that is
+a glorious, divine death, worthy a long life of dull monotony. The
+eternal, undying right of love glows there like signs of flame in the
+sky, in spite of all laws of mankind. Do you not think such an end
+enviable?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A slight paleness covered the face of the Baroness, but her voice was
+firm as she answered:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; enviable only is death for an exalted, holy duty--the sacrifice of
+a pure life. One can forgive sin, but one does not admire it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut bit his lips, and a threatening glance rested on the white
+figure which stood so solemn and unapproachable before him. Then he
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A hard judgment, which strikes my work also, for I have put my whole
+power into the glorification of this love and death. If the world judge
+like you---- Ah, permit me, gracious lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He quickly approached the divan where she had been sitting, where, with
+her fan, the japonica also had been left.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you,&quot; said Adelaide, stretching out her hand; but he gave her
+only the fan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your pardon. While I was composing my Arivana on the veranda of a
+small house in India, this flower bloomed and glowed from its dark
+green foliage everywhere, and now it greets me here in the cold North.
+May I keep this flower?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide made a half reluctant gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, why should you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should I? For a remembrance of the severe opinion from the lips of
+a lady who bears the lovely name of my mystic heroine. You see,
+gracious lady, that the white japonica blooms here also, delicate,
+snowy flower; but unconsciously you broke the glowing red one, and
+poets are superstitious. Leave me the flower as a token that my work,
+in spite of all, may find favor in your eyes after you learn to know
+it. You have no idea how much it means to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Rojanow--I----&quot; She was about to utter a refusal, but he
+interrupted her, and continued in low, but passionate, tones:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is a single flower to you, broken carelessly, and which you will
+allow to fade as carelessly? But to me leave me this token, gracious
+lady; I--I beg for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stood close beside her. The charm which he, as a boy, had
+unconsciously exerted when he made people &quot;defenseless&quot; with his
+coaxing, he, as a man, recognized as a power which never failed, and
+which he knew how to use. His voice bore again that soft, suppressed
+tone which charmed the ear like music; and his eyes--those dark,
+mysterious eyes--were fixed upon the girl before him with a half
+gloomy, half beseeching expression.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The paleness of her face had deepened, but she did not answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg of you,&quot; he repeated, more lowly, more beseechingly, as he
+pressed the glowing flower to his lips; but the very gesture broke the
+spell. Adelaide suddenly drew herself up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must ask you, Herr Rojanow, to return the flower to me. I intended
+it for my husband.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, so? I beg your pardon, Your Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He handed her the flower with a deep bow, which she accepted with a
+barely noticeable inclination of the head. Then the heavy white train
+glided past him, and he was alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In vain! Everything glided off this icy nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stamped his foot angrily. Only ten minutes ago he had passed
+such harsh judgment on all women, without an exception, to the Prince.
+Now he had sung again that charming tune which he had tried so often
+successfully, and had found one who resisted it. But the proud, spoiled
+man would not believe that he could lose the game which he had won so
+often, when just here he was so anxious to win it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And would it really remain only a game? He had not as yet accounted to
+himself for it, but he felt that the passion which drew him to the
+beautiful woman was mingled at times with hatred.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were conflicting emotions which had been deeply stirred when he
+walked by her side through the forest--half admiring, half repellent.
+But it was just that which made the chase so interesting to the
+practised huntsman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Love! The high, pure meaning of the word had remained foreign to the
+son of Zalika. When he learned to feel, he was living at his mother's
+side, she who had made such shameful play of her husband's love; and
+the women with whom she associated were no better. The later life which
+she led with her son, unsettled and adventurous, with no firm ground
+under their feet, had finally crushed out the last remnant of idealism
+in the young man. He learned to despise before he learned to love, and
+now he felt the merited humiliation given him to be an insult.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Struggle on,&quot; he muttered; &quot;you battle against yourself. I have seen
+and felt it; and the one who does that, does not conquer in such a
+struggle.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">A slight noise at the entrance caused Hartmut to look up. It was the
+Ambassador who appeared on the threshold, casting a searching glance
+into the room. He came for his wife, whom he thought still there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He started at sight of Hartmut, and for a moment seemed undecided. Then
+he said, half audibly: &quot;Herr Rojanow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should like to speak to you privately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am at your service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden entered, but took up his position so as to keep the entrance
+in view. It was hardly necessary, for the doors of the dining room had
+just been thrown open, and the whole assembly floated there. The salon
+adjoining the tower room was already empty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am surprised to see you here,&quot; the Ambassador began in suppressed
+tones, but with the same insulting coldness which he had shown at the
+first meeting, and which brought the blood to the young man's brow. He
+drew himself up threateningly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, Your Excellency?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The question is superfluous. At any rate, I request you not to again
+force me into the position I was brought into a short while ago, when
+Prince Adelsberg introduced you to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The forced position was mine,&quot; returned Hartmut, just as sharply. &quot;I
+will not assert that you consider me an intruder here, for you, best of
+all, know that I have a right to this intercourse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Hartmut von Falkenried</i> would have had a right, of course; but that
+has changed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr von Wallmoden!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not so loud, if you please,&quot; interrupted the Ambassador. &quot;We might be
+overheard, and it would surely not be desirable to you that the name I
+just now uttered should be heard by outsiders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is true that at present I carry my mother's name, to which I surely
+have a right. If I laid aside the other, it happened out of
+consideration----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For your father,&quot; finished Wallmoden, with heavy emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut started. This was an allusion which he could not bear yet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; he replied, curtly. &quot;I confess that it would be painful to me if
+I were forced to break this consideration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And why? Your rôle here would be played out, anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow stepped close to the Ambassador with a passionate gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are the friend of my father, Herr von Wallmoden, and I have called
+you uncle in my boyhood; but you forget that I am no longer the boy
+whom you could lecture and master at that time. The grown man looks at
+it as an insult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I intend neither to offend you nor to renew old connections, which
+neither of us consider as existing,&quot; said Wallmoden, coldly. &quot;If I
+desired this conversation, it was to declare to you that it will not be
+possible to me, in my official position, to see you in intercourse with
+the Court, and be silent when it would be my duty to enlighten the
+Duke.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Enlighten the Duke! About what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;About several things which are not known here and which have probably
+remained unknown to Prince Adelsberg. Please do not fly into a passion,
+Herr Rojanow. I would do this only in an extreme case, for I have to
+spare a friend. I know how a certain incident hurt him ten years ago,
+which is now forgotten and buried in our country, and, if all this
+should come up again and be brought into publicity, Colonel Falkenried
+would die of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut blanched. The defiant reply did not cross his lips. &quot;He would
+die of it.&quot; The awful word, the truth of which he felt only too well,
+forced aside for the moment even the insult of the remark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I owe my father alone an account of that occasion,&quot; he replied in a
+painfully suppressed voice; &quot;only him and nobody else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He will hardly ask for it. His son is dead to him; but let that rest.
+I speak especially now of later years; of your stay at Rome and Paris,
+where you lived with your mother in lavish style, although the estates
+in Roumania had had to be sacrificed at a forced sale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem to be all-knowing, Your Excellency!&quot; hissed Rojanow in great
+anger. &quot;We had no idea that we were under such conscientious
+surveillance. We lived upon the balance of our fortune which had been
+rescued from the wreck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing was rescued; the money was entirely lost--to the last penny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is not true,&quot; interrupted Hartmut, stormily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is true. Am I really better informed about it than you?&quot; The voice
+of the Ambassador sounded cuttingly sharp. &quot;It is possible that Frau
+Rojanow did not want her son informed of the source from which she
+derived her means, and left him in error about it intentionally. I know
+the circumstances. If they have remained unknown to you--so much the
+better for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take care not to insult my mother,&quot; the young man burst forth; &quot;or I
+shall forget that your hair is gray, and demand satisfaction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For what? For a statement for which I can produce the proofs? Lay
+aside such foolishness, of which I shall take no notice. She was your
+mother, and is dead now; therefore we will go no deeper into this
+point. I should only like to put this question to you: Do you intend,
+even after this conversation, to remain here and appear in the circle
+into which Prince Adelsberg has introduced you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut had turned deathly pale at the hint of the muddy origin of his
+mother's means, and the numb terror with which he looked at the speaker
+betrayed that he indeed knew nothing about it. But at this last
+question he regained his composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His flashing eyes met those of his opponent, and a wild decision
+sounded in his voice as he replied: &quot;Yes, Herr von Wallmoden, I
+remain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador did not seem to have expected this defiance; he probably
+thought to have accomplished the matter more easily, but he retained
+his composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really? Well, you are accustomed to playing a high hand, and you seem
+to wish here also--but hush! Some one is coming. Reconsider the matter,
+perhaps you will change your mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He quickly entered the adjoining room, in which the Chief Forester now
+appeared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where have you hidden yourself, Herbert?&quot; he asked, when he beheld the
+Ambassador. &quot;I have looked everywhere for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wished to find my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is already in the dining room, like everybody else, and where you
+are being missed. Come, it is high time that we get something to eat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Schonan took possession of his brother-in-law in his ever
+jovial manner and went off with him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stood still in his place. He struggled for breath; the
+excitement threatened to choke him. Shame, hatred, anger, all floated
+wildly through his heart. That hint of Wallmoden's had hurt him
+terribly, although he but half understood it. It tore asunder the veil
+with which he had half unconsciously, half intentionally shrouded the
+truth. He had, indeed, believed that a remnant of their wealth, rescued
+from the wreck, had given him and his mother their income. But it was
+not the first time that he had shut his eyes to what he did not wish to
+see.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had enjoyed life in deep draughts without calling himself to account
+for it when the hand of his mother had so suddenly torn him from the
+enforced paternal education into unlimited freedom; when he exchanged
+the routine of the strictest duties for a life full of intoxicating
+enjoyments. He had then been too young to judge, and later on--it was
+then too late; habit and example had woven too unyielding a net around
+him. Now, for the first time, it was being shown him clearly and
+unmistakably what the life was that he had led so long--the life of an
+adventurer; and as an adventurer he had been pointed out the exit from
+society.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But hotter than the shame of that burned the affront which had been
+given him, and hatred for the man who had forced this indisputable
+truth upon him. The unfortunate inheritance from his mother, the hot,
+wild blood which had once been fatal to the boy, welled up like a
+stream of fire, and every other thought went down in a sensation, wild
+and limitless, of thirst for revenge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His handsome features were distorted beyond recognition when he finally
+left the room, with tightly closed teeth. He knew and felt but one
+thing--that he must have revenge--revenge at any price!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was very late when the fête came to an end. After the withdrawal of
+the ducal couple, a general move for departure took place. Carriage
+after carriage rolled down the Schlossberg; the bright lights were
+extinguished, and Furstenstein began to shroud itself in darkness and
+silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the apartments devoted to the Ambassador and his wife, however, the
+lights still burned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide stood at the window in her rich robe of the fête and looked
+out into the night like one lost in thought, but it was with a
+peculiar, weary gesture that she leaned her head against the window
+panes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden sat at the writing table, glancing through some letters and
+dispatches which had arrived in the last hour. They seemed to contain
+important news, for he did not lay them aside with other papers to
+receive attention to-morrow morning, but grasped a pen and hastily
+wrote a few lines, then arose and quickly approached his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This comes unexpectedly,&quot; he said. &quot;I shall have to go to Berlin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide turned in surprise. &quot;So suddenly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; I thought to accomplish this very serious affair by letter, but
+the Minister expressly desires a personal interview. Therefore I shall
+take leave of the Duke to-morrow morning for a period of about a week,
+and depart immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young bride's features could not be distinguished in the
+semi-darkness, but her breast heaved with a deep sigh, which betrayed a
+perhaps unconscious relief.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At what hour do we leave?&quot; she asked quickly; &quot;I should like to notify
+my maid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We? This is entirely a business trip, and, naturally, I go alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I could accompany you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What for? You understand that it means an absence of only a week or
+two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No matter. I--I should like to see Berlin again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a whim!&quot; said Wallmoden, shrugging his shoulders. &quot;I shall be so
+occupied this time that I could not accompany you anywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife had approached the table and now stood in the full light
+of the lamp. She was much paler than usual, and her voice had a
+suppressed sound as she returned: &quot;Well, then, I shall go home. I
+should really not like to remain here alone at Furstenstein without
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alone?&quot; The Ambassador looked at her in astonishment. &quot;You will be
+with our relatives, whose guests we are. How long have you been so
+desirous of protection? It is a thing I have not observed in you so
+far. I do not understand you, Adelaide. What is this strange caprice of
+wishing to accompany me at all hazards?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Accept it as a caprice, then, but let me go with you, Herbert; I beg
+of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She laid her hand entreatingly upon his arm, and her eyes were directed
+with almost an expression of fear upon her husband's face, whose thin
+lips parted in a sarcastic smile. It was that superior smile, which
+could be so insulting at times.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, so? Now I understand. That scene with the Princess has been
+disagreeable to you. You fear renewed annoyances, which will probably
+not fail to come. You must lose this sensitiveness, my child. On the
+contrary, you ought to be aware of the fact that this encounter alone
+puts you to the necessity of remaining here. Every word, every look is
+interpreted at Court, and a sudden departure on your part would give
+rise to all sorts of speculations. You have to hold your own now, if
+you do not wish to make your connections with the Court forever
+difficult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife's hand slipped slowly from his arm, and her look sank to
+the floor at this cool rejoinder to her almost beseeching entreaty--the
+first she had uttered in her short marriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hold my own,&quot; she repeated, in a low voice. &quot;I do that, but I hoped
+you would remain at my side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is not possible just now, as you see; besides, you understand in
+a masterly manner how to defend yourself. You have shown that to me as
+well as to the whole Court to-day, but I am sure the hint I gave you
+will be considered, and that you will be more cautious with your
+answers in the future. At any rate, you will remain at Furstenstein
+until I return for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide was silent. She saw that nothing was to be gained here.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden stepped back to the writing table and looked at the document
+just received; then he grasped the sheet on which he had written the
+answer and folded it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One thing more, Adelaide,&quot; he said, carelessly; &quot;the young Prince
+Adelsberg was constantly at your side to-night. He pays homage to you
+in rather a conspicuous manner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you wish me to decline these attentions?&quot; she asked, indifferently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I only ask you to draw the necessary limit, so that no idle talk
+may ensue. I do not intend to cut short your social victories. We do
+not live in burgher circumstances, and it would be ridiculous in my
+position to play the jealous husband who views every attention paid his
+wife with suspicion. I leave this entirely to your own tact, in which I
+have unlimited confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All of this sounded so tranquil, so sensible, so boundlessly
+indifferent, Herr von Wallmoden might, indeed, be exonerated from any
+thought of jealousy. The openly offered admiration of the young,
+charming Prince caused him no anxiety; he quietly left his wife to her
+&quot;tact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall attend to this dispatch myself,&quot; he continued; &quot;as we have a
+telegraph station in the castle since the Duke's arrival. You should
+ring for your mail, my child; you look somewhat fatigued and probably
+feel so. Good night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He left the room, but Adelaide did not follow the advice. She had drawn
+near the window again, and a half bitter, half pained expression
+trembled on her lips. She had never felt so painfully as at this moment
+that she was nothing more to her husband than a shining jewel which one
+exhibits, a wife whom one treats with perfect politeness and attention
+because she brought in her hand a princely fortune, and to whom a
+request could be denied with equal politeness; a request which might
+have been so easily granted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Night rested over the forest; the sky was cloudy and dark, with here
+and there a solitary star glimmering through the flying clouds. A pale
+face looked up to the gloomy sky; not with the cold, proud composure
+the world was accustomed to see, but with an expression of beseeching
+entreaty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife pressed both hands to her bosom, as if the pain and
+unrest were there. She had wished to flee from the dark power
+whose approach she had felt, and which was drawing the circles nearer
+and closer around her. She had wished to flee to her husband's
+protection. In vain! He would go away and leave her alone, and another
+remained--another, who, with dark, glowing eyes and thrilling voice,
+wielded such a mysterious, irresistible power. &quot;Ada,&quot; the name with its
+sweet, foreign sound, floated near her like a spirit's breath. It was
+her name which the legend of the Arivana bore!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">October had come, and autumn began to show its reign in a marked
+manner. The foliage of the trees bore gay tints; the country was
+wrapped, morning and night, in mist. The nights sometimes brought
+frost, while the days were unusually fine and sunny.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With the exception of that large fête which had collected the whole
+community, and the hunts, which were naturally prominent at this time
+of the year, no particular festivities took place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Duke, as well as his wife, loved to entertain small circles, and
+did not wish to disturb the quiet and freedom of their autumn visit
+with brilliant entertainments. On that account excursions were more
+often taken. The forest hills were being explored on horseback and in
+carriages, and the ducal table daily held a large number of guests.
+Adelaide von Wallmoden belonged to this small circle. The Duchess, who
+had learned in what manner her sister-in-law tried to make the position
+of the young Baroness more difficult, counterbalanced it with greater
+affability, drawing Adelaide into her presence at every opportunity;
+and the Duke, who wished to distinguish the Ambassador and his wife,
+was well satisfied with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden was still in Berlin. The two weeks he had appointed for his
+trip had passed away, and yet nothing was said of his return.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One of the most frequent visitors at Furstenstein was Egon von
+Adelsberg, the pronounced favorite of his princely relatives; and his
+friend, Rojanow, was always honored with an invitation. The young
+Prince had prophesied correctly. Hartmut was like a shining meteor,
+whom all eyes followed with admiration, and of whom it was not expected
+that he should follow in the old beaten track of Court life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had read his Arivana to them at the request of the Duchess, and with
+it had gained a perfect triumph. The Duke had immediately promised him
+a performance of the drama in the Court Theatre, and Princess Sophie
+turned her special favor upon the young poet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The surrounding Court circle, of course, followed the example of the
+princely people in this case only too gladly, for the charm he
+exercised was universal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The hunting carriage of Prince Adelsberg stood before the castle of
+Rodeck. It was still early, and the misty October morning seemed to
+promise a clear, beautiful day. Egon had just appeared upon the terrace
+in full hunting costume and was speaking with the castle steward, who
+followed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And so you wish to look at the hunt also?&quot; he asked. &quot;Of course, Peter
+Stadinger has to be wherever anything is to be seen. My valet has also
+asked leave of absence, and I believe the whole population of the Wald
+will turn out to-day to be at the hunting grounds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Your Highness, such things are not often to be seen,&quot; said
+Stadinger. &quot;The great Court and gala hunts have become rare in our
+Wald. Hunting goes on everywhere, but then the gentlemen are mostly by
+themselves, like here at Rodeck, and if the ladies are not there----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then it is unbearably tiresome,&quot; completed the Prince. &quot;Quite my
+opinion; but you are otherwise prejudiced against womankind, and cry
+out if any one who has not reached a good old age comes within the
+borders of Rodeck. Have you changed your opinion in your old days?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I meant the high princely ladies, Your Highness,&quot; declared the old
+servant, with particular emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The high princely ladies could only honor me with a visit upon the
+occasion of a drive. I cannot invite them, as I am a bachelor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And why is Your Highness still a bachelor?&quot; asked Stadinger in
+reproachful tones.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Man, I believe you also have matrimonial plans for me as well as the
+world has,&quot; laughed Egon. &quot;Spare your pains; I shall not marry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is not right, Your Highness,&quot; persisted Stadinger, who gave his
+master his title at least once in every sentence because it was
+&quot;respectable&quot; so to do, while at the same time he took the liberty of
+lecturing him upon every occasion; &quot;and it is also unchristianlike, for
+matrimony is a holy state, in which one feels well off. Your sainted
+father was married--and so was I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, of course, you too. You are even grandfather of a most charming
+granddaughter, whom you have most cruelly sent off. When does she come
+back, anyhow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The steward thought best to lose the last question, but he remained
+obstinately at his subject.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Highness, the Duchess and the Princess Sophie are of the same
+opinion. Your Highness should consider the subject seriously.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, since you exhort so paternally, I will consider it. But,
+concerning the Princess Sophie, she intends to drive to Bucheneck,
+which is the meeting place of to-day's hunt; it may be possible she
+will notice you there and may speak to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very probable, Your Highness,&quot; confirmed the old man, complacently.
+&quot;Her Highness always honors me by speaking to me, because she knows me
+as the oldest servant of the ducal house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well. If the Princess should ask casually after the snakes and
+animals which I have brought back from my travels, you say that they
+have already been sent to one of my other castles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not necessary at all, Your Highness,&quot; Stadinger assured him,
+benevolently; &quot;the most illustrious aunt already knows all about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Knows all about what? Have you told her anything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At your service. The day before yesterday, when I was at Furstenstein,
+Her Highness had just returned from a drive and graciously beckoned me
+to approach and asked me--Her Highness likes to do that----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Heaven knows!&quot; groaned the young Prince, who already scented
+mischief. &quot;And what did you answer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'Your Highness may rest easy,' I said; 'we have only monkeys and
+parrots of the live animals in the castle. Serpents have never been
+there. A large sea serpent, though, was to have arrived, but he died on
+the voyage, and the elephants tore themselves lose at the embarking and
+ran back to the palm forests--at least, so His Highness says. To be
+sure, we have two tigers, but they are stuffed; and of the lions, there
+is only the skin, which lies in the armory. Therefore Your Highness may
+see that the beasts cannot break loose and do harm.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, but you have fixed things now with your chattering!&quot; cried Egon,
+exasperated. &quot;And the Princess, what did she say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her Highness only smiled and inquired what kind of female servants we
+had at Rodeck, and if the girls of this vicinity were among them; but I
+said then&quot;--here Stadinger drew himself up consciously--&quot;'The servants
+in service at the castle I have hired. They are all industrious and
+reliable; I have looked out for that. But His Highness runs when he
+puts eyes on them, and Herr Rojanow runs still more; and the gentlemen
+have never gone back into the kitchen since the first time they went
+there.' After that Her Highness was most gracious and condescended to
+praise me and dismissed me in the very highest satisfaction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I should like to run you to perdition in the very highest
+dissatisfaction,&quot; the Prince burst forth, wrathfully. &quot;You unlucky old
+Waldgeist, what <i>have</i> you been doing again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man, who apparently thought that he had done his part extremely
+well, looked at his master in perplexity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I have only said the truth, Your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are cases where one must not say the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? I did not know that till now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stadinger, you have quite an abominable way of answering. Have you
+told the Princess also that Lena has been in town for the past four
+weeks?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At your service, Your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter with Stadinger again?&quot; inquired Hartmut, who
+emerged from the castle, also dressed for the hunt, and who had heard
+the last of the conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has committed a first-class foolishness,&quot; grumbled Egon, but he was
+met with bad success by the &quot;oldest servant of the ducal house,&quot; who
+drew himself up, deeply offended.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With your permission, Your Highness, I have not committed the
+foolishness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you mean perhaps that I have done it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger looked at his master keenly from the corner of his eye, after
+which he said deliberately: &quot;That I do not know, Your Highness; but it
+may be so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a churl!&quot; cried the Prince, hotly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Known for that through all the Wald, Your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, Hartmut; nothing can be done with the old, grumbling bear
+to-day,&quot; said Egon, half laughing, half vexed. &quot;At first he gets me
+into scrapes, and then he lectures me on top of it. May graciousness
+help you, Stadinger, if you give any more such reports!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With which he entered the carriage with Rojanow. Stadinger remained
+standing in military position and saluted as was demanded by his idea
+of the respectful, for respect was the main thing, although he did not
+in the least think of giving in by so doing. His Highness, Prince Egon,
+had to do that; he could not come up with his Peter Stadinger.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon was evidently of the same opinion as he narrated the proceeding to
+his friend, and concluded with comic despair: &quot;Now you can imagine what
+a reception will be mine from the most illustrious aunt. She has
+guessed that I wished to keep her away from Rodeck. My morals are
+rescued in her eyes, but at the expense of my veracity. Hartmut, do me
+the favor of showering your sweetest affability upon my revered aunt.
+If necessary, compose a poem for her as a lightning rod; otherwise the
+flash of her most high anger will annihilate me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I should think you were weather-proof in this respect,&quot; quoth
+Hartmut. &quot;You have had to have forgiveness for many similar escapades.
+The Duchess and the younger ladies will be at the chase on horseback,
+will they not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, they could not see much from a carriage. Do you know that Frau
+von Wallmoden sits her horse perfectly. I met her the day before
+yesterday as she returned from a ride with her brother-in-law, the
+Chief Forester.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, so? Well, one knows, then, where Prince Adelsberg will be to-day
+exclusively.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon, who had been reclining comfortably, straightened himself and
+looked at his friend inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not so much sarcasm, if you please. Although you are not to be found
+so frequently in the presence of the afore-mentioned lady, and even
+pretend a certain coldness toward her, I know you too well not to see
+that we are only too much of the same opinion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if it were so, would you consider it a break in our friendship?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not in this case, where the object is unobtainable to both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Unobtainable!&quot; That unpleasant smile again passed over his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Hartmut,&quot; said the Prince, seriously, &quot;the beautiful, cold
+Aurora, as you have christened her, remains true to her nature. She
+stands far removed and unapproachable on the horizon, and the ice sea
+from which she rises is not to be penetrated. The lady has no heart;
+she is incapable of a passionate feeling, and this gives her this
+enviable security. Come, confess that here your power is wrecked. The
+icy breath has chilled you, and therefore you flee from it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was silent. He thought of those moments in the tower room, when
+he asked for the brilliant flower. It had been refused him, but it had
+not been an icy breath which came from the Baroness when she had
+trembled under the gaze of the beseecher.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had since seen her almost daily, but had rarely approached her,
+although he knew that he held her under his spell now as before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nevertheless, I cannot get free from this foolish infatuation,&quot;
+continued Egon, with a half dreamy expression. &quot;It seems to me that
+life and warmth could grow up in that nature, and change the snow
+region into a blooming world. If Adelaide von Wallmoden were still
+free, I believe I should make the attempt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow, who had been gazing into the misty forest, lost in thought,
+turned quickly and sharply:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What attempt? Does that perhaps mean that you would offer her your
+hand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem really horror-stricken at the idea.&quot; The Prince laughed
+aloud. &quot;I meant that, indeed. I have no prejudice against the
+manufacturing world, like my most gracious aunt, whom such a
+possibility would indeed throw into convulsions. Strange to say, you
+seem to think so, too. Well, both of you may rest easy. His Excellency,
+the husband, has seized the prize; but he truly does not make a life of
+roses for her with his tiresome diplomatic face. Ah! but the man has
+had enviable good luck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Call no man happy before his death,&quot; muttered Hartmut under his
+breath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A very wise remark, and one not quite new to me. But you sometimes
+have something in your eyes which frightens me. Do not be offended,
+Hartmut; but you look like a demon at this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow made no answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The road now left the forest, and yonder Furstenstein rose into view,
+where the ducal colors floated in the morning breeze. Half an hour
+later the carriage rolled into the castle court, where an animated
+scene reigned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The entire force of servants was at hand; saddle horses and carriages
+were ready, and the greater number of invited guests had already
+arrived.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The start took place at the appointed hour, and the bright light of the
+sun, breaking through the mist, shone resplendent on the imposing
+cavalcade as it moved down the Schlossberg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Duke and Duchess led the party; then followed the numerous suite
+and the whole assembly of guests, and the grooms in full livery who
+were permitted to go.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Out through the sunny autumn morning into the forests and heights of
+the hunting preserves, where it soon became lively. Firing resounded on
+all sides; the flying game broke through the thickets or sped across
+the openings, now alone and now in droves, only to be reached finally
+by a ball; and the usually quiet forest gave back the echo of the
+chase.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester had ordered out the entire forester staff of the
+Wald, and had made all arrangements so excellently that it brought him
+great honor to lead the chase, which was not marred by any accident.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toward noon a rendezvous was held at Bucheneck, a small ducal forest
+lodge situated in the midst of the Wald, and which could afford shelter
+in case of unfavorable weather. This was not necessary to-day, for the
+weather had turned out to be fine, only a little too warm for an
+October day. The sun burned so hotly as to render it unpleasant at
+luncheon, which was partaken of out of doors; but otherwise all passed
+off happily and unceremoniously, and a gay scene developed upon the
+large green meadow, at the border of which Bucheneck was situated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The entire hunting cortege was assembled here. The Duke, who had been
+especially fortunate in the chase to-day, was in the very best of
+spirits. The Duchess chatted with animation to her surrounding ladies,
+and the Chief Forester beamed with pleasure, for the Duke had expressed
+his satisfaction in the most flattering manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Wallmoden, who was near the Duchess, was the subject of
+general admiration to-day. She was, without doubt, the most beautiful
+of all the assembled ladies, nearly all of whom needed rich dressing
+and candle-light to bring out their beauty. Here, in the bright, midday
+sun, in plain, dark riding habits, which permitted no colors or jewels,
+many an otherwise admired appearance faded. The young Baroness alone
+remained victorious in this simplicity. Her tall, slender figure looked
+as if formed for her habit, while the transparent clearness and
+freshness of her skin, and the shining blondness of her hair were even
+more to be admired in daylight than at the night fête. Besides, she had
+really proved herself an able horsewoman, who sat in the saddle with as
+much ease as security; in short, the &quot;beautiful Aurora,&quot; as Frau von
+Wallmoden was now called in the court circle since Prince Adelsberg had
+given her that name, was admired on all sides, and received the more
+attention as it was known that she was to disappear for several weeks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador had notified his wife yesterday that his diplomatic work
+was now finished, but that he would utilize his presence in North
+Germany in looking after the Stahlberg works.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Important changes had been planned there, and new improvements spoken
+of, for which a final decision had to be made, and Wallmoden, as
+executor and guardian of the heir, had the deciding voice in it. His
+presence at the conference was indispensable; he had asked leave of
+absence from his office, and had notified the Duke of a return later.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the same time he left it to his wife to decide whether she would
+remain at Furstenstein or take the trip to her old home with him, if
+she wished to see her brother. Now, after fully two weeks, no one could
+misconstrue her departure. The young wife had immediately chosen to go
+with her husband, and had notified the Duchess that she should leave on
+the morrow.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Princess Sophie had arrived at Bucheneck with her lady of honor and the
+elder ladies in carriages, and now attempted, above everything, to lay
+hands on her illustrious nephew; but he developed an incredible aptness
+at keeping out of her reach. He was everywhere except in the near
+presence of his most gracious aunt, until finally she lost patience and
+ordered a gentleman to call Prince Adelsberg into her presence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon had to obey this command, but he used the precaution of taking the
+&quot;lightning rod&quot; with him. Rojanow was at his side when he stood before
+the Princess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Egon, do I really get a glimpse of you?&quot; was the not very
+gracious reception. &quot;You seem to have been taken possession of on all
+sides to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am always ready for the service of my most gracious aunt,&quot; declared
+Egon in honeyed accents; but the sweetness did him no good. The
+Princess measured him with an annihilating glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As far as your knightly service to Frau von Wallmoden leaves you time.
+She will give this chivalry a glowing mention to her husband. You may
+know him, perhaps?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly. I revere him highly as a man, as a diplomat and as His
+Excellency. Your Highness may believe that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe you unconditionally, Egon. Your love for veracity is far
+above any doubts with me,&quot; said the lady, with stinging sarcasm. &quot;I
+just happen to remember speaking the day before yesterday with the
+steward of Rodeck--the old Stadinger--who is still very active for his
+years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But he suffers seriously from failing memory,&quot; the Prince hastened to
+assure her. &quot;I am sorry to say that Stadinger forgets everything. Is it
+not so, Hartmut? He positively does not know to-day what he saw
+yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the contrary, I found that his memory was exceptionally fresh.
+Besides, he is the oldest and truest servant of your house,
+reliable--careful----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And a churl,&quot; interrupted Egon, sighing. &quot;Your Highness, you have no
+idea of the unlimited gruffness which dwells in this Peter Stadinger.
+He tyrannizes over Herr Rojanow and me shamefully. I have actually
+thought of retiring him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Of course, he did not dream of that. His Highness knew better than to
+make Peter Stadinger such a proposition, and would have fared badly if
+he had. But Princess Sophie, who had the reputation of being very
+haughty and relentless toward her servants, now favored a very mild
+course.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You should not do that,&quot; she remonstrated. &quot;A man who is now serving
+the third generation of the ducal family may be pardoned such a thing,
+particularly considering the somewhat loose housekeeping which the
+young gentlemen lead at Rodeck. It seems that they do not like to see
+visitors there, preferring the solitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, yes, the solitude!&quot; sighed Egon, sentimentally. &quot;It does one so
+much good after the stormy life of travel, and we enjoy it in full
+draughts. I occupy myself mostly----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With the taming of your wild animals,&quot; finished the Princess
+maliciously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, with--with my travelling memoirs, which I intend to publish; and
+Hartmut composes melancholy songs. He has just now the material for a
+ballad under his pen, to which Your Highness drew his attention.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, Herr Rojanow, have you really utilized the theme?&quot; asked the
+lady, whose face now suddenly beamed with sunshine, as she turned to
+the young poet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, Your Highness. I am very grateful to you for the
+suggestion,&quot; said Hartmut, who had not the slightest idea what the
+subject was, but felt that he had to go into action now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am glad of that. I love poetry and seek it at every opportunity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And with what understanding and appreciation!&quot; cried Egon,
+enthusiastically. But he quickly embraced the opportunity of slipping
+away, leaving his friend behind as the victim. He hastened to the
+presence of the Duchess, which meant the presence of Frau von
+Wallmoden, where he seemed to feel decidedly better than with his most
+gracious aunt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The chase was resumed after luncheon was over. It was now a hunt for
+large game, which was commenced with renewed zeal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the hitherto sunny weather changed in the afternoon. The sky grew
+cloudy and dark, but it remained warm, almost stifling, and a heavy
+bank of cloud arose in the west. It looked as if one of those late
+thunderstorms was preparing, which passed at times over the Wald at
+this season.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Duchess, with a portion of her attendants, had taken her stand upon
+a hill which seemed to afford the best view, but soon the chase took
+another quite unexpected direction, and the onlookers made ready to
+follow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Wallmoden met here with a slight accident. The girth of her
+saddle suddenly broke and she sprang lightly from the stirrup, thus
+saving herself from a fall. It was not possible to continue her ride,
+for although the accompanying groom could have given her a horse, there
+was no lady's saddle at hand; consequently she had to give up further
+participation, and decided to walk back to Bucheneck, to where one of
+the grooms would lead her horse.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide had requested the servant to precede her, and she lingered on
+the hill which had become quiet and lonely. It almost seemed that the
+accident had been welcome to her, since it relieved her from attending
+the chase to the end.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It is always a relief when one can drop a mask which has deceived the
+world and can breathe in solitude, if it only brings conviction of the
+heavy load one had to bear under that mask.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Where had the cold, proud calm vanished with which the young wife had
+entered her new home upon the arm of her husband? Now, when she knew
+herself alone and unobserved, it could be plainly seen that she had
+changed much.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That strong will-line which had made her resemble her father so much
+had become more pronounced, but besides that there was another line--a
+painful one--as of a person who has to struggle with secret torture and
+anxiety. The blue eyes had lost the cold, dispassionate expression. A
+deep shadow rested within them which also told of struggle and pain,
+and the blonde head drooped as if under an invisible but heavy load.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And yet Adelaide drew a breath of relief at the thought that this would
+be the last day she should spend at Furstenstein. By to-morrow she
+would be far from here. Perhaps there would be rest in the far removal
+of the dark power against which she had struggled now for weeks so
+painfully, and yet so vainly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Perhaps she would get better if she did not see those eyes day after
+day, nor hear that voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When she should have fled from the enchanted circle the charm would
+have to break, and now at last she could flee--oh, the happiness of it!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The noise of the chase sounded in ever-increasing distance, and was
+finally lost, but steps now sounded in the forest which encircled the
+hill closely, and warned the young Baroness that she was no longer
+alone. She started to leave, but at the moment she turned the one
+approaching emerged from under the trees.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut Rojanow stood before her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The meeting was so sudden and unexpected that Adelaide's composure was
+not proof against it. She retreated to the trunk of the tree, under the
+boughs of which she had been standing, as if seeking there a protection
+from this man, upon whom she gazed with fixed, fearful eyes--with the
+gaze of a wounded animal which sees the huntsman approach.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow did not seem to notice it. He saluted her and asked hastily:
+&quot;You are alone, Your Excellency? The accident did not have any serious
+consequences?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What accident?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was said you had a fall from your horse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What exaggeration! The girth broke, but I knew it in time to spring
+from the stirrup, while the horse stood perfectly still--that was the
+accident.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God be praised! I heard something of a fall--an injury--and as you did
+not reappear at the chase I feared----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, for Adelaide's glance showed him plainly that she did not
+believe this pretense; probably he knew the whole occurrence and had
+learned why and where Frau von Wallmoden had been left behind. She now
+regained her composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you, Herr Rojanow, but your being at all concerned was not
+necessary,&quot; she said coldly. &quot;You could have told yourself that had
+there been a real accident the Duchess and the other ladies would not
+have left me helpless in the forest. I am on my way to Bucheneck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She attempted to pass him. He bowed and stepped aside as if to let her
+pass, but said in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gracious lady, I have yet to ask your pardon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My pardon! For what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For a request which I uttered thoughtlessly and for which I have had
+to suffer seriously. I only asked for a flower. Is that, then, so
+severe a transgression that one should be angry over it for weeks?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide had paused almost without knowing it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again she was under the charm of these eyes--this voice, which held her
+fast as with magnetism.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken, Herr Rojanow. I am not angry with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not? And yet it is this icy tone I have always to hear since I dared
+approach you in that hour. You have learned, too, to know my work, for
+which I begged a recognition. You were present when I read it at
+Furstenstein. My Arivana was praised overwhelmingly on all sides, but
+from your mouth alone I heard no word--not one. Will you refuse it even
+now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought we were hunting to-day,&quot; said Adelaide with an attempt to
+pass the subject by, &quot;where it is surely not admissible to speak of
+poetical works.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have both left the chase; it is running now toward the Rodeck
+forest. There is only forest solitude here. Look at this autumn-tinted
+foliage which warns so mournfully of fleeting existence--the silent
+water down there, those thunder clouds in the distance. I believe there
+is a more endless amount of poetry in all this than in the halls of
+Furstenstein.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He pointed to the landscape which spread out before them, but no longer
+in the bright sunlight that had favored the chase at the beginning. Now
+it lay in the dim light of an overcast sky, which made even the gay
+foliage appear withered and dull.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They could see far out into the mountains, which, retreating on both
+sides, left the distance free. The endless ocean of forest crowns which
+only a few weeks ago waved green and airily in the breeze, now bore the
+color of the fall. They shone from the darkest brown to brilliant
+golden yellow in every shade all around, and shining red gleamed from
+the bushes and shrubs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The dying forest adorned itself once more with deceptive splendor, but
+it was only the coloring of the passing away and dying. All life and
+bloom were at an end.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Deep in the ravine lay a little forest lake, which, dark and
+motionless, seemed to dream in the wreath of reeds and rushes which
+surrounded it. It resembled strangely another pond that, far away
+in North Germany, lay in the midst of a pine forest--the Burgsdorf
+pond--which, like this one, ended in a meadow where rich green
+beckoned, nourished by the swamp and bog, hiding itself deceitfully
+beneath it, and drawing the ignorant one into its depth without hope of
+rescue.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Even now in daylight it seemed to breathe fog and twilight, and when
+night should descend the will-o'-the-wisp probably commenced here also
+its ghostly play.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the horizon, where in clear weather the summits of the mountains
+were visible, towered now a dark bank of clouds. As yet in the
+distance, its stifling breath rested already over the Wald, and at
+times a dull light flashed from it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide had not answered Hartmut's question. She gazed out over the
+country to avoid looking into the face of the man who stood before her,
+but she felt the dark, passionate look which rested upon her face, as
+she had always felt it in the last weeks, as soon as Rojanow was in her
+presence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are going away to-morrow, gracious lady,&quot; he commenced again. &quot;Who
+knows when you will return and when I shall see you again? May not I
+beg for your opinion? May I not ask if my work has found grace in the
+eyes of--Ada?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her name again upon his lips; again that soft, veiled, yet passionate,
+tone which she feared, and yet to which she listened as to enchanting
+music!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide felt that here she was a prisoner; there was no chance for
+flight. She had to look the danger full in the face.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide von Wallmoden turned slowly toward her questioner, and her
+features betrayed that she was determined to end the hard struggle the
+struggle with her own self.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You play strangely with this name, Herr Rojanow,&quot; she said
+emphatically and proudly. &quot;It stood over the poem which was put into my
+possession in a mysterious manner last week, written in a strange hand,
+without signature----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And which you read, nevertheless,&quot; he interrupted triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, and burned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Burned!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">From Hartmut's eyes flashed again the uncanny look which had startled
+even Egon and made him exclaim, &quot;You look like a demon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The demon of hate and revenge had risen wildly against the man who had
+insulted him unto death and whom he therefore wished to hurt unto
+death, and yet he loved that man's wife as the son of Zalika alone
+could love--with wild, consuming passion; but that which he felt at
+this moment resembled hatred more than love.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The poor leaf,&quot; he said with ill-concealed bitterness. &quot;And so it had
+to suffer death in the flames--perhaps it deserved a better fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You ought not to have sent it to me, then. I dare not and will not
+accept such poetry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You dare not, gracious lady? It is the homage of a poet which he
+lays at the feet of the woman who has been his from the beginning of
+time--and you will concede that to him also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words came but half-aloud from his lips, but so hot and passionate
+that Adelaide shuddered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may pay homage like that to the women of your country, and in such
+words,&quot; she said. &quot;A German woman does not understand it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you have understood it, nevertheless,&quot; Hartmut burst forth, &quot;and
+you also understood the doctrine of the intense ardor of my Arivana,
+which bears off the victory over all human laws. I saw it that evening
+when you turned your back apparently so coldly upon me, while all the
+others overwhelmed me with admiration. Do not deceive yourself, Ada.
+When the divine spark falls into two souls it flames up, in the cold
+north as well as the fervent south, and it already burns within us. In
+this breath of fire, will and will-power die the death; it smothers
+everything that has existed, and nothing remains but the holy, blazing
+flame which shines and makes happy, even if it destroys. You love me,
+Ada--I know it--do not attempt to deny it, and I--I love you
+boundlessly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stood before her in the stormy triumph of the victor, and his dark,
+demoniacal beauty had, perhaps, never been as captivating as at this
+moment, when the fire which breathed in his words burst also from his
+eyes--his whole being.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And he did speak the truth!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The woman who leaned there against the trunk of the tree so deathly
+white, loved him as only a pure, proud nature can love; that nature
+which so far had lived in the delusion that her emotions would forever
+lie in slumber, called by the world coldness of heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now she saw herself awaking before a passion which found a
+thousand-fold echo in her own breast; now that breath of flame floated
+around her also with its scorching glow; now came the test!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave me, Herr Rojanow, instantly!&quot; cried Adelaide.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her voice sounded half smothered, almost inaudible, and she addressed a
+man who was not wont to yield when he felt himself victorious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He started to approach her hastily--he suddenly stood still. There was
+something in the eyes--in the bearing of the young Baroness which kept
+him within bounds, but again he breathed her name in that tone, the
+power of which perhaps he knew best--&quot;Ada.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shuddered and made a repellent gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not that name. For you I am Adelaide von Wallmoden. I am married--you
+know that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Married to a man who stands on the border of old age, whom you do not
+love, and who could not give you any love if he were young. That cold,
+calculating nature knows no emotion of passion. The Court, his
+position, his promotion, are everything to him--his wife, nothing. He
+perhaps boasts of the possession of a jewel which he does not know how
+to value, and for which another would give his soul's eternal bliss.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide's lips quivered. She knew only too well that he was right, but
+she did not answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what binds you to this man?&quot; continued Rojanow, still more
+impressively. &quot;A word--a single 'Yes' uttered by you without knowing
+its full meaning--without knowing yourself. Shall it bind you for your
+life? Shall it make us both miserable? No, Ada, love the eternal,
+undying right of the human heart does not bow before that. People may
+call it guilt, they may call it doom. We stand now under this doom, and
+must follow it; a single word shall not part us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Far off at the horizon the flame burst up with such glaring light that
+it shone also over the opening on the hill.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stood for a moment in this light. He was now so fully the son
+of his mother; resembling so closely her beautiful but pernicious
+features; but it was that flash of lightning that brought Adelaide back
+to consciousness; or had it shown her the unholy fire which burned in
+his eyes? She retreated with an expression of unveiled horror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A solemnly given and accepted word is a vow,&quot; she said slowly, &quot;and he
+who breaks it breaks his honor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut started. Sudden and glaring like that flash of lightning flamed
+up a remembrance in his mind--the resemblance of that hour when he had
+given a solemn word--a word of honor, and--had broken it!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide von Wallmoden straightened her slender figure; her features
+still showed the deathly pallor as she continued in a low but steady
+tone to Rojanow:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Abandon this persecution which I have felt for weeks. I shudder before
+you--at your eyes, your words. I feel that it is destruction that goes
+out from you, and one does not love that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ada!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Passionate entreaty sounded in the word, but the low voice of Adelaide
+gained firmness quickly as she continued:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you do not love me. It has often seemed to me as if it were your
+hatred that pursued me. You and your kind cannot love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow kept silence in bewilderment. Who taught this young woman,
+still so inexperienced in life, to look so deeply into his inmost
+heart? He had not made clear to himself yet how inseparably hate and
+love were combined in his passion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you tell this to the writer of Arivana!&quot; he burst out in
+bitterness. &quot;They have called my work the high song of love----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then they have let themselves be deceived by the veil of the Oriental
+legend in which you shrouded your characters. They saw then only the
+East Indian priest sink with his beloved one under an iron, inhuman
+law. You are perhaps a great poet, and perhaps the world overwhelms you
+with praise, but it tells me something different--this fervent, ardent
+doctrine of your Arivana. It has taught me to know its creator--a man
+who does not believe in anything, and to whom nothing in the world is
+sacred; no duty and no vow; no man's honor and no woman's virtue--who
+would not hesitate to drag the highest into the dust as play for his
+passion. I still believe in duty and honor; I still believe in myself,
+and with this faith I offer defiance to the doom you hold so
+triumphantly before me. I could force myself to death, but never to
+your arms!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stood before him, not as just now in trembling fear--in the
+tortured wrestling with a secret struggle, It seemed as if, with each
+of the annihilating words, one ring of the chain which held possession
+of her so mysteriously was broken. Her eyes met fully and freely the
+dark look which had kept her a prisoner so long; the charm was broken
+now and she felt it, and breathed like one rescued.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again that flash in the distance--noiseless, without the rumbling of
+thunder--but it was as if heaven had opened in all its vastness.
+Fantastic formation of clouds was in this flaring light--forms which
+seemed to wrestle and struggle with each other, born of the storm, and
+yet that bank of cloud stood motionless at the horizon--and just as
+motionless stood the man, whose dark features showed now an ashy
+paleness in the glare of the lightning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His eyes were fixed upon the young woman, but the wild fire in
+them had died out, and his voice had a strange sound as he said: &quot;And
+this is the opinion I asked for? I am nothing more in your eyes than
+an--outcast?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A lost man, perhaps. You have forced me to this confession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut slowly retreated a few steps.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lost!&quot; he repeated hoarsely. &quot;In your meaning, perhaps, yes. You may
+rest assured, gracious lady, I shall not approach you any more. One
+does not desire to hear such words a second time--you stand so high and
+proud upon your virtue and, judge so severely. Of course you have no
+idea what a hot, wild life can make of a person who wanders restlessly,
+without home and family, through the world. You are right--I have not
+believed in anything, either upon high or here upon the earth--until
+this hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something in his tone, in his whole bearing, that disarmed
+Adelaide. She felt that she would not have to fear another burst of his
+passion, and her voice softened involuntarily at her answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not judge anybody; but with my whole mind and being I belong to
+another world, with other laws than yours. I am the daughter of an
+idolized father, who, all of his life, knew but one road that of
+earnest, severe duty. On that he worked himself up from poverty and
+want to wealth and honor. He led his children along this road, and his
+memory is the shield which covers me in every hard hour. I could not
+bear it if I had to cast down my eyes before the picture of my memory.
+You probably have no father?&quot;----</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A long, heavy pause ensued. Hartmut did not answer, but his head sank
+under those words, the crushing weight of which the Baroness had no
+idea, and his eyes were upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; he at last replied, hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you have the memory of him and your mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My mother!&quot; Rojanow started up suddenly and violently. &quot;Do not speak
+of her in this hour--do not speak to me of my mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was an outburst of mingled bitterness, of accusation and despair.
+The mother was being judged by her son in this exclamation. He rejected
+her memory as a desecration of this hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide did not understand him; she saw only that she had touched a
+topic which did not admit of explanation, and she also saw that the
+man who stood before her now with this dark look--with this tone of
+despair--was a different being from that one who had approached her a
+quarter of an hour ago. It was a dark, mysterious depth into which she
+gazed, but it no longer caused her fear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let us end this conversation,&quot; she said earnestly. &quot;You will not seek
+a second one--I trust you. But one more word before we part. You are a
+poet. I felt it in spite of all when I heard your work, and poets are
+teachers of mankind. They can lead to happiness or destruction. The
+wild flames of your Arivana seem to burst forth from the depths of a
+life which you yourself seem to hate. Look there!&quot; She pointed into the
+distance, which was now lighted up again in a flaming glow. &quot;Those are
+also signs of flame, but they come from on high, and they point to
+another road---- Farewell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20px">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had disappeared long ago, but Hartmut still stood as if rooted to
+the ground. He had not replied with one word--had made no motion; he
+only looked with hot, fixed eyes to where now one flash of lightning
+after another tore the clouds asunder, shrouding the whole country with
+a fiery cloak, and then he looked at the little forest lake which
+resembled so closely that one at Burgsdorf, with its waving reed and
+the deceiving, foggy meadow, which here also pressed so close to the
+water.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy had once dreamed among such whispering rushes of soaring
+up like the falcon of which his race bore the name, in boundless
+freedom--ever higher toward the sun--and at the same place the decision
+over his fate had been made on that dark autumn night, when the
+will-o'-the-wisp led its ghostly dance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the deserter had not risen to the sun--the earth had held him fast;
+the rich, green meadow had drawn him down deeper and deeper. He had
+felt at times that the intoxicating cup of freedom and life which the
+hand of his mother gave him was poisoned, but no precious memory
+shielded him; he did not dare to think of his father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Over there in the distance the forms of cloud struggled and wrestled
+wilder and wilder; closer and closer together they drew, and in the
+midst of this struggle and this darkness the flames again burst
+victoriously--the powerful flames from on high.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The winter social life had commenced at the Residenz, where the
+professional element played a conspicuous rôle. The Duke, who loved and
+encouraged art, took great pride in gathering renowned members of it
+into his presence, seeking to retain them in his capitol, and, of
+course, society followed largely in the same direction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young poet who was being so highly favored by the Court, and whose
+first large work was to appear on the court stage, was from the first
+an interesting person to everybody, and the tales which were told about
+him served to increase this interest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was very unusual for a Roumanian to compose his work in the German
+language, even when it was whispered that he had received his education
+in Germany. Besides that, he was the bosom friend, and the guest here
+in town also, of Prince Adelsberg, and all sorts of touching and
+wonderful stories were narrated about this friendship.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Above all, Hartmut's personality gave him a favored position wherever
+he went. The young, handsome, highly-gifted stranger, whom a
+half-romantic, half-mysterious air surrounded, had only to make his
+appearance even here to draw all eyes upon him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The rehearsal of Arivana had commenced immediately after the return of
+the ducal party to the Residenz, under the personal supervision of the
+poet; while Prince Adelsberg, who in his enthusiasm for the work of his
+friend, had changed into a kind of manager, made life hard to the
+performers by all sorts of requests in regard to the filling of
+characters and the setting of the play.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He knew how to get his way, and the scenery and setting were brilliant;
+the rôles were all filled by the first talent of the Court Theatre, and
+even the opera singers were called into service, since one of the rôles
+required a rather extensive part of song. One could not expect this
+from an actress, therefore a young singer--Marietta Volkmar--was
+entrusted with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The performance of the play, which was to have taken place at a later
+date, was being hastened as much as possible, as guests were expected
+at Court, and the new drama, which toyed so poetically and airily with
+the Indian legend as a background, was to be performed before the
+illustrious guests. An unusual success was anticipated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was the state of affairs at the return of Herbert von Wallmoden,
+who was naturally painfully surprised. Although he had learned from a
+casual question to his wife that Rojanow still kept up his intercourse
+at Furstenstein, and although he had not counted upon a sudden
+disappearance on Rojanow's part which would necessarily have caused
+comment, still he had been of the firm opinion that in spite of his
+haughty decision to remain, Hartmut would consider it again and make
+his retreat as soon as Prince Adelsberg left Rodeck. Surely he would
+not dare to appear at the Prince's side at the Residenz, where his stay
+might be made impossible through those threatened &quot;explanations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the Ambassador had not counted upon the unyielding defiance of the
+man who ventured and dared a high game here. Now, after a few weeks, he
+found him in a favored position in every respect and in closest
+intercourse with the court society.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If now, just before the performance of the drama which the Duke favored
+so decidedly, and of which the whole town was already talking, one
+should publish the disclosures of the former life of the poet, it would
+touch all circles unpleasantly and appear malicious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The experienced diplomat did not deceive himself about the fact that
+the deep displeasure which would doubtless take possession of the Duke
+would then fall back upon himself, because he had not spoken before at
+the first appearance of Rojanow. Nothing was left for him to do but to
+keep silence and await developments.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden was far from having an idea that a heavy danger had
+threatened himself from that quarter. He supposed that his wife knew
+Hartmut only as a companion of Prince Adelsberg. She had never
+mentioned the name since, after her arrival in Berlin, she answered a
+seemingly careless question just as carelessly, and he had also kept
+silence. She must not and should not learn anything of those old
+connections which he had kept from her from the beginning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But he dared not be silent toward his nephew, Willibald, if he did not
+wish to live to see another scene of recognition like that upon the
+Hochberg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord had accompanied his relatives to South Germany; was to
+remain but a few days at the Residenz, and go from there to
+Furstenstein to his betrothed, for the Chief Forester had specially
+requested that the visit, which was so suddenly broken off in
+September, should be finished now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You were here barely a week,&quot; he wrote to his sister-in-law, &quot;and now
+I beg for my son-in-law a little longer. Everything has been put in
+order now at your much-loved Burgsdorf, and there is not much to do in
+November. Therefore at least send us Willy if you cannot get off. A
+refusal will not be accepted. Toni expects her betrothed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen saw that he was right and was willing to send
+Willy--for she, of course, decided the matter. He had made no new
+attempt to rebel against the maternal ruling, and seemed, anyway, to
+have come to his senses completely again. He was, perhaps, more quiet
+than before, and threw himself with quite unusual zeal into his
+agricultural work after his return, but otherwise bore himself
+especially well.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He remained obstinate only upon one point: he would not speak with his
+mother about that &quot;silliness&quot; which had caused the sudden departure,
+and avoided every explanation concerning it. Apparently he was ashamed
+of that quickly-flaming affection, which probably had never been
+serious, and did not wish to be reminded of it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He wrote frequently to his fiancée, and received just as punctual
+replies. The correspondence, however, was more of a practical than a
+tender nature, and mostly concerned plans for their future lives and
+farm arrangements; but one saw from this that the young lord considered
+his marriage, for which the day had been set, as quite decided, and
+Frau Regine, who deemed it her indisputable right to read all of the
+letters of the engaged couple, declared herself satisfied with them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So Willibald received a gracious permission to visit his betrothed,
+which was now so much less hazardous since the dangerous little
+person--Marietta Volkmar--was at present at the Residenz, where her
+position kept her. But to be quite sure, Frau von Eschenhagen put her
+son under the protection of her brother, who, with his wife, had paid a
+brief visit to Burgsdorf upon his return from the Stahlberg works.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If Willibald, during the two or three days of his visit at the
+Residenz, remained at Wallmoden's house and went with them exclusively,
+no danger was to be feared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador saw soon after his arrival that he would be forced to
+enlighten his nephew regarding Hartmut Rojanow, for the name was
+mentioned on all sides already the first day. Willy, who at that former
+time had been the confidant of the secret rendezvous of Hartmut and his
+mother, and knew her name, started upon hearing it, coupled with a
+remark that a young Roumanian was the gifted poet, which made him still
+more suspicious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He glanced in perplexity at his uncle, who managed to signal to him
+just in time not to question any further, and who then embraced the
+first opportunity to tell him the truth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did this, of course, in the most inconsiderate manner, and presented
+Hartmut as an adventurer of the worst kind, whom he would in a very
+short time force to give up the rôle which he was playing here, without
+being in the least entitled to it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Poor Willibald's head swam at the news. His bosom friend--to whom he
+had always been attached with the fondest affection, and to whom he
+still clung in spite of the harsh sentence which was being pronounced
+upon him--was here in his immediate vicinity, and he was not to go to
+see him--was not even to recognize him if chance should bring about a
+meeting. Wallmoden especially impressed the latter upon his nephew,
+who, quite stunned, promised obedience and silence, as well toward
+Adelaide as to his fiancée and the Chief Forester; but he could not
+understand the thing by a long shot yet. He needed time for that as for
+everything.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The day upon which Arivana was to be presented had arrived. It was the
+first work of a young author and quite unknown poet, but the
+circumstances made it a professional event, which was viewed by
+everybody with intensest interest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">From the earliest hour the Court Theatre was filled to its utmost
+capacity, and now the ducal couple also appeared with their guests to
+occupy the large court box. Although not formally announced, the
+performance had the character of a benefit, to which the brilliantly
+lighted house and the rich costumes and uniforms bore witness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Prince Adelsberg, who appeared in the court box, was as excited as if
+he had written the drama himself. Besides, he found himself in as rare
+as joyful accord with his most gracious aunt, who had called him to
+her, and was speaking about the work of the poet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our young friend seems to have caprices like all poets,&quot; she remarked.
+&quot;What a notion to change the name of the heroine at the last moment!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It did not happen at exactly the last moment,&quot; replied Egon. &quot;The
+change was made at Rodeck. Hartmut suddenly took a notion that the name
+'Ada' was too cold and pure for his fiery heroine, and so her name was
+changed forthwith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the name Ada stands on the programme,&quot; said the Princess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but it has been turned over to an entirely different character of
+the drama, who appears only in one scene.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So Rojanow has made changes since his reading at Furstenstein?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only a few; the piece itself has remained quite the same, except the
+changing of names and that short appearance of Ada; but I assure Your
+Highness this scene which Hartmut has added to the play is the most
+beautiful thing he has ever written.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, of course, you find everything beautiful which comes from the pen
+of your friend,&quot; said the Princess, but the indulgent smile with which
+she dismissed the Prince showed that she was of the same opinion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In one of the proscenium boxes were seen the Prussian Ambassador and
+his wife--returned only a day or two from his vacation. His presence at
+the theatre to-day was indeed not of his free will, for he would gladly
+have remained away from this performance, but dared not out of
+consideration for his position. The Duke himself had disposed of the
+boxes, and had invited the foreign diplomats and their ladies; there
+was no possibility of remaining away, particularly as Herr and Frau von
+Wallmoden had, only a few hours previously, participated in a large
+dinner at the ducal palace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald, who had won permission from his uncle to at least get
+acquainted with the work of his friend, sat in the parquette. Wallmoden
+was not pleased with his presence here, but could not well forbid him
+what he was going to do himself. Willy, who with difficulty had found a
+seat, had not thought that a member of the opera could be employed in
+the theatre, but when he opened the programme and came suddenly upon
+the name of &quot;Marietta Volkmar,&quot; whom he was to see to-night, he folded
+the paper with a quick gesture and hid it in his pocket, regretting now
+sorely having come to the theatre.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The performance now commenced. The curtain rose and the first scene
+passed quickly. It was a kind of preface, to acquaint the audience with
+the strange, fantastic world into which they were to be introduced.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Arivana, the ancient, sacred place of sacrifice, appeared in a
+magnificent and appropriate setting. The most prominent character of
+the piece, the young priest, who, in the fanaticism of his belief,
+renounces utterly everything worldly and unholy, enters, and the vow
+which removes him for time and eternity from the world, and binds him
+body and soul to his deity, resounds in powerful, soulful verse.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The vow was offered--the sacred fire flamed high, and the curtain fell.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Applause, for which the Duke gave the signal, came from all sides.
+Although it was assured that a work which was encouraged and favored so
+by all should have a certain success, at least upon its opening night,
+there was something else mingled in the applause. The audience already
+felt that a poet spoke to them; his creation had perhaps needed the
+approval of the Court, but now, since it was before them, it sustained
+itself. One was attracted and held by the language--the characters--by
+the theme of the drama, which already betrayed itself in its principal
+features, and when the curtain rose afresh, intense, expectant silence
+rested over the vast audience hall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And now the drama developed upon a background as rich and glowing in
+color as were its language and its characters. The magnificent verdure,
+the fairy-like splendor of its temples and palaces, the people with
+their wild hatred and wilder love, and the severe, iron laws of their
+belief--all, all, was fantastic and strange; but the feeling and acting
+of these people were familiar to every one, for they stood under the
+power which was the same centuries ago, as to-day, and which takes root
+the same under the glowing sky of the tropics as in the cold North--the
+passion and power of the human heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was indeed a &quot;glowing doctrine,&quot; and it preached without restraint
+the right of the passions to storm over law and institutions--over
+oaths and vows--to reach their aims; a right such as Hartmut Rojanow
+had understood and practised with his unreined will, who recognized no
+law or duty, but who was all in all unto himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The awakening of the passion--its powerful growth, its final
+triumph--were all depicted in transporting language, in words and acts
+which seemed to originate, now from the pure heights of the ideal, and
+now from the depths of an abyss.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Not in vain had the poet shrouded his characters in the veil of
+Oriental legend, but under this veil he dared to speak and indorse that
+which would hardly have been permitted him, and he did it with a
+boldness which threw igniting sparks into the hearts of the listeners,
+enchaining them demoniacally.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Arivana's success was assured already at the second act. The work was
+done by artists who belonged to the best on the stage, and they were
+doing the best playing ever witnessed. Those taking the principal rôles
+especially acted with the perfection of abandon which only real
+enthusiasm can give.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The heroine's name was no longer Ada. Another form now bore this
+name--one who was strangely foreign to this excited picture of
+passions; one of those tender, half-fairy-like beings with whom the
+Indian legends inhabit the snow dwellings upon the icy heights of the
+Himalayas--cold and pure as the eternal snow which shines upon them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only in one single instance, in the parting scene, she floated on
+spirit's wings through the stormy, excited gathering, remonstrating,
+entreating, warning; and Egon was right. The words which the poet had
+put into her lips were, perhaps, the most beautiful of the entire
+drama. It burst suddenly like pure, heavenly light into the flaming
+glow of a crater; but the scene was as short as beautiful. Quick as a
+breath the apparition disappeared again into her snow dwelling, and
+down yonder at the moonlit bank of the river floated the entrancing
+song of the Hindoo girl--Marietta Volkmar's soft, swelling voice--under
+the coaxing charm of which the cry of warning from the heights was
+dispelled and unheeded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last act brought the tragic end; the breaking of the doom over the
+guilty pair; the death in the flames. This death was no atonement, but
+a triumph--&quot;a shining, divine death,&quot; and with the flames there also
+flared up to heaven the demoniacal doctrine of the unconditional right
+of the passions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The curtain sank for the last time, and the applause, which had
+increased after every act, now grew to a storm. Usually the applause at
+the court performances was kept within measured bounds, but to-day it
+broke over the barriers. The flames of Arivana had kindled the
+enthusiasm with which the whole house demanded the appearance of the
+author.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut finally appeared--without embarrassment or timidity--glowing
+with pride and joy; he bowed acknowledgment to the audience, which
+today offered him a drink he had never yet tasted in his wildly tossed
+life. They were intoxicating, these first sips from the cup of fame,
+and with this intoxicating knowledge, the celebrated poet now looked up
+to the proscenium box, whose occupants he had long ago recognized. He
+did not find, however, what he sought. Adelaide was leaning back in her
+chair, and her face was hidden by her open fan. He saw only the cold,
+unmoved face of the man who had insulted him so deeply, and who was now
+a witness of his triumph.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden understood only too well what the flash of those dark eyes
+told him: &quot;Do you dare yet to despise me?&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The following morning at an early hour Willibald von Eschenhagen walked
+through the park, which he wanted to see--at least so he had told his
+uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The large, forest-like park which was situated directly before the
+city, was indeed worth seeing, but Willibald paid no attention to the
+landscape, which did not look very inviting this bleak November day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without a glance to right or left he walked quickly forward, taking
+aimlessly now this and now that path, without noticing that he
+repeatedly returned to the same spot. It seemed as if he wished with
+this stormy walk to calm an inner unrest; he had really gone out to be
+alone in the free, open air.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord tried to persuade himself that it was only the meeting
+again with the friend of his youth that had taken him so completely out
+of his composure. He had not heard anything of Hartmut for fully ten
+years--did not even dare to mention him at home, and now he suddenly
+saw the lost one again, with the halo of a growing poetical glory
+around his head. Deeply and wonderfully changed in appearance and
+manner, in spite of all he was still the Hartmut with whom he had
+played his boyish games so often. He should have recognized him at the
+first glance without having been prepared for the meeting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden, on the contrary, seemed to be disagreeably surprised at
+yesterday's success. He had hardly spoken during the drive home; his
+wife as little. She had stated in the carriage that the hot air of the
+theatre had given her an intolerable headache, and retired immediately
+upon their arrival home. The Ambassador followed her example, and when
+he gave his hand to his nephew, who wished him good-night, he said
+curtly: &quot;Our understanding remains the same, Willibald. You are to keep
+silence toward everybody, whoever it be. Look out that you do not
+betray yourself, for the name Rojanow will be in everybody's mouth
+during the next few days. He has had luck again this time--like all
+adventurers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald had accepted the remark silently, but he still felt that it
+was something else which gave the author of Arivana this success.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Under other circumstances he would have considered this work as
+something unheard of--incomprehensible--without understanding it, but,
+strange to say, the understanding for it had dawned upon him yesterday.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One could fall in love without the solemn approval of the respected
+parents, guardians and relations; it happened not only in India, but it
+happened here sometimes, too. One could also incautiously and hastily
+burden oneself with a vow and break it--but what then?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Yes, then came the doom which Hartmut had pictured so horribly and yet
+so fascinatingly. Willy was transporting in earnest the highly romantic
+teachings of Arivana into Burgsdorf affairs, and the doom suddenly
+assumed the features of Frau von Eschenhagen, who, in her wrath, was
+surely worse than an angry caste of priests.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord heaved a deep sigh. He thought of the second act of the
+play, when, from the circle of Hindoo girls who marched to the place of
+sacrifice, a delicate figure had stepped forth, inexpressibly charming
+in the white, flowing garments, and the wreath of flowers in her curls.
+His eyes had hung riveted upon her, who appeared but twice or thrice
+upon the stage, but after that her song had sounded from the banks of
+the moonlit river. It was the same clear, sweet voice which had
+enchanted the listener at Waldhofen, and now the old mischief, which he
+had struggled down and thought forgotten, was back again. It stood
+before him with giant size, and the worst of it was that he did not
+even consider it longer as a mischief.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The tireless walker now came for the third time to a small temple, open
+in front, and in which stood a statue, while a bench in the background
+invited one to rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald entered this time and sat down, less from a desire to rest
+than to be able to follow his thoughts undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was, perhaps, ten o'clock in the morning, and the paths were at this
+hour almost deserted. Only a solitary pedestrian--a young man elegantly
+dressed--walked leisurely and with apparent aimlessness along the
+paths. He seemed to be expecting some one, for he glanced impatiently
+now toward town, and now toward the Parkstrasse which bordered the park
+for some distance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly he came toward the temple and took his stand behind it, where
+he could keep the path in view without being seen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In about five minutes a young lady came from the city--a delicate,
+graceful figure, in dark cloak and fur cape, with her fur cap pressed
+closely down upon her curly head, and a muff in her hand, from which
+peeped a roll of music. She was passing the temple quickly, when
+suddenly she uttered an ejaculation of displeased surprise:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah--Count Westerburg!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man had approached and bowed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a happy coincidence! How could I hope that Fraulein Marietta
+Volkmar would take so early a walk in the park!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta stood still and measured the speaker from head to foot. Her
+voice had a half-angry, half-contemptuous sound as she answered:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not believe in this coincidence, Herr Count. You cross my path
+too often and persistently for that, although I have shown you
+sufficiently how annoying your attentions are to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you are endlessly cruel to me,&quot; said the Count, reproachfully,
+but with undeniable impertinence. &quot;You do not accept my calls, refuse
+my flowers and offerings, and do not even return my greetings when I
+pass you by. What have I done to you? I have ventured to lay homage at
+your feet in the form of jewels, which you returned to me----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With the request that you discontinue such impertinences once for
+all,&quot; interrupted the young girl vehemently. &quot;I protest, besides,
+against your continued advances. You have actually lain in wait for me
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mon Dieu! I only wished to beg your pardon for that boldness,&quot; assured
+Count Westerburg, apparently submissive, but at the same time he
+stepped into the middle of the narrow path, so that it was impossible
+to pass. &quot;I might have known that you are unapproachable, for everybody
+protests that none protects her name so jealously as you, beautiful
+Marietta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My name is Fraulein Volkmar!&quot; cried Marietta, angrily. &quot;Keep your
+flattering speeches for those who allow such things to be told them. I
+shall not do it, and if your advances do not cease I shall have to call
+in protection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whose protection?&quot; sneered the Count. &quot;Perhaps that of the old lady
+with whom you live and who is always and everywhere at your side,
+except in your walk to Professor Marani. The singing studies at the old
+gentleman's are not dangerous, and that is the only walk you take
+alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you knew that I went to the Parkstrasse at this hour! Then it is
+actually an attack! Please let me pass. I wish to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She tried to pass by him, but the young man stretched out his arms so
+that he filled the path.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will assuredly permit me to accompany you, mein Fraulein. Only
+look, the path is quite lonely and deserted; there is not a soul
+around. I really must offer you my escort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The path seemed, indeed, quite deserted, and another girl might have
+been intimidated by this reference to her defencelessness, but the
+little Marietta only drew herself up undauntedly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not dare to attempt to follow me by even a step.&quot; she cried in
+deepest anger. &quot;Your escort is just as unbearable to me as your
+presence. How often must I tell you that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, so angry!&quot; cried the Count with a malicious smile. &quot;Well, I shall
+not have ventured this attack for nothing. I shall at least repay
+myself with a kiss from those charming, angry lips.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He actually prepared to fulfil his threat, approaching the quickly
+retreating girl, but at that moment, propelled by an awful blow, he
+flew to one side and fell full length upon the damp ground, where he
+remained lying in a very pitiable plight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Startled at this unexpected and stormy succor, Marietta turned around,
+and her face, flushed from insult and anger, bore expression of great
+amazement as she recognized her deliverer, who now stood at her side,
+looking wrathfully at the form upon the ground, as if it were his
+highest desire to quite finish him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr von Eschenhagen--you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime Count Westerburg had struggled painfully to his feet
+and now drew near his aggressor threateningly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How dare you! Who gives you the right----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I advise you to remain ten feet away from this young lady,&quot;
+interrupted Willibald, placing himself in front of Marietta, &quot;or you
+will fly off again, and the second blow might not prove as soft as the
+first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Count, a slender, far from powerful man, measured the giant before
+him, whose fist he had already felt, but one look was enough to
+convince him that he would come out second best in an encounter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will give me satisfaction--if you are worth it,&quot; he hissed in a
+half-choked voice. &quot;Probably you do not know whom you have before
+you----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An impudent fellow whom one chastises with pleasure,&quot; said Willy
+stolidly. &quot;Please remain standing where you are, or I will do it now.
+My name is Willibald von Eschenhagen. I am lord of Burgsdorf, and can
+be found at the mansion of the Prussian Ambassador if you should have
+more to tell me---- If you please, mein Fraulein, you may trust
+yourself unhesitatingly to my protection. I pledge myself that you will
+not be molested further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And now something unprecedented, unheard of, happened. Herr von
+Eschenhagen, without stammering, without showing embarrassment of any
+kind, offered his arm with a genuinely chivalrous movement to the young
+lady, and carried her off without concerning himself further about the
+Count.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta had accepted the proffered arm without speaking a word until,
+having reached a considerable distance, she commenced, with a timidity
+otherwise foreign to her manner: &quot;Herr von Eschenhagen----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mein Fraulein.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I--I am very grateful for your protection, but the Count--you have
+insulted him--even with a blow. He will challenge you and you will have
+to accept it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course, with the greatest pleasure,&quot; said Willy, and his face was
+beaming as if the prospect gave him unmixed delight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His awkward, embarrassed manner had suddenly disappeared; he felt
+himself a hero and deliverer, and enjoyed the new position immensely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta looked at him in speechless amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is awful that this should happen for my sake!&quot; she commenced
+again, &quot;and that it should be just you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps that is not agreeable to you,&quot; said the young lord, who in his
+present elated mood took offence at the last remark. &quot;But Fraulein, in
+such a case one has no choice. Forced by necessity, you had to accept
+me as protector, even if I did not stand very high in your esteem.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A burning blush spread over Marietta's face at the remembrance of that
+hour when she had poured out her supreme contempt on the man who now
+took her part so gallantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought only of Toni and her father,&quot; she returned in a low voice.
+&quot;I am blameless in this matter, but if I should be the cause of your
+being torn from your fiancée----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Toni must accept it then as providential,&quot; said Willy, upon whom
+the mention of his betrothed made little impression. &quot;One can
+lose his life anywhere, and one must not always expect the worst
+consequences----Where shall I carry you, Fraulein? To the Parkstrasse?
+I believe I heard that you wished to go there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shook her head quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no! I intended going to Professor Marani, who is teaching me a new
+rôle, but I cannot sing now--it is impossible. Let us look for a
+carriage; we may find one over there. I would like to go home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald turned his steps at once in the appointed direction, and they
+walked on silently to the edge of the park, where several cabs were
+standing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl stopped here and looked anxiously and entreatingly at
+her companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr von Eschenhagen must it really be? Cannot the matter be smoothed
+over?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hardly: I have given the Count a heavy blow and called him an impudent
+fellow, and shall stand to that, of course, if it should come to any
+explanation; but do not worry about that. The affair will probably be
+settled with a few scratches by tomorrow or the day after.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And must I remain two or three days in this anxious uncertainty? Will
+you not at least send me word about it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald looked into the dark, tearful eyes, and with that look there
+came into his eyes that strange sudden glow as on that day when he
+heard the voice of the &quot;<i>singvögelchen</i>&quot; for the first time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If everything passes off happily I shall come myself and bring you
+word,&quot; he replied. &quot;May I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, certainly, certainly. But if an accident occurs--if you should
+fall?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then keep me in better remembrance than heretofore, mein Fraulein,&quot;
+said Willibald, earnestly and cordially. &quot;You must have considered me a
+great coward--oh, do not say anything! You were right. I felt it myself
+bitterly enough--but it was my mother whom I was accustomed to obey,
+and who loves me very much. But you shall see now that I know how a man
+must act when a defenceless girl is being insulted in his presence. I
+will now erase, if need be, with my blood, that bad hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without giving her time to reply he called one of the waiting cabs,
+opened the door, and gave the driver the street and number which
+Marietta had given him. She entered the carriage and stretched out her
+little hand to him once more. He held it for a moment, then the young
+girl threw herself back upon the cushion with a stifled sob, and the
+carriage rolled away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy followed it with his eyes until nothing more could be seen of it,
+then he drew himself up and said with a kind of grim satisfaction: &quot;Now
+take care, Herr Count! It will be a real pleasure to me now to fire
+until sight and hearing leave me.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Twilight came on early this bleak November day, and the Adelsberg
+palace was already lighted when the Prince, returning from a short
+drive, reached the portal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is Herr Rojanow in his rooms?&quot; he inquired of the servant who hastened
+up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At your service, Your Highness,&quot; the man replied, bowing low.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Order the carriage at nine o'clock. We drive to the ducal palace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon mounted the stairs and entered the apartments of his friend, which
+adjoined his own on the first floor, and which, like all the rest of
+the princely house, were furnished with antique splendor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A lamp burned upon the table of the sitting-room. Hartmut lay stretched
+upon a lounge in a position indicative of utter weariness and
+exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you resting upon your laurels?&quot; asked the Prince, laughing and
+drawing near. &quot;I cannot blame you, for you have not had a moment's
+peace to-day. It is really a rather trying business to be a new rising
+star in the poetical firmament; nerve is required for it. The people
+actually fight each other for the honor of being allowed to tell you
+flatteries. You have held a grand reception today.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, and now we have to go to the Court besides,&quot; said Hartmut in a
+weary voice. The prospect seemed to have no charm for him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We must, indeed. The illustrious ladies and gentlemen wish also to
+bring their homage to the poet--my most gracious aunt at their head.
+You know she is a kind of <i>bel-esprit</i>, and believes to have found a
+kindred soul in you. Thank God, she does not order me to her side so
+continually, and perhaps through this she will forget those unfortunate
+schemes for my marriage. But you seem to be very unappreciative of the
+ducal favors which rained upon you yesterday. What is the matter? You
+hardly answer. Are you not well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am tired. I wish I could escape all this noise and flee to the quiet
+of Rodeck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rodeck! Ah, it must be charming there at present, with the November
+fogs, and the wet, leafless forests! Brrr! a real spook's haunt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nevertheless, I have a real longing for that gloomy solitude, and I
+shall go there soon for a few days. I hope you have no objections?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have very many objections to it,&quot; exclaimed Egon, indignantly. &quot;What
+notion is this, I beg of you? Now, when the whole town lifts the poet
+of Arivana upon the shield, will you withdraw your honored presence and
+escape all the triumphs and attentions to bury yourself alive in a
+haunted little forest nook, which is only bearable in sunshine!
+Everybody will find it incomprehensible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't care. I need solitude now. I go to Rodeck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon shook his head. Although he was accustomed to seeing his friend
+act in this domineering, inconsiderate manner whenever the notion
+seized him, and had himself spoiled him in this respect with all his
+might, the present idea seemed too preposterous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe my most gracious aunt is right,&quot; he said half reproachfully,
+half jestingly. &quot;She remarked yesterday at the theatre, 'Our young poet
+has caprices like all of his class.' I think so, too. What is the
+matter now, really, Hartmut? Yesterday and to-day you beamed with
+triumph, and now I have left you hardly an hour, when I find you in a
+regular attack of melancholy. Have the papers annoyed you? Perhaps it
+is some malicious, envious critic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He pointed to the writing table, where the evening papers lay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; returned Rojanow quickly. But he turned his head so that his
+face was in shadow. &quot;The papers contain only general remarks so far,
+and they are all flattering. You know that I am subject to such moods,
+which often overcome me without cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know that, but now that good luck overwhelms you on all sides,
+those moods should absent themselves. But you really look haggard--that
+comes from the excitement through which both of us have passed during
+these last few weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He bent over his friend with concern, and Hartmut, in rising regret for
+his brusque manner, stretched out his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me, Egon. You must have patience with me--it will pass off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope so, for I want to do proud with my poet to-night. But I will go
+now, so that you can rest. Do not let anybody disturb you. We have
+still three hours before we have to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince left the room. He had not seen the bitter expression
+trembling around Hartmut's mouth when he spoke of his overwhelming good
+fortune, and yet he had spoken the truth. Fame was happiness--perhaps
+the highest in life--and to-day had confirmed the triumph of yesterday,
+until suddenly, an hour ago, a sharp discord had fallen into the
+flattering tune.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young poet had scanned the papers which he found upon his table on
+his return. They did not contain explicit remarks about Arivana, but
+recognized unanimously the great success and powerful impression of the
+work, and promised detailed criticism the next day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly, in turning to the last page, Hartmut came upon a name, at the
+sight of which intense, anxious surprise overwhelmed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next moment, however, he recognized that he was not the one
+concerned in the article. It stated that the last journey of the
+Prussian Ambassador to Berlin seemed to have been of greater importance
+than was at first supposed. In an audience with the Duke immediately
+after his return, Herr von Wallmoden had apparently brought some very
+important things to light; and now, a high-standing Prussian officer,
+who was the bearer of important messages to His Highness, was expected.
+It doubtless concerned military matters, and Colonel Hartmut von
+Falkenried would arrive in a few days.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut dropped the paper as if it had suddenly become red-hot iron.
+His father would come to this place and would certainly hear everything
+from Wallmoden--<i>must</i> hear everything. The chance of meeting was then
+very probable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When you shall have gained a great, proud future, approach him again
+and ask if he still dares to despise you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zalika had whispered it to her son when he struggled against
+flight--against the breaking of his word of honor. Now the beginning of
+his future was made. The name Rojanow already bore the laurel of the
+poet, and with that the whole past was erased. It should be--it must
+be! This conviction flashed in the glance which Hartmut had thrown so
+triumphantly up to the Ambassador's box yesterday.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But now, when it meant the meeting of his father's eyes, the defiant
+one trembled. Those eyes were the only thing upon earth that he feared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was half decided to go to Rodeck and return only when he heard
+through the papers that &quot;the high-standing officer&quot; had left the
+Residenz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Yet something kept him here--a secret but burning longing. Perhaps the
+hour of reconciliation had now come when the poet's fame rose so
+brilliantly; perhaps Falkenried would see now that such a power needed
+liberty and life to develop, and would pardon the unfortunate, boyish
+folly which, with his views, had hurt him so deeply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Was he not his child? his only son, whom he had embraced with such
+passionate tenderness that night at Burgsdorf? At this remembrance a
+longing for those all-powerful arms, for the home which should no
+longer be lost to him, for the whole boyhood which, although
+constrained, had yet been so happy, pure and guiltless, flooded
+Hartmut's inmost heart.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment the door opened and the butler entered, bearing upon a
+waiter a card. He presented it to Hartmut, who refused it with an
+impatient gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did I not tell you that I did not wish to see any one else to-day? I
+wish to remain undisturbed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I told the gentleman so,&quot; replied the servant, &quot;but he begged me to at
+least give you his name--Willibald von Eschenhagen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut started suddenly from his reclining position. He could not
+believe that he had heard aright.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the gentleman's name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Von Eschenhagen--here is the card.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, let him enter, instantly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servant departed, and Willibald entered the next moment, but
+remained standing at the door in uncertainty. Hartmut had sprung up and
+looked toward him. Yes, there were the same familiar features--the
+dear, well-known face, the honest blue eyes of his friend, and with the
+passionate cry, &quot;Willy--my dear old Willy, is it you! You come to me?&quot;
+he threw himself stormily upon his breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord, who had no idea how strangely his appearance at this
+moment fitted into his friend's dreams of his youth, was most perplexed
+over this reception. He remembered how domineering Hartmut had always
+been to him, and how he had made him feel his mental inferiority at
+every opportunity. He had thought yesterday that the highly honored
+author of Arivana would be still more imperious and haughty, and now he
+found an overflowing tenderness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you glad, then, at my coming, Hartmut?&quot; he asked, still somewhat
+doubtful. &quot;I was almost afraid it would not be acceptable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not acceptable, when I see you now after a lapse of ten long years!&quot;
+cried Hartmut reproachfully, and he drew his friend down beside him,
+questioning him and covering him so with affection that Willy lost all
+embarrassment and also returned to the old familiarity. He said that he
+was in town for only three days and that he was on his way to
+Furstenstein.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes; you are betrothed,&quot; joined in Rojanow. &quot;I heard at Rodeck who
+was to be the Chief Forester's son-in-law, and have also seen Fraulein
+von Schonan. Let me congratulate you with all my heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald accepted the good wishes with a peculiar face, and looked to
+the floor as he replied, half audibly: &quot;Yes, but to tell the truth,
+mamma made the engagement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should have known that,&quot; said Hartmut, laughing, &quot;but you have at
+least said 'Yes' without being forced?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy did not answer. He studied the carpet intently and suddenly asked
+quite disconnectedly: &quot;Hartmut, how do you do when you compose poetry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How do I do?&quot; Hartmut with an effort suppressed his laughter. &quot;Really
+that is not easy to tell. I do not believe that I can explain it
+sufficiently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it is a funny condition to make poetry,&quot; assented the young man
+with a sad shake of the head. &quot;I experienced it last night when I
+returned from the theatre.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! You compose poetry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And such poetry!&quot; cried Willy in high satisfaction, but added in
+somewhat subdued tones: &quot;Only I cannot find rhymes, and it also sounds
+quite different from your verses. To tell the truth, it did not run
+right, and I want to ask you how you do the affair. You know it is not
+to be anything grand like your Arivana--only just a little poem.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course to 'her,'&quot; finished Hartmut.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, to her,&quot; assented the young lord with a deep breath, and now his
+listener laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a model son, Willy, one must confess. It does happen sometimes
+that one is betrothed at paternal or maternal command, but you
+dutifully fall in love with your bride-elect besides, and even compose
+poetry to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is not to the right one,&quot; exclaimed Willibald suddenly, with
+such a strained expression that Rojanow looked at him in perplexity. He
+really believed that his friend was not in his senses; and Willibald
+must also have felt that he was making a peculiar impression. He
+therefore began an explanation, but anticipated himself so much and was
+so vague, that the affair became only the more tangled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In fact, I have had an encounter with a fellow this morning who dared
+to insult a young lady--Fraulein Marietta Volkmar, from the Court
+Theatre. I knocked him to the ground and I would do it again to him or
+to anybody who gets too near Fraulein Volkmar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stretched out his arm so threateningly that Hartmut caught it
+quickly and restrained him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I do not intend to get near her--you can spare me for the
+present. But what is Marietta Volkmar to you--the little mirror of
+virtue of our opera--who has so far been considered unapproachable?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, I request that you speak of this lady with reverence. In
+short, this Count Westerburg has challenged me. I am going to exchange
+shots with him, and hope to give him a good reminder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, you really are making good progress in romance,&quot; said Hartmut,
+who listened with ever-increasing interest. &quot;You have been here only
+three days and have commenced with a quarrel which ends in a challenge,
+and are the knight and protector of a young singer--have a duel for her
+sake. Willy, for heaven's sake, what will your mother say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This concerns an affair of honor, and my mother cannot interfere
+here,&quot; declared Willy with a really heroic effect, &quot;but now I must get
+a second here, where I am quite a stranger and do not know a soul.
+Uncle Herbert must not hear anything about it, of course, or he would
+interfere with the police. So I decided to come to you and ask you if
+you would render me this service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was what brought you,&quot; said Rojanow, in a tone of painful
+disappointment. &quot;I really believed old friendship had done it; but,
+nevertheless, of course, I am at your command. What weapons does the
+challenge demand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pistols!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, you know what to do with them. We practiced often enough with a
+target at Burgsdorf, and you were a good shot. I shall look up the
+second of your opponent to-morrow morning and send you word then. I
+have to do that in writing, as I do not enter the house of Herr von
+Wallmoden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willy only nodded. He thought Wallmoden's hostility was being
+reciprocated, but deemed it best not to make any inquiries upon this
+point.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, just write me,&quot; he replied. &quot;Arrange things as seems best
+to you; I shall be satisfied with everything; I have no experience in
+such things. Here is the address of the second, and now I must go. I
+have several things to put in order yet, in case the worst happens.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He arose and extended his hand to his friend in farewell, but Hartmut
+took no notice of it. His eyes were fixed on the floor, as he said in
+low, hesitating tones: &quot;One thing more, Willy. Burgsdorf is so near
+Berlin. Perhaps you often see----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whom?&quot; asked Willibald, as Hartmut paused.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My--my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord became visibly embarrassed at the question. He had
+avoided the mention of Falkenried during the conversation, but did not
+seem to be aware of his near arrival.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; he said, finally; &quot;we hardly ever see the Colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But does he not come to Burgsdorf as of old?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, he has become very unsocial. But I happened to see him in Berlin
+when I went to meet Uncle Herbert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And how does he look? Has he aged any during these last years?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course he has aged; you would hardly recognize him with his white,
+hair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;White hair!&quot; Hartmut burst forth. &quot;He is hardly fifty-two years old.
+Has he been ill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not that I know of. It came quite suddenly--in a few months--at the
+time when he asked for his discharge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut blanched, and his eyes were strained fixedly upon the speaker.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My father sought a discharge? He who is a soldier through, body and
+soul; to whom his vocation---- In what year was it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It did not come to an issue,&quot; said Willy, pacifyingly; &quot;they did not
+let him go, but removed him to a distant garrison, and he has been in
+the Ministry of War for three years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But he wanted to leave--in what year?&quot; panted Rojanow, in a sinking
+voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, at the time of your disappearance. He believed his honor
+demanded it, and, Hartmut, you ought not to have done that to your
+father--not that. He almost died from it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut made no answer, no attempt to defend himself; but his breast
+heaved in deep, unsteady breaths.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will not speak of it,&quot; said Willibald, stopping short; &quot;it cannot
+be changed now. I shall expect your letter to-morrow. Get everything in
+order. Good night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut did not seem to hear the words--did not notice the departure of
+his friend. He stood there immovable, with eyes on the floor, and only
+after Willibald had long disappeared did he straighten himself slowly
+and draw his hand across his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He wished to leave!&quot; he murmured; &quot;to leave the army because he
+thought his honor demanded it. No--no, not yet. I must go to Rodeck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The honored poet, upon whose brow Fate was pressing the first laurel
+wreath--who only yesterday had challenged the whole world in this
+victorious knowledge--dared not meet the eye of his father. He fled
+into solitude.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">In one of the quieter streets, whose modest but pleasant houses were
+mostly surrounded by gardens, Marietta Volkmar lived with an old
+lady--a distant relative of her grandfather--who was alone, but willing
+and glad to be protection and company to the young singer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two ladies led a life about which the ever-busy tongue of gossip
+could find nothing to say, and were much beloved by other members of
+the house. Fraulein Marietta, with her pleasant, happy face, was an
+especial favorite, and when her clear voice rang through the house
+everybody stopped to listen. But the <i>singvögelchen</i> had grown mute in
+the past two days, and showed pale cheeks and eyes red from weeping.
+The people shook their heads and could not understand it until they
+heard from old Fraulein Berger that Dr. Volkmar was sick, and his
+granddaughter was worried about him, but could not obtain leave of
+absence without a more forcible reason.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was, indeed, no falsehood, for the old doctor had really been
+suffering for several days from a severe cold, but it offered no
+occasion for serious concern. It was only a plausible explanation of
+Marietta's changed demeanor, which was noticed even by her colleagues
+at the theatre.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The singer was standing at the window, gazing steadily out, in her
+plain but cosily furnished sitting room, having just returned from a
+rehearsal, while Fraulein Berger sat at a little table with her
+needlework, casting anxious glances at her protegée.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, dear child, do not take this affair so sorely to heart,&quot; she
+admonished. &quot;You will wear yourself out with this anxiety and
+excitement. Why anticipate the worst at once?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta did not turn. She was painfully pale, and a suppressed sob was
+in her voice as she replied:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is now the third day, and yet I cannot learn anything. Oh, it is
+awful to have to wait like this, hour after hour, for bad news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But why must it be bad news?&quot; the old lady spoke consolingly. &quot;Herr
+von Eschenhagen was still well and bright yesterday afternoon. I
+inquired about him at your special request. He went to drive with Herr
+and Frau von Wallmoden. The affair has probably been settled amicably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should have heard of it,&quot; said the young girl, in a heartbroken way.
+&quot;He promised me, and he would have kept his word, I know. If misfortune
+has really happened to him--if he has fallen--I believe I could not
+live!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last words were spoken so passionately that Fraulein Berger looked
+at the speaker in dismay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do be reasonable, Marietta,&quot; she entreated. &quot;How are you responsible
+for an impertinent man insulting you, or the betrothed of your friend
+stepping in to your rescue? You really could not act more despairingly
+if your own betrothed stood before the pistol.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The cheeks, just now so pale, flushed redly, and Marietta turned to the
+window with a quick gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not understand, auntie,&quot; she said, in a low voice; &quot;you do not
+know how much love and kindness have been shown me in the house of the
+Chief Forester--how earnestly Toni begged my forgiveness when she
+learned how deeply her future mother-in-law had offended me. What will
+she think of me when she hears that her betrothed has been in a duel
+for my sake? What will Frau von Eschenhagen say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, they will at least be open to the conviction that you are quite
+innocent in this affair, which, if it ends well, they will not hear of.
+I do not recognize or understand you in all this. You used to laugh
+away every care and anxiety, but this time you exaggerate it in a
+really incomprehensible manner. You have scarcely eaten or drunk in two
+days in your excitement; you must not sit at my table to-day as you did
+yesterday and the day before. I tell you that; and now I will look
+after the dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The kind old lady arose and left the room to prepare some extra dainty
+with which to tempt her protegée's fleeting appetite.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was right; the merry, bright Marietta would not now be recognized.
+Beyond a doubt it gave a painful, depressed feeling to be brought
+before the people of Furstenstein in so bad a light through that
+occurrence in the park, and even here in town her name, so carefully
+protected, might suffer if something of it should be heard; but,
+strange to say, these possibilities remained in the background because
+of a fear which grew with every hour and was hardly to be borne any
+longer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With my blood, if it must be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Unconsciously she whispered Willibald's last words, and pressed her hot
+brow against the window pane. &quot;Oh, my God, not that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly at the street corner a figure appeared, which attracted
+attention on account of its unusual size. He came nearer with rapid
+steps and looked searchingly at the house numbers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a suppressed cry of joy, Marietta sprang from the window. She had
+recognized Herr von Eschenhagen. She did not wait until he pulled the
+bell, but hastened to open the door. Tears shimmered yet in her eyes,
+but her voice was jubilant as she cried: &quot;You come at last! God be
+praised!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, here I am, well and whole,&quot; assured Willibald, whose face lighted
+up at his reception.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Neither knew how they reached the sitting room. To the young man it
+seemed as if a small, soft hand had been laid upon his arm and had
+drawn him along, all unresisting. But when they stood before each
+other, Marietta noticed that a broad, black bandage was around his
+right hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mon Dieu, you are injured!&quot; she cried in fear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A slight scratch--not worth mentioning,&quot; Willibald said merrily,
+waving the hand. &quot;I have given the Count a more severe reminder, but it
+is also only a glance shot in the shoulder, and not in the least
+dangerous to his precious life. That man could not even shoot right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you did have the duel? I knew it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This morning at 8 o'clock. But you need fear nothing more, mein
+Fraulein. You see everything has passed off well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young singer drew a deep breath, as if relieved of a mountain load.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you, Herr von Eschenhagen. No--no, do not refuse my thanks.
+You have endangered your life for my sake. I thank you a thousand
+times.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no cause, Fraulein; I did it gladly,&quot; said Willibald,
+cordially. &quot;But, since I have stood before the pistol now for your
+sake, you must permit me to bring you a little token of remembrance.
+You will not throw it at my feet again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He somewhat awkwardly--because of his left hand--drew out from his
+pocket a white tissue paper, and, opening it, disclosed a full-blown
+rose with two buds.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta dropped her eyes in confusion. Mutely she accepted the flowers
+and fastened one of them at her throat. Then she stretched out her hand
+to the giver just as mutely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He fully understood the apology.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course you are accustomed to different floral offerings,&quot; he said,
+apologetically. &quot;I hear a great deal of the homage people pay you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl smiled, but with a more pathetic than happy expression.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have been a witness to what this homage is at times, and it was
+not the first time it has happened. The gentlemen seem to think they
+are permitted to venture anything when one is on the stage. Believe me,
+Herr von Eschenhagen, it is often hard to bear this lot, for which I am
+envied by so many.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald listened intently to these words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hard to bear? I thought you loved your vocation above everything, and
+would not leave it at any price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, surely I love it; but I had not thought that so much bitterness
+and hardship were connected with it. My teacher, Professor Marani,
+says: 'One must rise as on eagle's wings; then all the low and vulgar
+will remain far below.' He may be right, but one must be an eagle for
+that, and I am only a '<i>singvögelchen</i>,' as my grandfather calls me,
+which has nothing but its voice and cannot rise so high. The critics
+often tell me that fire and strength are wanting in my rendering. I
+feel myself that I have no real dramatic talent. I can only sing, and
+would rather do that at home in our green forests than here in this
+golden cage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The voice of the usually bright, cheery girl sounded full of deeply
+suppressed emotion. This last occurrence had shown her again very
+plainly her unprotected position, and now her heart opened to the man
+who had interfered so bravely for her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He listened in rapt attention and seemed to read the words from her
+lips, but at this truly sad report his face beamed as if something very
+joyful was being related, and now he interrupted vehemently:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You long to get away from here? You would like to leave the stage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta laughed aloud, in spite of her sorrow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I really do not think of that, for what should I do then? My
+grandfather saved and economized for years to make my education as a
+singer possible, and it would be poor gratitude if I should be a burden
+to him in his old age. He does not know that at times his little
+<i>singvogel</i> longs for its nest, or that life is made hard for her here.
+I am not usually without courage. I persevere and stand strong whenever
+it must be so. Do not let these, my laments, be heard at Furstenstein.
+You are going there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shadow passed over the beaming face of young Eschenhagen, and he was
+the one now to lower his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I, indeed, go to Furstenstein this afternoon,&quot; he replied, in a
+strangely suppressed tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I ask this one thing more. You must tell your betrothed
+everything--you hear?--everything. We owe it to her. I shall write her
+to-day about the occurrence, and you will confirm my letter with your
+words--yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald raised his eyes slowly and looked at the speaker. &quot;You are
+right, Fraulein. Toni must hear everything the whole truth. I had
+already decided on that before I came here; but it will be a hard hour
+for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, surely not,&quot; said Marietta, encouragingly. &quot;Toni is good and full
+of trust. She will believe your word and my word, that we are both
+innocent in this affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I am not without guilt--at least toward my bride-elect,&quot; declared
+Willibald, earnestly. &quot;Do not look at me in such affright. You must
+hear it later, anyway, and it is perhaps better that I tell you myself.
+I am going to Furstenstein only to ask Toni&quot;--he stopped short and drew
+a deep breath--&quot;to give me back my troth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For heaven's sake, why?&quot; cried the young girl, horrified at this
+explanation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why? Because it would be wrong should I offer Toni my hand and
+stand with her at the altar, with my heart as it is now. Because
+only now do I see what the principal thing is for betrothal and
+marriage--because----&quot; He did not finish, but his eyes spoke so plainly
+that Marietta fully understood the rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her face suddenly colored crimson. She drew back and made a violently
+repellent gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr von Eschenhagen, be silent; do not speak another word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is not my fault,&quot; Willibald continued, in spite of the command.
+&quot;I have struggled manfully and tried truly to keep my promise during
+the whole time I was at Burgsdorf. I believed it would be possible; but
+then I came here and saw you again in 'Arivana' on that evening, and
+knew that the struggle had been in vain. I had not forgotten you,
+Fraulein Marietta--not for an hour--as often as I had tried to make
+myself believe it, and I shall not forget you all my life long. I shall
+confess this to Toni openly, and shall also tell my mother when I
+return to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The confession was made. The young lord, who could not manage the first
+proposal at Furstenstein alone, but had to be helped by his mother, now
+spoke as warmly and heartily--as openly and as truly--as a man must
+speak in such an hour. He had learned it suddenly, and with the
+helplessness which he shook off with such decision, there seemed to
+fall off, too, all his awkwardness and ridiculous manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He quickly approached Marietta, who had fled to the window, and his
+firm voice grew unsteady as he continued: &quot;And now one question. You
+looked so pale when you opened the door for me, and your eyes spoke of
+tears. The affair may have been painful and mortifying to you; I can
+understand that, but did you also fear a little for my welfare?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No answer, but low sobs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you fear for me? Only a little 'yes,' Marietta. You have no idea
+how happy you would make me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He bent low over the young girl, who now slowly raised the small, bowed
+head. In her dark eyes there glowed a spark as of secret happiness. The
+answer was almost inaudible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I? Ach, I have almost <i>died</i> of fear these last two days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald gave a joyful exclamation and drew her to his breast; but
+only for a moment, then she struggled from his embrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No--not now. Go now, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He released her at once and stepped back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right, Marietta; not yet. But, after I have freed myself, I
+shall come again and ask for another 'yes.' Farewell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He hastened away before Marietta had scarce recovered control of
+herself. She was aroused by the voice of Fraulein Berger, who,
+unnoticed by the two, had stood upon the threshold of the adjoining
+room for several moments, and who now approached in a state of horror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Child, for mercy's sake, what does it mean? Do you not consider----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young girl did not let her finish, but threw both arms around her
+neck and wept passionately.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, now I know why I was so enraged at the time he suffered his mother
+to insult me. It hurt me so inexpressibly to believe him a coward; I
+have loved him from the first.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">In the house of the Prussian Ambassador everything was in a state of
+preparation for the winter festivities. When Wallmoden had entered his
+present position, in the spring, society was already scattered in all
+directions for the summer, and immediately afterward occurred the sad
+event which had put an end to all festivities for them. These causes,
+however, were done with now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The many halls and apartments of the Ambassador's palace had been
+furnished with such splendor as Herbert's circumstances, made brilliant
+by his marriage, permitted; and it was his intention to have as
+magnificent a home as was possible to obtain. Their first grand
+reception was to take place next week, and in the meantime numerous
+calls were being made and returned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador was also much occupied with his official duties,
+and, besides, there was one thing which ruined his peace of mind
+completely--the success of Arivana. If he had had doubts before about
+opposing Rojanow's publicity, it had now become quite impossible. The
+&quot;adventurer&quot; was raised upon the shield and his poetical spirit was
+being praised everywhere. The Court and society generally could not be
+forced now to drop him without subjecting themselves to mortification,
+and it was questionable, besides, if they would drop him at all, since
+only hints and vague remarks could be given. That grand success had
+made Hartmut almost unapproachable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To add to the embarrassment of the Ambassador's position, Falkenried's
+arrival was expected in the near future, from whom the truth could not
+be kept, for fear he should hear it from outsiders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Colonel, of whose present trip nothing was known when Wallmoden had
+seen him in Berlin a short time ago, would be here in a few days and
+would make his headquarters at the Ambassador's palace, since he was no
+stranger to Adelaide. She and her brother had, in a measure, grown up
+under his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When, ten years ago, the then Major Falkenried had been removed to the
+distant province, he had been stationed at a post in the small town
+lying in the immediate vicinity of the great Stahlberg works and
+dependent almost entirely upon them. The new Major was considered an
+excellent soldier, but a pronounced man-hater, who enjoyed his duties
+only, occupying all his spare time with military studies, and who hated
+everything that came under the head of society.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he was alone, he was excused from keeping an open house, and he
+exhibited himself only at houses where his position imperatively
+demanded it. Such consideration had to be shown the great manufacturer,
+who was the leader of the whole vicinity, and who received and
+entertained as guests the first and highest personages.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stahlberg had been the only one whom the military man approached.
+Although the grave and gloomy reticence of the Major excluded real
+friendship, yet the two men felt the highest esteem for each other, and
+the Stahlberg home was the only place where Falkenried appeared
+occasionally of his own free will.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had had intercourse there for years and seen the two children grow
+up. Therefore Wallmoden was the more offended that Falkenried did not
+attend his wedding, but excused himself through pressure of official
+duties.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide knew little or nothing about the life of the Colonel. She
+considered him childless and heard only from her husband that he had
+been married early in life, but had been separated from his wife and
+was now a widower.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was about a week after the return of the Wallmodens that
+Falkenried's arrival was announced to the young wife as she sat one day
+at her writing table. She threw aside her pen, arose quickly and
+hastened to her friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are heartily welcome, Colonel Falkenried. We received your
+telegram, and Herbert intended to meet you at the depot, but just at
+this hour he has an audience with the Duke, and is still at the palace,
+so we could only send the carriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her greeting had all the cordiality which an old friend of her father's
+could wish, but Falkenried's response was not of a like kind. Coldly
+and seriously he accepted the offered hand and the invitation to be
+seated, as he thanked her for her welcome.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Colonel had indeed changed, so much as scarcely to be recognized.
+Were it not for the tall, muscular form and strong, firm carriage, one
+could have taken him for an old man. His hair--the hair of a man barely
+fifty years old--was white as snow, the brow furrowed deeply, and sharp
+lines were buried in the face, making it look ten years older. The
+features, once so expressive, appeared fixed and immovable now; the
+entire appearance and bearing bespoke stern, impenetrable reticence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine's words, &quot;The man is turned to stone,&quot; were only too true. One
+involuntarily gained the impression that he had become a total stranger
+to the world, and that all mankind had died off for aught that moved
+him--nothing was left except the duties of his vocation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps I have disturbed you, Ada,&quot; he said, using her old home name
+as he glanced at the writing table where lay a half-finished letter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is plenty of time for that,&quot; replied the young wife, lightly. &quot;I
+was only writing to Eugene.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah? I am the bearer of love from your brother. I saw him the day
+before yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew that he intended going to Berlin and to see you. He has not
+seen you for nearly two years now, and I, too, saw but little of you
+during our journey through Berlin. We hoped you would come to
+Burgsdorf, where we stayed for a few days, and I believe that Regine
+felt very hurt that you did not accept her invitation for this time,
+either.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Colonel looked to the floor; he knew why he avoided Burgsdorf and
+its reminiscences. He had hardly been there twice since his return to
+the Capital.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Regine knows how economical I have to be with my time,&quot; he replied,
+evasively. &quot;But, to return to your brother, Ada; I should like to speak
+to you, and therefore I am glad to find you alone. What is the
+difficulty between Eugene and his brother-in-law? Has something
+happened to alienate them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A certain embarrassment was visible in Adelaide's face at the question,
+but she answered lightly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing especial; the two are not very congenial.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not very congenial? Wallmoden is nearly forty years his senior, and
+his guardian besides. Your brother will not be of age for several
+years. In such case the younger one must submit unconditionally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly; but Eugene, although as good as gold, is only too often
+rash and passionate as he has always been.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alas, so he is. He will have to change considerably if he wishes to
+fill, half as well as his father did, the important and responsible
+position which awaits him. But something else seems to be the trouble
+here. I made a casual remark about your marriage, Ada--which event, to
+tell the truth, surprised me, although I am on friendly terms with your
+husband--and said that I had not thought you had so much ambition; but
+at this Eugene burst out and defended you in the most passionate
+manner, and spoke of a sacrifice which his sister had made for him. In
+short, he allowed himself to be carried away into words and hints which
+surprised me in the highest degree.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You should not have paid any attention to it,&quot; said Adelaide, with
+visible emotion. &quot;A young, hot head takes everything tragically. What
+did he tell you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In fact, nothing definite. He seems to have given you his word to keep
+silent and not speak without your permission; but he seems to almost
+hate his brother-in-law. What does all this mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife was silent; the conversation seemed painful to her in
+the highest degree.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried looked at her searchingly as he continued: &quot;You know it is
+not my way to inquire into the secrets of others. I take but little
+interest in the doings of people around me, but my friend's honor comes
+into consideration here; those remarks contain a crimination. Of
+course, I could not allow that, but when I remonstrated with your
+brother and threatened to speak to Wallmoden about it, he said: 'My
+Herr brother-in-law will explain the affair diplomatically to you. He
+has proved a very diplomat in it all. Ask Ada if you wish to learn the
+truth.' I ask you first, therefore; but if you cannot and will not
+answer, then I must speak to your husband, from whom I cannot keep such
+remarks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He spoke in a cold and measured tone, without any excitement. The
+affair, apparently, caused him no interest whatever. He considered it
+necessary to take it up solely because a point of honor came in
+question.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not speak to Herbert about it, I beg of you,&quot; interrupted Adelaide,
+quickly. &quot;I shall have to explain to you, since Eugene allowed himself
+to be carried away so far; but he has taken the matter too hard from
+the beginning. There is nothing dishonorable about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope so, since Wallmoden is concerned,&quot; said the Colonel, with
+emphasis.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The young Baroness lowered her voice and evaded the eyes of her
+listener as she commenced.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know that my engagement happened a year ago at Florence. My father
+was even then very ailing, and the physicians desired that he should
+remain in Italy during the winter. We went to Florence, intending to
+stay two months, and then make further plans according to the wish of
+the invalid. My brother had accompanied us, but was to return home at
+the beginning of winter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We took a villa outside the city, and, of course, lived quite secluded.
+Eugene saw Italy for the first time, and it was so mournful for him to
+sit day after day in the lonely sick room, that I seconded his request
+to go to Rome for a short time. He finally received permission. Oh, if
+I had never done it! But I could not know how deeply his inexperience
+would involve him then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That means that he followed up adventures, although his father was at
+death's door.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not judge so harshly. My brother was scarcely twenty years old
+then, and had always lived under the eyes of a loving but very strict
+father. The short freedom proved dangerous to him. The young German,
+who had no knowledge of the world whatever, was enticed into circles
+where high--and as it was afterward proved--false gambling was the
+order of the day, and where a number of bad, but outwardly charming,
+elements met. Eugene, in his ignorance, did not understand it, and lost
+heavily, until suddenly the party was raided by the police. The
+Italians defended themselves, and it ended in a fight, into which
+Eugene, too, was drawn. He only defended himself, but he had the
+misfortune to injure a policeman severely, and was arrested with the
+others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Colonel had listened silently, with impassive face, and his voice
+was as harsh as before as he said: &quot;And Stahlberg had to live to see
+this of his son, who had been a model until then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He never heard of it; it was only a momentary losing of one's self--a
+case of one misled, rather than guilty, and it will not happen again.
+Eugene has given me his word of honor for that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried laughed so scornfully that his companion looked at him in
+consternation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;His word of honor! Yes, why not? That is given as easily as it is
+broken. Are you truly so trusting as to believe in the word of such a
+young lad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that I am,&quot; asserted Adelaide, in an injured tone, while her
+eyes, earnest and reproachful, met the gaze of the man whose awful
+bitterness she could not explain. &quot;I know my brother. In spite of this
+escapade, he is the son of his father, and he will keep his word to me
+and to himself--I know it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is well for you if you can still believe and trust. I have long
+forgotten how,&quot; said Falkenried, in a low but milder tone. &quot;And what
+happened then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My brother succeeded in being allowed to send me word immediately.
+'Keep it from father, it would be his death,' he wrote. I knew better
+than he did that our desperately ill father could not stand such news.
+But we were alone in a foreign country, without friends or
+acquaintances, and help had to be had instantly. In this extremity I
+thought of Herr von Wallmoden, who at the time was at the embassy at
+Florence. We had known him slightly before, and he had called directly
+after our arrival and placed himself at our command, should we need the
+help of the Ambassador. He had come to our house frequently, and now
+hastened to me immediately upon receiving my request. I told him all,
+and trusted him, beseeching his advice and help--and received it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At what price?&quot; demanded the Colonel, with darkly contracted brows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide shook her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no; it is not as you think--as Eugene also believed. I was not
+forced. Herbert gave me free choice, although he did not hide from me
+that the occurrence was much worse than I feared; that those sums lost
+in play must, nevertheless, be paid if one wished to keep the affair
+from publicity; that, in spite of all, it might get into the courts, on
+account of the injury to the policeman. He explained to me that he
+might be brought into a wrong light if he mixed himself up in such
+affairs. 'You desire me to save your brother,' said he; 'perhaps I can
+do it, but I jeopardize my position--my whole future thereby. One
+makes such a sacrifice, perhaps, only for his own brother, or--his
+brother-in-law.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried arose suddenly and took a turn through the room. Then he
+stood still before the young wife and said, in angry tones: &quot;And you,
+of course, believed that in your anxiety?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you mean that it was not so?&quot; asked Adelaide, startled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders with a half-contemptuous expression.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Possibly. I do not know these diplomatic reasons. I know only one
+thing; Wallmoden has, indeed, proved himself a great diplomat in the
+whole affair. What did you answer him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I asked for time to think, everything had burst so upon me. But I
+knew, that no moment was to be lost, and that same evening I gave
+Herbert the right to act--for his brother-in-law.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course,&quot; muttered the Colonel, with deep disdain; &quot;the wise, shrewd
+Herbert!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He obtained leave of absence immediately, and went to Rome,&quot; continued
+the young Baroness, &quot;returning in a week, accompanied by my brother. He
+had succeeded in freeing Eugene and withdrawing him from the whole
+affair. Even the newspapers did not mention the name of the young
+German who had been involved in it. I do not know by what means it was
+done. If one has powerful friends and does not need to spare money,
+much is possible. Herbert had spent money lavishly on all sides and had
+brought into use every advantage made possible to him through his long
+years of diplomatic work. He also cancelled the gambling debts,
+although with his own bond. He told me later that he had given half his
+fortune for that purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was very magnanimous, since by this sacrifice he won a cool
+million. And what did Eugene say to this--trade?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He knew nothing of it, and soon returned to Germany, as had been
+decided at first. From that time Herbert came to our house daily and
+knew how to prepossess my sick father so well, that father finally felt
+a desire for the union himself. Only then did Herbert begin his wooing.
+I was grateful to him for giving it this turn, only Eugene was not
+deceived. He guessed everything, and forced the truth from me. Since
+then he has tortured himself with self-reproach and almost feels
+hostility toward his brother-in-law, in spite of my repeated assurance
+that I have never had cause to rue that step, and that I have in
+Herbert the most attentive and considerate husband.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried's eyes rested intently upon the face of the young wife, as
+if he wished to read her most secret thoughts.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you happy?&quot; he asked, slowly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am content.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is much in this life,&quot; said the Colonel in the old, harsh tone.
+&quot;We were not born to be happy. I have done you wrong, Ada. I believed
+the splendor of a high position, the desire to play a first rôle in
+society as wife of the Ambassador, had made you Frau von Wallmoden,
+but--I am glad that t judged you wrongly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stretched forth his hand. Some expression was now in the icy gaze
+and an apology in the grasp of the hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know everything now,&quot; concluded Adelaide, with a deep breath, &quot;and
+I beg that you will not touch upon the subject before Herbert. You see,
+there was nothing dishonorable in his dealings. I repeat to you that he
+used neither force nor persuasion. I was forced only by the power of
+circumstances. I could not expect that he would make such sacrifices
+for a stranger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If a lady had sought me in such anxiety, I would have made the
+sacrifices--unconditionally,&quot; declared Falkenried.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you! I would have followed you also with a lighter heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The avowal betrayed, unconsciously, how hard had been the struggle
+which the young wife had not mentioned by a word. But she spoke the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She would much rather have given herself to the gloomy, reticent man,
+with his harsh and often offensive manner, if the sacrifice had to be
+made, than to the ever polite and attentive husband, who, in the face
+of her extremity--had traded with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You would have had a hard lot then, Ada,&quot; said the Colonel, with a
+grave shake of the head. &quot;I am one of the men who cannot give or
+receive anything more in this life. I have finished with it long ago.
+But you are right; it is better to let that subject remain untouched
+between Wallmoden and me, for if I wished to tell him my true opinion
+about it--well, he will always be a diplomat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide arose, breaking off the conversation, and tried to assume a
+lighter tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And now let me take you to your rooms at last. You must be exhausted
+by the long trip.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, a single night's journey will not tire a soldier. Duty makes
+harsher demands than that on us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew himself up straight and firm; one could see that his physical
+strength was yet unbroken. Those muscles and sinews seemed like steel.
+It was the features alone that bore the mark of age.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The eyes of the Baroness lingered upon them thoughtfully, especially
+upon the brow which was so deeply and heavily furrowed and yet was
+formed so high and powerful under the white hair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It seemed to her as if she had seen that brow somewhere else, under
+dark locks; but there could not be a sharper contrast than between this
+too early aged, care-lined face and that youthful head with the
+foreign, southern beauty and the uncanny light in the eyes. Yet it had
+been the same brow over which the lightnings had flamed on that lonely
+forest height; the same high, powerful curve; even the blue veins which
+were so pronounced at the temples--a strange, incomprehensible
+likeness!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">After some hours the two friends were alone together in Wallmoden's
+study. The latter had just made the unavoidable as well as painful
+disclosure. He had told the Colonel under what circumstances Rojanow
+was in the city, and had unveiled to him uncompromisingly everything he
+knew of Hartmut's life and that of his mother, finally informing him of
+her death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had feared this hour, but the result was quite different from what
+he had expected. Mutely Falkenried leaned against the window with
+folded arms and listened to the long explanations, without interrupting
+by a word or gesture. His face remained cold and impassive; no quiver,
+no motion betrayed that he heard those things which must bring anguish
+to his heart. He was now also &quot;a man of stone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believed I owed these explanations to you,&quot; concluded the Ambassador
+finally. &quot;If I have kept what I knew of the fate of the two from you so
+long, it was done solely that you might not be tortured unnecessarily
+with what was hard enough for you to overcome. But you had to learn now
+what has happened, and how matters stand at present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Colonel retained his position and his voice betrayed no mental
+excitement as he replied:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you for your good will, but you could have spared yourself
+these explanations. What is that adventurer to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden looked up amazed; he had not expected such a response.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought it necessary to prepare you for the possibility of meeting
+him,&quot; he returned. &quot;As you have heard, Rojanow now plays an important
+rôle; he is celebrated everywhere. The Duke is deeply wrapped up in
+him. You might meet him at the castle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what then? I do not know anybody by the name of Rojanow, and he
+will not dare to know me. We should pass each other as strangers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Ambassador's gaze rested searchingly upon Falkenried's features as
+if to fathom this real coldness or incomprehensible self-command.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought you would receive the news of the reappearance of your son
+very differently,&quot; he said, half aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For the first time he intentionally used this title; hitherto he had
+merely said Rojanow. But now, for the first time also, an emotion was
+visible in the calm figure at the window. But it was an emotion of
+anger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have no son--remember that, Wallmoden. He died to me that night at
+Burgsdorf, and the dead do not rise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden was silent; the Colonel approached him and laid his hand
+heavily upon his arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You said just now that it was your duty to enlighten the Duke, and
+that you had not done so solely out of consideration for me. I
+have, indeed, but one thing to guard in the world--the honor of my
+name--which, through that exposition, would be at the mercy of the
+world's raillery and scorn. Do what you think you must do--I shall not
+hinder you. But--I shall also do what I have to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His voice sounded as cold as before, but it contained something so
+awful that the Ambassador started up in affright.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Falkenried, for heaven's sake, what do you mean? How am I to interpret
+those words?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you like. You diplomats define honor differently at times from us.
+I am very one-sided about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall keep silence inviolably, I pledge you my word,&quot; assured
+Wallmoden, who did not understand the last bitter hint, for he had no
+idea of Adelaide's confession. &quot;I had decided on that before you came;
+the name of Falkenried shall not be sacrificed by me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Enough, and now no more of it. You have prepared the Duke for what I
+bring?&quot; asked Falkenried, passing on to an entirely different subject
+after a short pause. &quot;What has he to say to it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here again was the old iron, unbending will, which put aside all
+questioning; but the sudden change seemed to be acceptable to the
+Ambassador. He was, here as well as elsewhere, the wise diplomat who
+dreaded nothing so much as public exposure, and who would never have
+thought of exposing Hartmut, had he not feared that by a possible
+leaking out of the truth later and of his knowledge of it, it might be
+counted against him. Now, in the worst case, he could cover himself
+with the promise he had given the father. Even the Duke must
+acknowledge that he--Wallmoden--had had to spare his friend. The shrewd
+Herbert knew how to calculate here, too.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stay of Colonel Falkenried was only of short duration, and during
+the time he had no rest. Audience with the Duke--conferences with high
+military dignitaries, communications with his own embassy--all were
+crowded within a few days.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wallmoden was hardly less occupied, until finally everything was
+settled. The Ambassador, and especially Colonel Falkenried, had reason
+to be satisfied with the results, for everything had been successful
+that was expected and desired by their government, and they could be
+sure of the highest appreciation at home.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only the most nearly connected circles knew that something important
+was going on, and even in these circles only a few knew the full
+importance of the conferences. Scarcely anything was noticed in public,
+which, therefore, occupied itself only the more with its present
+favorite, the poet of Arivana, whose incomprehensible behavior made him
+so much more interesting in the Residenz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Almost immediately after that brilliant triumph of his work he had
+withdrawn from all praise and homage, and had gone into &quot;forest
+solitude,&quot; as Prince Adelsberg laughingly informed all questioners.
+Where this solitude was, nobody learned. Egon assured them that he had
+given his word not to betray the place of his friend's seclusion, for
+he needed rest after all his excitement, but would return in a few
+days. Nobody knew that Hartmut was at Rodeck.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20px">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Within the week, one cold winter morning, the carriage of Herr von
+Wallmoden stood at his palace door. It seemed to be preparing for a
+long excursion, for servants were carrying furs and travelling rugs to
+it, while upstairs in the room where they had just breakfasted, the
+Ambassador was taking leave of Colonel Falkenried.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Until to-morrow evening, <i>auf wiedersehen</i>,&quot; he was saying as he shook
+hands. &quot;We shall be back by that time without fail, and you will surely
+remain a few days longer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, since the Duke wishes it so particularly,&quot; answered the Colonel.
+&quot;I have so reported it to Berlin, and my report left on the same train
+that carried yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I believe they will be satisfied with these reports; but it
+has been a hot time. We had no rest all those days. Now, fortunately,
+everything is arranged, and I can afford to absent myself for
+twenty-four hours to drive to Ostwalden with Adelaide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ostwalden is the name of your new country home? I remember that you
+spoke of it yesterday. Where is it situated?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;About two miles from Furstenstein. Schonan drew my attention to it
+while we were with him and I looked at the place at that time. It is
+rather an extensive possession in the famous Wald, beautifully
+situated, but the price was too high at first, which has delayed the
+settlement. We have but now come to a final understanding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe Ada is not quite satisfied with your selection. She seems to
+have something against the vicinity of Furstenstein,&quot; interrupted
+Falkenried, but the Ambassador only shrugged his shoulders carelessly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A caprice, nothing more. At first Adelaide was quite delighted with
+Ostwalden, but later she raised all sorts of objections--but I cannot
+pay any attention to that. I shall probably remain there for
+considerable periods, as I no longer like to travel far in the summer.
+A country seat which is only four hours removed from town is therefore
+of great value to me. The castle itself is in rather a dilapidated
+condition at present, but something can be made of it. With appropriate
+changes and additions it can be made a really superb residence, and I
+intend doing that. I shall therefore look it over carefully, so that
+the plans can be finished as soon as possible. I have not been there as
+yet since I bought it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He made his statements with much evident satisfaction over his plans.
+Herbert von Wallmoden, who had originally possessed only a limited
+fortune, and was compelled to expend it with great care, had suddenly
+found it necessary to buy a sumptuous place in town, where he lived
+only temporarily, and to have a princely villa for his summer
+residence. But he did not find it necessary to consider the wishes
+of his wife, whose wealth made it possible to him to play the great
+land-owner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried may have had such ideas while listening, but he did not
+speak of them. He had turned graver and stonier, if possible, in the
+last few days, and if he really asked a question or made a remark
+during the conversation, one could see it was but mechanical, and
+because he had to say something.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only when Adelaide entered, perfectly equipped for the journey, he
+arose promptly and offered his arm to lead her to the carriage. He
+lifted her in, and Wallmoden, who followed her, leaned once more from
+the carriage door. &quot;We shall assuredly return to-morrow. Au revoir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried bowed and stepped back; It was indifferent to him whether he
+saw the friend of his youth again. This, too, had lost its interest;
+but when he ascended the steps, he murmured half aloud; &quot;Poor Ada, she
+deserved a better fate!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meanwhile everything pursued its usual course at Furstenstein.
+Willibald had been there a week. He had arrived two days later than had
+been expected, but the injury to his hand was the cause of that.
+According to his explanation it had happened through his own
+carelessness, and the hand was already rapidly getting well.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester found that his future son-in-law had changed much
+for the better during the short intervening time of his absence, and
+that he had become much more earnest and decided; and he remarked to
+his daughter with the highest satisfaction: &quot;I believe that Willy is
+only now commencing to be human. One notices directly when his lady
+mamma is not standing commandingly at his side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Herr von Schonan did not have much time at his disposal to notice
+the engaged couple, as he was at present overwhelmed with official
+duties. The Duke had ordered several changes in the forest government
+to be made according to the suggestions of the Chief Forester, who was
+now zealously occupied in executing all of them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He saw and heard daily that Antonie and Willy were on the best terms,
+so he left them mostly to themselves.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile in the house of the doctor at Waldhofen care and anxiety had
+made their appearance. The sickness of the doctor, which at first had
+given no cause for fear, suddenly took a dangerous turn, which was
+augmented greatly by the age of the patient. He had called persistently
+for his granddaughter, and she had been telegraphed for. She had at
+once obtained leave of absence--her rôle in Arivana was filled by
+another--and she hastened without delay to Waldhofen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Antonie showed a touching fidelity to her friend at this time. Day
+after day found her at the home of the Volkmars to console and cheer
+Marietta, who clung to her grandfather with her whole soul.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald seemed to be likewise necessary at these consolations, for he
+accompanied Toni regularly, and the Chief Forester thought it quite
+natural that &quot;the poor little thing&quot; was being consoled and helped to
+the best of their ability, more especially as she had suffered so
+unmerited an insult in his house, for which he could not to this day
+forgive his sister-in-law.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Finally, after three long, sorrowful days and nights, the doctor's
+strong constitution conquered; the danger was passed, and hopes of a
+full recovery were entertained.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Schonan, who was cordially attached to the doctor, was
+heartily glad of it, and so everything seemed to have come into the
+best of order.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But threatening weather arose from the north. Without a word of warning
+Frau von Eschenhagen suddenly appeared at Furstenstein. She had not
+taken time to stop in town where her brother lived, but came directly
+from Burgsdorf, and burst like a hurricane upon her brother-in-law, who
+sat in his room very comfortably reading the paper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All good spirits--is it you, Regine?&quot; he cried, amazed. &quot;This is what
+I call a surprise; you ought to have sent us word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is Willibald?&quot; demanded Regine in a dangerous tone, by way of
+answer. &quot;Is he at Furstenstein?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course, where else should he be? I believe he has announced his
+arrival here to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let him be called--immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But what is the matter?&quot; asked Schonan, noticing now for the first
+time his sister-in-law's excitement. &quot;Is there a fire at Burgsdorf,
+or what? I cannot call Willy to you this moment, for he is at
+Waldhofen----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Probably at Dr. Volkmar's--and she is probably there, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is 'she'? Toni has, of course, gone with him. They visit that poor
+little thing daily--Marietta--who was quite despairing at first. I must
+speak a word with you on this point, Regine. How could you offend the
+dear girl so deeply, and in my house besides? I only heard of it
+afterward, or----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A loud, angry laugh interrupted him. Frau von Eschenhagen had thrown
+hat and cloak upon a chair and now drew close to her brother-in-law.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you to reproach me because I tried to avert the evil which you
+have brought upon yourself? Of course you have always been blind and
+would never listen to my warnings--now it is too late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe you are not in your right mind, Regine,&quot; said the Forester,
+who really did not know what to think of it all. &quot;Will you be so kind
+as to tell me what you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine drew forth a newspaper and handed it to him, pointing with her
+finger to a paragraph.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Read!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Schonan obeyed, and now his face also grew red in angry surprise. The
+article, which was dated from the South German Residenz, read as
+follows:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have just learned that a duel with pistols took place last Monday,
+very early in the morning, in a remote part of our park. The opponents
+were a well-known resident, Count W--, and a young North German
+landowner, W--v. E--, who is visiting his relative here--a high and
+distinguished diplomat. The cause of the duel is reported to be a
+member of our Court Theatre, a young singer who bears the best of
+reputations. Count W-- was injured in the shoulder. Herr v. E-- carried
+off a slight wound in the hand, and departed immediately.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thunder and lightning!&quot; burst forth the Chief Forester, violently.
+&quot;The betrothed of my Toni has a duel for Marietta's sake! So this is
+the cause of the injured hand which he brought with him! This is
+charming, indeed! What else do you know about it, Regine? My paper did
+not notice it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But mine did; it was copied from one of your papers, as you see. I
+read it yesterday and hastened here at once. I did not even stop to see
+Herbert, who cannot have known anything about it, or he would have
+notified me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herbert will be here at noon,&quot; said Schonan, throwing the paper
+angrily upon the table. &quot;He is at Ostwalden with Adelaide, and has
+written that he will return by Furstenstein and stop over a few hours.
+Perhaps he is coming on this account, but that does not change anything
+in the matter. Has that boy--that Willibald--gone crazy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that he has,&quot; assented Frau von Eschenhagen in like anger. &quot;You
+made fun of me, Moritz, when I exhorted you not to let your child
+associate with an actress. Indeed, I had no idea that matters could
+take such a turn until the moment I discovered that Willy--that my
+son--was in love with Marietta Volkmar. I snatched him instantly from
+the danger and returned to Burgsdorf. This was the reason of our sudden
+departure, which I kept from you, because I considered Willy's
+condition as a passing fancy. The boy seemed to have returned to his
+senses completely. I would not otherwise have permitted him this
+journey; and to be surer still, I placed him under the protection of my
+brother. He cannot have been more than three or four days in town, and
+now we must live to see this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Quite exhausted, she threw herself into an arm-chair. The Chief
+Forester began to stride about the room vehemently. &quot;And this is not
+the worst yet,&quot; he cried. &quot;The worst is the farce which the boy is
+playing with his betrothed here. My child goes to Waldhofen day after
+day, consoling and helping wherever she can, and the Herr Willy always
+runs along, and uses the opportunity as a rendezvous. That is too
+outrageous! You have raised something nice in that son, Regine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think I make excuses for him?&quot; demanded Regine. &quot;He shall
+answer to us both--I have come for that. He shall learn to know me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She lifted her hand as if making a vow, and Schonan, who was still
+racing through the room, repeated angrily: &quot;Yes, he shall learn to know
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then and there the door opened, and the betrayed bride-elect entered
+into this wild excitement--calm and serene as usual, and saying in the
+most innocent way: &quot;I have just heard of your arrival, dear aunt; you
+are very welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She received no answer, but from both sides instead sounded the
+question: &quot;Where is Willibald?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He will be here directly; he has gone to the castle gardener for a few
+moments, as he did not know of his mother's arrival.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To the gardener! Perhaps to get roses as before,&quot; burst forth Frau von
+Eschenhagen; but the Chief Forester opened his arms and cried in
+pathetic tones:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child! my poor betrayed child! Come to me come into your father's
+arms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He attempted to draw his daughter to his heart, but Regine came upon
+the other side and also attempted to draw her to her breast, crying out
+in just as pathetic tones: &quot;Compose yourself, Toni. An awful blow
+confronts you, but you must bear it. You must show your betrothed that
+he and his betrayal are an abomination to your deepest soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This stormy sympathy was rather startling, but fortunately Antonie had
+strong nerves. So she freed herself from the double embrace, stepped
+back, and said with calm decision: &quot;I do not think it so. I begin only
+now to really like Willy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So much the worse,&quot; said Schonan. &quot;Poor child, you do not know yet;
+you have no idea of anything! Your betrothed has had a duel for
+another's sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know that, papa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For Marietta's sake,&quot; explained Frau von Eschenhagen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it, dear aunt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But he loves Marietta!&quot; cried both in accord.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know that, too,&quot; replied Toni, with superior mien. &quot;I have known it
+for a week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The effect of this explanation was so crushing that the two furious
+people became silent and looked at each other in consternation. Toni
+continued with imperturbable composure:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willy told me everything directly upon his arrival. He spoke so
+beautifully and truly that I wept with emotion. At the same time a
+letter arrived from Marietta, in which she begged my pardon, and that
+was still more touching. So nothing was left to me but to give back to
+Willy his promise and freedom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Without asking us?&quot; exclaimed Regine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The asking would not have been of any use here,&quot; said Toni, calmly,
+&quot;for I could not marry a man who tells me that he loves another. We
+have therefore quietly dissolved our engagement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? And I learn it only now? You have become very independent
+suddenly,&quot; cried her father angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willy intended to speak to you the next day, papa, but he could not
+have remained here any longer after such an explanation, and just then
+occurred the serious illness of Dr. Volkmar and Marietta's arrival. She
+was in despair poor Marietta! and Willy's heart almost broke at the
+thought of leaving her alone in this anxiety and of going away without
+knowing what turn the illness would take; so I proposed to him to keep
+quiet for the present, until the danger should be past; but I went with
+him to Waldhofen daily, so that he could see and console Marietta. They
+have been so grateful to me--those two. They have called me the
+guardian angel of their love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lady seemed to find this very touching, too, for she carried
+her handkerchief to her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen stood stiff and rigid as a statue, but Schonan
+folded his hands and said with a resigned sigh: &quot;May God bless your
+kindness, my child! but such a thing has never happened before. And you
+have arranged the affair very smoothly, I must confess. You have sat
+and looked quietly on while your betrothed made love to another girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Antonie shook her head impatiently. Apparently she liked the rôle of
+guardian angel, and found her position one she could fill without any
+great exertion, since her affection for her betrothed had always been a
+very cool one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There was no sign of love-making, as the doctor was too seriously
+ill,&quot; she returned. &quot;Marietta cried incessantly and we had plenty to do
+to console her. Now you see and understand that I am not at all
+betrayed, and that Willy has acted openly and honestly. I asked him
+myself to be silent to you, and, in fact, the matter concerns us
+only----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think so? It is therefore of no concern to us?&quot; interrupted the
+Chief Forester furiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, papa. Willy is of the opinion that we need not mind our parents in
+this matter at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What does Willibald mean?&quot; demanded Frau von Eschenhagen, who regained
+her speech at this unheard-of assertion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That each must love the other before marrying, and he is right,&quot;
+declared Toni, with unusual vivacity. &quot;It was not in our engagement at
+all--in fact, we were not even consulted--but I shall not permit it
+another time. I see now what it means for two people to love each other
+with all their heart, and how remarkably Willy has changed through it.
+I, too, want to be loved as Marietta is loved, and if I do not find a
+man who loves me exactly like that--then I shall not marry at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And after this remark Fraulein Antonie walked out of the room with much
+decision and a highly elevated head, leaving father and aunt in an
+indescribable condition.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester was the first to regain composure, but suppressed
+vexation was still in his voice as he turned to his sister-in-law and
+said: &quot;Your boy has managed nicely, I must confess, Regine. Now Toni
+wants to be loved also, and begins to get romantic ideas in her head,
+and Willy seems to be far gone already in that respect. I actually
+believe he has managed to make this second proposal by himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen paid no attention to this bitter hint of her
+interference at the former time. Her face bore an expression which
+promised nothing good.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem to look upon this affair from a comic standpoint,&quot; she said.
+&quot;I take it differently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That will not help you any,&quot; returned Schonan. &quot;When such a model son
+commences to rebel, the affair is usually hopeless, especially when he
+is in love. But I am curious to know how Willy behaves himself as a
+lover--it must be a remarkable sight!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Schonan's curiosity was to be immediately satisfied, for Willy
+now appeared. He had heard of the arrival of his mother and was
+therefore prepared for anything, for that there must be something
+especial to bring her to Furstenstein so unexpectedly, he knew. But the
+young lord did not shrink back this time as he did two months ago, when
+he timidly concealed the rose in his pocket. His bearing betrayed that
+he was determined to take up the unavoidable contest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here is your mother, Willy,&quot; commenced the Chief Forester. &quot;I suppose
+you are very much surprised to see her here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, uncle, I am not,&quot; was the answer, but the young man made no
+attempt to approach his mother, for she stood there like a threatening
+storm cloud, and her voice rumbled like distant thunder as she said:
+&quot;So you know why I have come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I at least guess it, mamma, even if I cannot understand how you have
+heard----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The papers have told all--there it lies,&quot; interrupted Frau von
+Eschenhagen, pointing to the table, &quot;and, besides, Toni has told us
+everything--do you hear? everything!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She pronounced this last word in an annihilating tone. Willy was not
+moved from his composure, but replied tranquilly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I shall not have to tell you, then. I should have spoken to
+uncle to-day about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was too much. The storm cloud burst now with thunder and
+lightning; it loaded and discharged with such vehemence over the head
+of the young lord that really nothing seemed left for him to do but to
+disappear quickly under the ground, which could not bear a person of
+his kind any longer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But he did not disappear; he only bowed his head to the storm, and when
+it finally subsided--for Frau Regine had necessarily to draw breath
+some time--he drew himself up and said: &quot;Mamma, please let me talk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You want to talk? that is remarkable,&quot; declared Schonan, who was not
+used to such efforts from his daughter's betrothed; but Willibald
+actually began, hesitatingly and uncertainly at first, but he gradually
+acquired firmness in speech and bearing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry that I have to offend you, but it could not be helped. I am
+just as innocent about the duel as Marietta is. She was being followed
+by an impertinent fellow persistently. I protected her and chastised
+the offender, who sent me a challenge, which I never could nor would
+decline. I have to beg Toni's pardon alone for loving Marietta, and I
+did that immediately upon my arrival. She heard everything and gave me
+back my pledge. Indeed, we have broken our engagement much more
+independently than we formed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, ho, is that meant for us?&quot; cried the Forester angrily. &quot;We did not
+force you--both of you could have said no if you had wished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, we do that now as a supplement,&quot; returned Willibald, so quickly
+that Schonan looked at him amazed. &quot;Toni came to the same conclusion
+that custom alone is not sufficient for marriage, and if one has
+learned to know happiness, one wants to possess it also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Fran von Eschenhagen, who had not yet quite regained her breath,
+started at these words as if bitten by a snake. It had never entered
+her mind that a second engagement would follow the first, now broken.
+She had never contemplated this most awful of possibilities.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Possess it,&quot; she repeated. &quot;What do you wish to possess? Does that
+mean perhaps that you want to marry this Marietta--this creature----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mamma, I beg you to speak in a different tone of my future wife,&quot; her
+son interrupted her, so gravely and decidedly that the angry mother
+stopped indeed. &quot;Toni has given me freedom; therefore there is no wrong
+in my love for Marietta, and Marietta's reputation is blameless--I am
+convinced of that. Whoever hurts or offends her has to answer to me,
+even if it should be my own mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hear, hear! the boy is coming out,&quot; murmured the Chief Forester, with
+whom the sense of justice overpowered his vexation, but Frau von
+Eschenhagen was far from listening to justice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had thought to crush her son with her appearance, and now he
+offered her resistance in this never before heard of manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His manly behavior tried her most, as she recognized by it how deep and
+powerful was the feeling which could change him so completely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will spare you the enforcement of it toward your mother,&quot; she said
+with boundless bitterness. &quot;You are of age, and master of Burgsdorf. I
+cannot prevent you, but if you really bring this Marietta Volkmar there
+as your wife--then I leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This threat did not miss its aim. Willibald started and drew back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mamma, you speak in anger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I speak in deepest earnestness. As soon as an actress enters the house
+where I have lived and worked for thirty years--where I had hoped to
+lay my head down for its final rest--I shall leave the house forever.
+She may reign there then. You have the choice between her and your
+mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Regine, do not force it to such a conclusion,&quot; Schonan tried to
+pacify her. &quot;You torture the poor boy with this cruel 'either--or.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine did not listen to the exhortation. She stood there white to the
+lips, her eyes immovably fixed upon her son, and she repeated
+unyieldingly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Decide for yourself--this girl or me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald had also turned pale, and his lips quivered painfully and
+bitterly as he said in a low tone:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's hard, mamma; you know how I love you, and how you hurt me with
+your going away; but if you really are so cruel as to force me to
+choose, well then&quot;--he straightened himself with decision--&quot;then I
+choose my betrothed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bravo!&quot; cried the Chief Forester, forgetting entirely that he was one
+of the offended ones. &quot;Willy, I feel like Toni. I begin only now to
+really like you. I am positively sorry now that you will not be my
+son-in-law.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen had not expected such a turn of affairs. She had
+trusted in her old power, which she now saw fall into fragments, but
+she was not the woman to give in. She would not have bent her obstinate
+will even if her life had depended upon it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good! then we have finished with each other,&quot; she said curtly, and
+turned to go without heeding her brother-in-law, who followed her,
+trying to pacify her; but before they reached the door it was opened
+and a servant entered with a hasty announcement:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The steward of Rodeck is outside and begs----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have no time now,&quot; stormed the impulsive Schonan. &quot;Tell Stadinger I
+cannot speak with him at present. I have important family affairs----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not finish, for Stadinger already stood upon the threshold,
+having followed the servant closely, and said in a peculiarly
+suppressed tone: &quot;I come about a family affair also, Herr Chief
+Forester, but it is a sad one. I cannot wait, but must speak to you
+immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But what is it?&quot; asked Schonan, mystified. &quot;Has something happened?
+The Prince is not at Rodeck so far as I know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, mein Herr. His Highness is in town, but Herr Rojanow is there and
+sends me. He begs you and Herr von Eschenhagen to come to Rodeck
+immediately, and you, gracious lady&quot;--he glanced at Frau von
+Eschenhagen, whom he knew from her former visits to Furstenstein--&quot;you
+would do well to come likewise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But why? What has happened?&quot; cried Schonan, now really disturbed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man hesitated; he had apparently been charged to break the news
+gradually. Finally he said: &quot;His Excellency, Herr von Wallmoden, is at
+the castle, and the Frau Baroness also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My brother!&quot; interrupted Regine with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, gracious lady. His Excellency fell out of the carriage, and now
+he lies there unconscious, which means to the physician we called in
+great haste that the matter is dangerous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In God's name! we must go at once, Moritz,&quot; cried the frightened lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr von Schonan had already grasped the bell rope and pulled it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The carriage as quick as possible!&quot; he cried to the servant. &quot;How did
+it happen, Stadinger? Tell us what you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Herr Baron was coming from Ostwalden with the gracious lady,
+intending to come to Furstenstein,&quot; responded Stadinger. &quot;The road, you
+know, leads through the Rodeck tract not far from the castle. Our
+Forester, who was with some of his subordinates in the Wald, fired a
+few shots, and a wounded deer dashed across the road in wild flight
+just by the carriage. The horses took fright and ran--the driver could
+not hold them. The two Foresters who saw it ran after them. They heard
+the Frau Baroness beg her husband: 'Remain seated. Herbert! for God's
+sake, no, do not jump,' but His Excellency seemed to have lost his head
+entirely. He tore the door open and jumped. At the wild pace they were
+going he fell, of course, with full force, and against a tree. The
+driver succeeded in bringing his horses to a standstill not far at a
+bend of the road. The Frau Baroness, who was not hurt, hastened to the
+place of misfortune as quickly as possible, and she found the poor
+gentleman there seriously injured and unconscious. The Forester's
+people carried him to Rodeck, which was near by. Herr Rojanow has
+looked after everything that could be done at the moment, and now he
+sends me to bring you the news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was natural that under the pressure of this heart-rending news the
+recent bitter family quarrel should cease instantly. In great haste
+they made ready for departure. Antonie was called and informed, and as
+soon as the carriage drove up the Chief Forester and his sister-in-law
+hastened downstairs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willibald, who followed with Stadinger, detained him on the steps for a
+moment and asked in a low tone: &quot;Has the doctor given his opinion? Do
+you know anything more about it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man nodded sadly, and answered also in low tones: &quot;I stood near
+when Herr Rojanow asked him in the ante-room. There is no hope--the
+poor Excellency will not live through the day.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The little hunting castle of Rodeck, which lay so cold and lonely in
+the first December snowy days, had seldom seen such excitement as
+to-day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was about noon when the two Foresters, whose firing was the innocent
+cause of the disaster, brought the injured Ambassador to the house.
+They had known that the longer march to Furstenstein was impossible, so
+they turned toward Rodeck, which lay scarcely a quarter of an hour's
+walk from the place of the accident.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut Rojanow, who was at the castle, was immediately called, and had
+made the necessary arrangements with quick decision. The rooms which
+Prince Adelsberg usually occupied were put at the disposal of the
+Baroness, and a messenger was despatched on horseback for the nearest
+physician, who, fortunately, was easy to reach.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the doctor's statement allowed no hope, Stadinger was sent to
+Furstenstein to summon the relatives, who soon arrived, but only to
+find Herr von Wallmoden dying. He did not regain the consciousness
+which he had lost in that awful fall; he lay there immovable,
+recognizing no one; and when the day drew to a close all was over.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester, with Willibald, returned to Furstenstein toward
+night. He had sent a telegram before leaving Furstenstein, to notify
+the Embassy of the sad accident which had befallen its chief, and now
+had to follow it with the announcement of his death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen had remained at Rodeck with her brother's widow.
+To-morrow preparations would be made to carry the body to the Residenz,
+and the two ladies wished to remain at his side until then.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide, who had proved so courageous during the danger, and who had
+done her full duty at the bedside of her husband, seemed, now that this
+duty was over, to give way entirely under the sudden and prostrating
+blow. She was stunned and dazed by the awful accident.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20px">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the window of his room, which was in an upper story, stood Hartmut,
+gazing out into the desolate forest, which glittered so ghostly in the
+dim starlight. Yesterday had brought the first snow, and now everything
+was stiff in its cold embrace. The large lawn in front of the castle
+was deeply covered; the trees bent heavily under their white burden,
+and the broad branches of the firs were bowed to the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Up there in the dark night sky, star after star shone in calm splendor,
+and far off on the northern horizon dawned a slight rosy light, like
+the first greeting of the dawn. And yet it was night cold, icy cold,
+winter night, in which as yet no ray of the coming day could fall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut's eyes were riveted upon the mysterious glow. In his heart,
+too, it was dark, and yet something dawned there, fair and low,
+like the dawn of the morn. He had not seen Adelaide von Wallmoden
+since that fatal hour upon the forest height, until he met her
+to-day at the side of her husband, who had been borne, bleeding and
+unconscious--dying--into the castle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This sight forced back every remembrance, and demanded assistance to
+the extent of his power. He had not entered the death chamber, and had
+only received the doctor's report; neither had he appeared upon Frau
+von Eschenhagen's arrival, but later on had spoken with the Chief
+Forester and Willibald. Now everything was decided. Herbert von
+Wallmoden was no longer among the living, and his wife was a widow--was
+free.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A deep breath agitated Hartmut's breast at the thought, and yet nothing
+joyful was in it, although his feelings had undergone a change since
+the hour he ventured his highest stake and--lost.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But that hour had proved to him the deep abyss which was open between
+them even now that the bond of Adelaide's marriage was broken. She had
+&quot;shuddered&quot; before the man who believed in nothing--to whom nothing was
+sacred, and he was the same man he had been then.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had offered an apology without words in the creation of the added
+portion of Arivana which bore her name, but Ada had floated back to the
+heights from which she had come with her cry of warning, and mankind,
+with their glowing hate and love, remained upon earth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut Rojanow could not force the hot, wild blood which flowed in his
+veins into a quiet movement; he could not bow to a life full of strict
+obedience and duty--neither did he wish to. For what had the genius
+which won his way everywhere been given him, if it could not lift him
+over the duties and barriers of every-day life?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And yet he knew that those large, blue eyes pointed inexorably to the
+hated path--that would never do.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The red glimmer over the forest yonder had turned darker and risen
+higher. It looked like the reflection of a powerful fire; but that
+calm, steady light came from no fire. Immovable it stood in the north;
+mysterious, high, and far removed--an aurora in approaching splendor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The rolling of a carriage coming near in great haste broke Hartmut from
+his revery. It was past nine o'clock; who could arrive at such an hour?
+Perhaps it was the second physician who had been sent for in the
+afternoon, but who had been away from home; perhaps some one from
+Ostwalden, where the news may have already been carried.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now the carriage turned the corner of the lawn; the wheels crunched
+upon the hard, frozen ground, and the vehicle reached the main entrance
+of the castle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow, who to-day represented the master of the house, left his room
+and started to meet the new arrival. He had reached the stairs which
+led down to the entrance hall, and put his foot upon the first step,
+when he suddenly shuddered and remained rooted to the spot.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Down there a voice spoke which he had not heard for ten long years; it
+was suppressed, and yet he recognized it at the first moment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I come from the Embassy. We received a dispatch this afternoon, and I
+took the first train to hasten here. How is he? Can I see Herr von
+Wallmoden?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger, who had received the newcomer, replied in such low tones
+that the import of his words was lost to Hartmut, but the stranger
+asked hastily: &quot;I do not come too late?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, mein Herr. Herr von Wallmoden died this afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A short pause followed, then the stranger said, huskily but firmly:
+&quot;Lead me to the widow--announce Colonel von Falkenried.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger turned to go, followed by a tall figure in a military cloak,
+of which one could see only the outlines in the dimly-lighted hall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two figures had long ago disappeared in the lower rooms, and still
+Hartmut stood leaning on the baluster, looking downward. Only when
+Stadinger returned alone did he collect himself and retire to his room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here he walked restlessly for a quarter of an hour. It was a hard,
+silent conflict which he waged. He had never been able to bend his
+pride; had never humbled himself, but he had to bow low before his
+deeply offended father--he knew that. But again a burning, absorbing
+longing overcame him, becoming all-powerful and finally conquering. He
+drew himself up resolutely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I will not shrink like a coward now. We are under one roof; the
+same walls surround us; now it shall be ventured. He is my father and I
+am his son.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The castle clock struck twelve in slow, hollow strokes. Deathlike
+stillness lay over the forest outside, and it was as still in the house
+where a corpse lay. The steward and servants had retired, as had Frau
+von Eschenhagen. Exhausted nature demanded its due. She had made the
+long, tedious journey from Burgsdorf without stop, and had lived
+through the hard, trying day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only a few windows were dimly lighted; they belonged to the rooms which
+had been appointed to Frau von Wallmoden and Colonel Falkenried, which
+lay near together, separated only by an ante-room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried intended to accompany the widow back to the Residenz on the
+morrow. He had spoken with her and Regine, and had stood for a long
+time beside the body of his friend, who only yesterday had called to
+him so confidently, &quot;<i>auf wiedersehen</i>&quot;--who had been so full of his
+projects and plans for his future and his newly acquired possessions.
+Now all this had come to an end. Cold and stiff he lay upon his bier,
+and cold and gloomy Falkenried now stood at the window of his room.
+Even this awful accident was not able to shake his stony composure, for
+he had long ago forgotten to consider death a misfortune. <i>Life</i> was
+hard--but not death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked silently out into the winter night and he, too, saw the
+ghostly glimmer which lighted the darkness out there. Dark-red it now
+glowed upon the distant horizon, and the whole of the northern sky
+seemed penetrated by invisible flames.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Redlike, as through a purple veil, twinkled the stars. Now a few
+distant rays shot up, growing more numerous, and rising always higher
+to the zenith.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Beneath this flaming sky the snow-covered world lay cold and white. The
+aurora was shining in the fulness of its splendor!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried was so lost in the glory of the sight that he did not hear
+the opening and closing of the door of the ante-room. Carefully the
+partly closed door of his own room was now opened, but the one entering
+did not bring himself into view, but remained motionless upon the
+threshold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Colonel Falkenried still stood at the window half-averted, but the
+flickering light of the candles which burned upon the table lighted his
+face distinctly; the strong, deep lines of the features, and the
+gloomy, careworn brow beneath the white hair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut shivered involuntarily; he had not anticipated such a deep and
+awful change. The man standing in his prime, looked aged, and who had
+brought this premature age upon him?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A few moments passed in this deep silence, then a voice vibrated
+through the room half-audible, beseeching, and full of a tenderness
+suppressed with difficulty--a single word pregnant with meaning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried started as if a spirit voice had reached his ear. Slowly he
+turned as if really believing he heard a spirit-haunting voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut quickly approached a few steps, then stood still.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, it is I--I come----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stopped short, for now he met his father's eyes; those eyes which he
+had feared so much, and what they now expressed robbed him of the
+courage to speak further. He bowed his head in silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Every drop of blood seemed to have left the face of Colonel Falkenried.
+He had not known--he had no idea that his son was under the same roof
+with him; the meeting found him totally unprepared, but it did not tear
+from him one exclamation, nor sign of anger or weakness. Rigid and mute
+he stood there and looked upon him who had once been his all. At last
+he raised his hand and pointed to the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, listen to me----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go, I say.&quot; The command now sounded threatening.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I shall not go!&quot; cried Hartmut passionately. &quot;I know that
+reconciliation with you depends upon this hour. I have offended
+you--how deeply and seriously I feel only now--but I was a boy of
+seventeen, and it was my mother whom I followed. Think of that, father,
+and pardon me--grant pardon to your son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are the son of the woman whose name you bear--not mine!&quot; said the
+Colonel with cutting scorn. &quot;A Falkenried has no son without honor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was about to burst forth at this awful word; the blood rose hot
+and wild to his brow, but he looked upon that other brow beneath the
+hair bleached like snow, and with superhuman effort controlled himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two believed themselves alone during this interview in the
+stillness of the night--surely everything was sleeping in the castle.
+They had no idea that a witness was there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide von Wallmoden had not retired to rest. She knew that she could
+find no sleep after this day which had so suddenly and disastrously
+made her a widow. Dressed still in the dark traveling suit which she
+had worn on the unfortunate drive, she sat in her room, when suddenly
+Colonel Falkenried's voice reached her ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With whom could he be speaking at such an hour? Was he not a total
+stranger here? And the voice sounded so strangely hollow and
+threatening.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She arose in alarm and entered the ante-room which separated the two
+sleeping apartments--for only a moment, she thought--only to see
+that nothing had happened; then she heard another voice which she
+knew--heard the word &quot;Father,&quot; and like lightning the truth flashed
+upon her, which the next words confirmed. As if paralyzed, she remained
+standing there, every word reaching her through the partly closed door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You make this hour hard for me,&quot; said Hartmut with painfully sustained
+composure. &quot;Be it so--I have not expected it otherwise. Wallmoden has
+told you everything. I might have known it, but then he could not keep
+from you what I have sought and won. I bring to you the laurel of the
+poet, father--the first laurel which has come to me. Learn to know my
+work; let it speak to you, then you will feel that its creator could
+not live and breathe in the constraint of a vocation which kills every
+poetical emotion; then you will forget the unfortunate error of the
+boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here again it was Hartmut Rojanow who spoke thus with his overweening
+self-consciousness and pride, which did not leave him even in this
+hour; the poet of Arivana, for whom there existed no duties--no
+barriers; but he encountered a rock here, upon which he shattered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The boy's error!&quot; repeated Falkenried, just as harshly as before.
+&quot;Yes, they called it so to make it possible for me to remain in the
+army. I name it differently, and so does every one of my comrades. You
+were to have been an ensign. In a few weeks it would have been
+desertion of the standard by law also. I have never considered it
+anything else. You had been raised in the strict discipline of honor of
+our caste, and knew what you did, for you were no longer a boy. <i>He who
+flees secretly from the military service which he owes his fatherland
+is a deserter; he who breaks a vow--a given word--is without honor. You
+did both!</i> But of course you and your kind pass over such things
+easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut clenched his teeth; his whole body trembled at these merciless
+words, and his voice sounded hollow, choked, as he answered:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Enough, father. I cannot bear it. I wished to bow before you--wished
+to submit--but you yourself drive me from you. This is the same cruel
+sternness with which you drove my mother from you. I know it from her
+own lips. Whatever her later life was, and however through it my own
+has developed--this severity alone has been the cause of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Colonel folded his arms, and an expression of unspeakable disdain
+quivered around his mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From her own lips you know? Possibly. No woman has sunk so deeply but
+she would try to veil such a truth from her son. I did not wish to
+pollute your ears at that time with this truth, for you were innocent
+and pure. Now you will probably understand me when I tell you that the
+separation was a demand of honor. The man who stained my honor fell by
+my bullet, and she who betrayed me--I pushed from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut became white as death at this disclosure. He had never thought
+that. He had fully believed that only the harshness which lay in his
+father's character had caused the separation. The remembrance of his
+mother fell lower and lower; he had loved her just as ardently as she
+had loved him, even when he felt at times that she was his ruin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wished to protect you from the poisonous breath of this presence and
+influence,&quot; continued Falkenried. &quot;Fool that I was! You were lost to me
+even without the coming of your mother. You bear her features; it is
+her blood that courses through your veins, and it would have demanded
+its dominion sooner or later. You would have become anyway what you are
+now--a homeless adventurer, who does not recognize his fatherland and
+his honor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is too much!&quot; burst forth Hartmut wildly. &quot;I shall not permit
+myself to be so abused, even by you. I see now that no reconciliation
+between us is possible. I go, but the world will judge differently from
+you. It has already crowned my first work, and I shall force from it
+the appreciation which my own father keeps from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Colonel looked at his son--something awful was in the glance; then
+he said icily and slowly, emphasizing each word: &quot;Then take care also
+that the world does not learn that the 'crowned poet' did a spy's
+service two years ago at Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut shrank as if hit by a bullet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I? In Paris? Are you out of your senses?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Acting besides? Do not trouble yourself--I know all. Wallmoden proved
+to me what rôle Zalika Rojanow and her son played at Paris. I know the
+origin of the means by which they continued the life they were
+accustomed to when their wealth was lost. They were very much sought
+after by the commissioners, for they were exceedingly apt, and they who
+bought their services received them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stood as if lifeless. So this was the awful solution of the
+problem which Wallmoden had given him that night in his hint. He had
+not understood its meaning then, but sought the solution in another
+direction. This was it, then, which his mother kept from him--from
+which she had diverted him with caresses and coaxings whenever he
+put a suspicious question. She had sunk to the last, most disgraceful
+lot--and her son was branded with her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The silence which now ensued was awful; it lasted for minutes, and when
+Hartmut finally spoke again his voice had lost its sound--the words
+came brokenly, almost inaudibly, from his lips:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you believe--that I--that I knew about this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said the Colonel, coldly and firmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, you cannot--must not do that. The punishment would be too
+terrible. You must believe me when I tell you that I had no idea
+of this disgrace--that I believed a part of our wealth had been
+saved--that--you will believe me, father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No.&quot; Falkenried remained rigid and unbending as before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Beside himself with anguish, Hartmut fell upon his knees.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, before everything that is sacred to you in heaven or in
+earth--oh, do not look at me so terribly. You drive me frantic with
+that look! Father, I give you my word of honor----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An awful, wild laugh from his father interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your word of honor as at that time at Burgsdorf. Get up--abandon
+acting; you do not deceive me by it. You went from me with a breaking
+of your word--<i>you return with a lie</i>. Go your own way--I go mine. Only
+one thing I request of you--command you. Do not dare to use the name of
+Falkenried by the side of the branded one of Rojanow. Never let the
+world know who you are. When that happens my blood will be upon you,
+for then--I end with life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a loud cry Hartmut sprang to his feet and approached his father,
+but Falkenried repelled him by a commanding gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think that I still love life? I have borne it because I had
+to--perhaps I considered it my duty; but there is one point where this
+duty ends; you know it now--act accordingly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He turned his back upon his son and walked to the window. Hartmut did
+not speak another word. Mutely he turned to go.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ante-room was not lighted, yet it was filled with the glow
+of the blazing skies outside, and in this glow stood a woman--deathly
+pale--with eyes fixed with an indescribable expression upon the one
+approaching.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He glanced up and a single look showed him that she knew all. This was
+the last. He had received his mortal humiliation before the woman he
+loved--had been thrown into the dust before her!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut did not know how he left the castle, how he reached the open
+air. He only felt that he should stifle in those walls--that he was
+driven forth with fury and power. He found himself at last under a fir
+tree, which bowed its snow-covered limbs over him. It was night in the
+forest--cold, icy winter night, but up there in the sky the mysterious
+light shone on and on with purple power, with quivering rays, which
+united at the zenith into a crown.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was summer again. July had commenced, and in the hot, sun-parched
+days the forest mountains beckoned irresistibly with their cool
+shadows, and the green, airy splendor of their dales and heights.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ostwalden, the estate which Herbert von Wallmoden had purchased
+immediately before his death, and had not been permitted to live in for
+even one summer, had since then rested in solitude. But a few days ago
+the young widow had arrived there in company with her sister-in-law,
+Frau von Eschenhagen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide had left the South German Residenz shortly after the death of
+her husband and returned home with her brother, who had hastened to her
+side at the news of her husband's death. Her short married life had
+lasted but eight months, and now the wife, not yet twenty years old,
+wore the widow's veil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine had been easily persuaded to accompany her sister-in-law. The
+once absolute mistress of Burgsdorf had stood to her &quot;either--or,&quot; and
+as Willibald proved just as obstinate, she had made her threat true,
+and had moved to town even during the first period of mourning for her
+brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Frau von Eschenhagen deceived herself if she thought to gain her
+end by this last move. She had hoped that her son would not let it come
+to a real separation, but it was in vain that she let him feel the full
+bitterness of the separation. The young master had had full opportunity
+to prove that his newly awakened independence and love were not mere
+momentary feelings.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He tried everything to make his mother reconsider, but when he did not
+succeed, he showed a like stubbornness, and mother and son had not seen
+each other for months.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">However, his engagement with Marietta had not been made public as yet.
+He believed he owed his former fiancée and her father too much respect
+to allow a second betrothal to follow too soon upon the heels of the
+first. Besides, Marietta was bound by contract to the theatre for fully
+six months, and as her betrothal was to remain a secret for the
+present, she could not obtain an earlier release. Only now had the
+young girl returned to her grandfather at Waldhofen, where Willibald
+was also expected.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Of course Frau von Eschenhagen knew nothing about this or she would
+hardly have accepted the invitation which brought her into the
+neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The day had been so warm and sunny that only late afternoon brought
+cooler air, but the road to Ostwalden was mostly shady, as it lay
+through the forests of Rodeck.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Two horsemen were now on this road; one in gray hunting jacket and
+hat--the Chief Forester, von Schonan; the other a slender, youthful
+form clad in a distinguished looking summer suit--Prince Adelsberg.
+They had met by chance and learned that both were bound for the same,
+destination.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should not have dreamed of meeting you here, Your Highness,&quot; said
+Schonan. &quot;It was said that you would not visit Rodeck at all this
+summer, and Stadinger, with whom I spoke the day before yesterday, did
+not know a syllable of your near arrival.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; and he cried Ach! and Weh! when I fell upon the house so
+unexpectedly,&quot; replied Egon. &quot;It would not have needed much to make him
+show me from my own door, because I followed my dispatch instantly, and
+nothing was prepared for me. But the heat at Ostend was well-nigh
+unbearable. I could not stand the glowing sands of the beach any
+longer, and was overcome by an irrepressible longing for my cool, quiet
+forest nook. God be thanked that I have gotten away from the heat and
+fuss of a watering place!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His Highness was pleased not to tell the truth in this case. He had
+hastened here from the beach of the North Sea to enjoy a certain
+&quot;neighborhood&quot; of which he happened to hear. Stadinger had mentioned in
+a report, in which he asked for permission to make some changes at
+Rodeck, that these same arrangements had already been made at
+Ostwalden, where Frau von Wallmoden dwelt at present.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To his surprise, instead of the expected permission, his young master
+arrived in person after three days. The Prince had not known anything
+better after this news than to throw over all his summer plans.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester did not seem to believe the pretext, for he remarked
+somewhat sarcastically: &quot;It surprises me, indeed then, that our Court
+stays at Ostend so long. The Duke and Duchess are there; also Princess
+Sophie, with a niece--a relative of her late husband, I hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, a niece.&quot; Egon turned suddenly and looked at the speaker. &quot;Herr
+Chief Forester, you, too, want to deliver congratulations to me--I see
+it in your face--but if you do that I shall challenge you instantly
+here in the midst of the forest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Your Highness, I do not intend to bring a duel upon myself,&quot;
+laughed Schonan, &quot;but the newspapers already speak quite openly of an
+approaching or already consummated engagement, which suits the wishes
+of the princely ladies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My most gracious aunts wish many things,&quot; said Egon coolly. &quot;Their
+most obedient nephew, though, is often of a different opinion, alas;
+and it has been the case this time also. I went to Ostend upon the
+invitation of the Duke, which I could not refuse, but the air did not
+agree with me at all, and I cannot risk my health so recklessly. I felt
+the first symptoms of sunstroke, which would certainly have taken me
+off, so I decided, then, in good time----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To take yourself off,&quot; finished Schonan. &quot;This is like Your Highness,
+but now you can count upon a three-fold displeasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Possibly. I shall bear it in solitude and self-banishment. I intend,
+besides&quot;--here the young Prince drew a very solemn face--&quot;to give all
+my attention this summer to my estates--especially Rodeck. A change in
+the building shall be made there--Stadinger has already written me
+about it, but I considered a personal surveillance necessary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On account of the chimneys?&quot; asked Schonan dryly. &quot;Stadinger thought
+that as the chimneys smoked last winter, he would like to have new ones
+built.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What does Stadinger know about it?&quot; cried Egon, vexed that his old
+&quot;Waldgeist&quot; had again gotten ahead of him with his most uncomfortable
+love for truth. &quot;I have very grand plans for beautifying---- Ah, here
+we are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He started his horse into a quicker gait and the Chief Forester
+followed his example, for Ostwalden indeed lay before them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The extensive changes with which the late Wallmoden had intended to
+convert Ostwalden into a splendid show place had not been made; but the
+old ivy-covered castle, with its two side turrets, and the shady,
+although somewhat neglected park, possessed a picturesque charm. It was
+understood that the present mistress intended neither changes nor a
+sale of the property, for to the heiress of the Stahlberg wealth a
+villa more or less was of no consequence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Upon their arrival the gentlemen learned that Frau von Wallmoden was in
+the park; but Frau von Eschenhagen was in her room. The Prince allowed
+himself to be announced to the lady of the house, while the Chief
+Forester first looked up his sister-in-law, whom he had not seen since
+the previous winter. He went to her apartments and entered without more
+ado.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here I am,&quot; he announced in his usual unceremonious manner. &quot;I don't
+need to be announced to my Frau sister, even if she seems to hold me at
+arm's length. Why did you not come along, Regine, when Adelaide drove
+to Furstenstein the day before yesterday? Of course, I do not believe
+the excuse which she brought me in your name, and have now come two
+hours' riding on horseback to ask for an explanation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine offered him her hand. She had not changed outwardly in these six
+or seven months. She still bore the same strong, self-reliant
+appearance and decided way, but her former serenity and cheerfulness,
+which, in spite of her brusquerie, were so winning, had disappeared
+from her manner. If she never acknowledged it under any circumstances,
+it was plainly to be seen that she suffered because her only son grew
+strange to her--the son to whom once his mother's love and will had
+been all things.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have nothing against you, Moritz,&quot; she replied. &quot;I know that you
+have retained the old friendship for me in spite of all that has been
+done to you and your daughter; but you ought to understand how
+embarrassing it is to me to visit Furstenstein again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On account of the dissolved engagement? You ought to be consoled about
+it at last. You were present and saw and heard how easily Toni took
+matters. She was decidedly better pleased with her rôle of 'guardian
+angel' than with that of fiancée; and she has tried several times to
+change your mind by her letters, just as I have; but we both have been
+unsuccessful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I know how to value your rare magnanimity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rare magnanimity!&quot; repeated Schonan, laughing. &quot;Well, yes, it might
+not happen often that the former fiancée and prospective father-in-law
+put in a good word for the recreant betrothed, so that he and his
+sweetheart may gain the maternal blessing. But for once we are thus
+superior in our frankness; and besides, both of us came to the
+conclusion that Willy, in fact, has only now become a sensible person,
+and this has been accomplished solely and alone by--yes, I cannot help
+it, Regine--by the little Marietta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen frowned at this remark. She did not consider it
+best to answer it, but asked in a tone that plainly betrayed her wish
+to change the subject: &quot;Has Toni returned? I learned through Adelaide
+that she had been at the Residenz, but was daily expected home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester, who had accepted a seat in the meantime, leaned
+back comfortably in his chair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, she returned yesterday, but with a second shadow, for she brought
+some one along, who she insists must and shall be her future husband,
+and he insists upon it likewise with such emphasis, that really nothing
+is left for me to do but to say Yes--Amen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! Toni engaged again?&quot; asked Frau von Eschenhagen in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but this time she managed it all by herself; I did not have an
+inkling of it. You will remember that she took it into her head at that
+time that she, too, wanted to be loved in a surpassing manner, and
+enjoy the usual romance of it. Herr Lieutenant von Waldorf seems to
+have attended to that. He has, as she told me with highest
+satisfaction, sunk on his knees before her, and declared he could not
+and would not live without her, while she gave him a similar touching
+assurance, and so forth. Yes, Regine, it will not do any longer to lead
+the children by the apron strings when they become of age. They imagine
+that marriage is solely their affair, and really they are not so far
+wrong about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last remark sounded very suggestive, but Regine overlooked it
+completely. She repeated thoughtfully:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Waldorf? the name is quite strange to me. Where did Toni get
+acquainted with the young officer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is my son's friend and he brought him home with him at his last
+visit. In consequence of that an acquaintance with his mother was
+begun, which ripened until she invited Toni to visit her some weeks,
+and there and then the falling in love and engagement took place. I
+have nothing to say against it. Waldorf is handsome, jolly, and in love
+up to his ears. He does seem to be a little volatile, but he will
+settle down when he gets a sensible wife. The model boys are not after
+my taste; they are the very worst when they do get wild, as we have
+seen in your Willy. Waldorf will get his discharge in the fall, for my
+daughter is not suited for a lieutenant's wife. I will buy an estate
+for the young couple, and the wedding will occur at Christmas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am so glad for Toni's sake,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen, cordially.
+&quot;You take a burden from my heart by this news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am glad, too,&quot; nodded the Chief Forester, &quot;but now you ought to
+follow my example and take a burden from the hearts of a certain
+other couple. Be reasonable, Regine, and give in! The little Marietta
+has remained true, although she was on the stage. Everybody praises
+her blameless conduct. You do not need to be ashamed of your
+daughter-in-law.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine arose suddenly and pushed her chair back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg you once for all, Moritz, to spare me such requests. I shall
+stand firm at my word. Willibald knows the condition under which alone
+I will return to Burgsdorf. If he does not fulfil it--the separation
+remains.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He knows better,&quot; said Schonan dryly, &quot;than to give up his bride-elect
+and marriage solely because she does not suit his Frau mamma. Such
+conditions are never fulfilled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You express yourself very amiably indeed,&quot; returned Frau von
+Eschenhagen angrily. &quot;Of course, what do you know of the love and
+anxiety of a mother, or of the gratitude her children owe her? All of
+you are ungrateful, inconsiderate, selfish----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oho! I beg you, in the name of my sex, to refrain from such
+vituperations,&quot; interrupted the Chief Forester hotly; but suddenly he
+reconsidered and said: &quot;We have not seen each other for seven months,
+Regine; we really ought not to quarrel the first day again--we can do
+that later on. Let us therefore leave your refractory son alone for the
+present, and speak of ourselves. How do you like it in town? You do not
+exactly look so very well satisfied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am exceptionally satisfied,&quot; declared Regine with great decision.
+&quot;What I need only is work. I am not used to idleness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then create work for yourself. It rests solely with you to again step
+to the head of a large household.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you commencing again----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did not mean Burgsdorf this time,&quot; said Schonan, playing with his
+riding whip. &quot;I only meant--you sit all alone in town, and I shall sit
+all alone at Furstenstein when Toni marries--that is very tiresome! How
+would it be--well, I have already explained it to you once before, but
+you did not want me then. Perhaps you have bethought yourself better
+now. How would it be if we should make the third couple at this double
+wedding?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen looked gloomily to the floor and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Moritz. I feel less like marrying now than ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Already a 'No' again!&quot; shouted the Chief Forester wrathfully. &quot;Is this
+a second refusal you give me? At first you did not want me because your
+son and your beloved Burgsdorf had grown too near your heart, and now
+when you see that both get along very well without you, you do not want
+me because you do not '<i>feel like it</i>.' Feeling does not belong to
+marrying, anyhow only some sense is wanted; but if one is
+unreasonableness and obstinacy personified----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You woo me in a very flattering manner, indeed,&quot; interrupted Regine,
+now wrathful also. &quot;It would be an exceedingly peaceful marriage if you
+act like this as a suitor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It would not be peaceful, but neither would it be tiresome,&quot; declared
+Schonan. &quot;I believe we could both stand it. Once more, Regine, do you
+want me or do you not want me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I do not care to '<i>stand</i>' a married life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then let it alone!&quot; cried the Chief Forester furiously, jumping up and
+snatching his hat. &quot;If it gives you so much pleasure to say 'No'
+forever, then say it. But Willy will marry in spite of you, and he is
+right; and now I shall be the best man at the wedding just to spite
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With which he rushed off, quite beside himself at this second jilting,
+and Frau von Eschenhagen remained behind in a similar frame of mind.
+They had really quarrelled again at the first <i>Wiedersehen</i>, and even
+the second refusal could not be left out of this friendly habit.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Meantime Prince Adelsberg was with Frau von Wallmoden in the park. He
+had begged her not to interrupt her outing, and so they both walked in
+the shade of the huge trees in the cool, green twilight, while out on
+the meadow lay still the glaring sunlight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon had not seen the young widow since the death of her husband. The
+formal visit of condolence, which he had made after the accident, had
+been received by Eugene Stahlberg in the name of his sister, and then
+they had left the city immediately.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide wore, of course, the widow's mourning; but her companion
+thought he had never seen her so beautiful as to-day in the deep,
+sombre black and crepe veil, beneath which the blonde hair glimmered.
+His glance passed repeatedly over this beautiful blonde head, and
+always the question recurred: What has really happened to these
+features that they look so entirely different?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon had only known the lady at whose side he now walked in that cool,
+haughty composure which had made her so unapproachable to him and the
+world. Now this coldness had disappeared, and he saw and felt but could
+not decipher the strange change which had taken its place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young widow could not possibly mourn so deeply and seriously for a
+husband who was so far removed from her in age, and who, even had he
+been young, could never have given her the love youth demands, with his
+practical, coldly calculating nature. And yet there lay over her whole
+appearance the expression of secret suffering--of a sorrow which was
+mutely but painfully borne.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Where did this mysterious line come from, this soft light of the eyes
+which seemed to have learned but now to know tears?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It always seems to me as if life and fire could glow there and
+transform the snow region into a blooming world,&quot; Prince Adelsberg had
+once exclaimed in jest. Now this transformation had taken place,
+slowly, almost imperceptibly. But this soft, half-painful expression
+which replaced the former seriousness, this dreamy look, gave a charm
+to the young woman which, with all her beauty, had been missing
+before--a charming, gentle grace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At first the conversation touched upon indifferent things only, the
+questions and answers that were customary and formal. Egon narrated
+incidents of happenings during the winter at Court and in town, and
+then offered the same explanation of his sudden arrival which he had
+given the Chief Forester, speaking of the unendurable heat at Ostend
+and of his longing for the cool, still forest solitude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A fleeting smile which quivered over the lips of his companion told him
+that she believed this pretext as little as had the Chief Forester, and
+that the notice in the papers had also been seen by her. He grew
+unaccountably vexed about it and studied how he could remedy the
+mistake, here where he could not be so plain-spoken, when Adelaide
+suddenly asked: &quot;Shall you remain alone at Rodeck, Your Highness? Last
+summer you had a--guest with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shadow passed over the face of the young Prince. He forgot the rumor
+of his engagement and his anger about it at this remark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You mean Hartmut Rojanow?&quot; he asked, gravely. &quot;He will hardly come, as
+he is in Sicily at present, or at least was there two months ago. I
+have had no news from him since, and do not even know where to write
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Wallmoden bent down and picked some flowers growing at the
+wayside as she remarked: &quot;I thought you were in lively correspondence
+with each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hoped so at the beginning of our separation, and it is not my fault;
+but Hartmut has become a perfect mystery to me lately. You were witness
+of the brilliant success of his 'Arivana' at our Court Theatre; it has
+since then been reproduced at several other theatres. The play is
+conquering by storm wherever it appears, and the author withdraws from
+all these triumphs--almost flees from his rising fame--hides from all
+the world, even from me. Let who can comprehend it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide had regained her former erect carriage, but the hand which
+held the flowers trembled slightly, while her eyes were directed upon
+the Prince in breathless expectancy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And when did Herr Rojanow leave Germany?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At the beginning of December. Shortly before that he had gone to
+Rodeck for a few days immediately after the first appearance of his
+drama. I considered it a caprice and yielded. Then he suddenly returned
+to my house, in town, in a condition of mind and body which really
+frightened me, and announced his departure; listened to no entreaties,
+answered no questions, but remained firm about going, and really left
+like a whirlwind. Weeks passed before I heard of him; then he sent me
+occasional letters, which, if rare enough, at least kept me aware of
+his whereabouts, and I could answer him. He went to Greece, where he
+strayed now here, now there. After that he went to Sicily, but now all
+information has stopped, and I am in the greatest alarm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon spoke with suppressed excitement. One could see how deeply the
+separation from his passionately loved friend hurt him. He did not
+dream that the young widow at his side could have given him an
+explanation of the mystery. She knew what drove Hartmut to wander
+restlessly from land to land; what made him shudder before the famous
+poet's name which bore that secret but awful stain. But it was the
+first news she had heard of him since that disastrous night at Rodeck,
+which had discovered everything to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poets are sometimes differently constituted from common mortals,&quot; she
+said, slowly plucking to pieces one of her flowers. &quot;They have the
+right sometimes to be incomprehensible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince shook his head, incredulously and sadly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, it is not that; this comes from an entirely different source. I
+felt long ago that something dark--mysterious--lay in Hartmut's life,
+but I never inquired into it, for he would not suffer the slightest
+touch on this point, and he kept silent persistently. It is as if he
+stands under a doom, which gives him no peace or rest anywhere, and
+which springs upon him suddenly when one thinks it buried and
+forgotten. I received this impression anew when he took leave of me in
+wild agitation; it was impossible to hold him. But you cannot imagine
+how I miss him! He has spoiled me with his presence for over two years
+and with all the advantages of his rich, fiery nature which he gave
+lavishly. Now everything has become desolate and colorless to me, and I
+do not know at times how I can bear life without him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They came to a standstill, for they had reached the limit of the park.
+Green meadows lay before them in the sunlight, and over yonder rose the
+heights of the forest mountains. Adelaide had listened in silence,
+while her gaze was lost in the far distance; but now she turned
+suddenly and stretched out her hand to her companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe you can be a very sacrificing friend, Your Highness. Herr
+Rojanow ought not to have left you; perhaps you could have saved him
+from this--doom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon could not believe his senses; the warmth of the heartfelt
+tone--the eyes in which a tear glimmered--the whole, almost passionate,
+sympathy with his sorrow surprised as much as it delighted him. He
+grasped the hand fervently and pressed his lips upon it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If anything can console me for Hartmut's departure, it is your
+sympathy!&quot; he cried. &quot;You will permit me to use the privilege of a
+neighbor and come occasionally to Ostwalden? Do not deny me this, as I
+am so lonely at Rodeck, and I came here only and solely----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He checked himself suddenly, for he felt that such a confession was not
+appropriate but an offense, as he saw plainly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young widow withdrew her hand quickly and drew back. It had
+required only this moment to transform her again into &quot;Aurora.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To flee from the heat and noise of a watering place like Ostend,&quot; she
+finished coolly. &quot;You said so, at least, a little while ago, Your
+Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was a pretext,&quot; declared the Prince, gravely. &quot;I left Ostend only
+to put an end to certain rumors which were connected with my stay
+there, and which even found their way into the papers. They were
+positively without foundation so far as I am concerned, I give you my
+word, Your Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had quickly embraced the opportunity to dispel the error which he
+did not wish to suffer at this place at any price, but the result did
+not come up to his expectation. Frau von Wallmoden had again wrapped
+herself up in her old, unapproachable manner and made him suffer for
+his premature haste.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why this solemn explanation, Your Highness? As it was only a rumor, I
+understand just as fully as your other neighbors that you wish to
+retain the privilege of choice. But I believe we must return to the
+castle, as you said that my brother-in-law had come with you, and I
+should like to see him before he leaves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon bowed assent, and tried obediently to accept the indifferent and
+every-day tone by which he was made aware that he should not be
+anything more here than a &quot;neighbor.&quot; He took the first favorable
+moment at the castle to make his excuses, which were immediately
+accepted, but not without an invitation to come again had been given,
+and that was at present the most important thing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Blamed haste!&quot; he muttered as he galloped away. &quot;Now I shall be kept
+as distant as ever, perhaps for weeks. As soon as one tries to approach
+the woman a little nearer--the ice stares into one's face. But&quot;--and
+here the face of the Prince lit up--&quot;but at last the ice commences to
+melt. I saw and felt it in that tone and look. I must be patient
+here--the prize is worthy one's perseverance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon von Adelsberg did not dream that this look and tone, upon which he
+built his hopes, were for another, and that she wished only to hear
+from that other when the permission to call again had been given.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">July had only half gone when the world, which seemed but now to repose
+in deepest calm, was suddenly startled from this peace. A lightning had
+flamed up on the Rhine, the glare and uncanny light of which reached
+from ocean to the Alps. A war-cloud stood heavy and threatening in the
+west, and soon the cry of war resounded through the land.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It broke over Southern Germany like a whirlwind--tore men from their
+field of action, changed all conditions and overthrew all plans. Where
+a week ago comfort and security reigned, men were now grasped and
+carried away by storm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At Furstenstein the daughter of the house was celebrating her
+betrothal, but she had to take leave of her betrothed, who hastened to
+his regiment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At Waldhofen, where Willibald was expected for a long visit, he
+appeared suddenly in stormy haste to see Marietta once more in the few
+days which remained before he, too, should be called away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At Ostwalden, Adelaide prepared for departure, to once more embrace the
+brother who had hastened to join the standard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Prince Adelsberg had left Rodeck at the first news of war, and hurried
+to the Residenz, which he reached at the same hour as the Duke. The
+world seemed all at once to have gotten an entirely changed face, and
+the people with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the little garden of Dr. Volkmar's house stood Willibald von
+Eschenhagen, talking earnestly and impressively with the grandfather of
+his fiancée, who sat before him upon a bench, and did not seem to be
+acquiescent to what Willy was explaining.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my dear Willy, this is precipitation without an equal,&quot; the good
+doctor said, shaking his head. &quot;Your engagement with Marietta has not
+yet been made public, and now you want to be married heels over head.
+What will the world say to it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The world finds everything explained under the present circumstances,&quot;
+returned Willibald; &quot;and we cannot go after outside considerations. I
+have to go to war, and it is my duty to secure Marietta's future in any
+case. I cannot bear the thought that she should have to return to the
+stage after my death, or should be dependent upon my mother's mercy.
+The fortune to which I am heir is in my mother's hands, who disposes of
+it exclusively. I possess as yet only the entailed estates which, in
+case I die, go over to a side branch of the family; but our family law
+secures the widow of the lord of the estates a rich dowry. If it should
+not be granted me to return from battle, I want to give my fiancée at
+least the name and position in life to which she has a right. I cannot
+go to the war contentedly until this has been arranged first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He spoke quietly, but with much decision. The awkward, timid Willibald
+could not be recognized in this young man, who overlooked the situation
+so clearly and pleaded so earnestly for his wishes to be granted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had had, however, a school of independence in those last six months,
+when he had been put entirely upon his own resources, and had his
+firmness continually tried in the contest with his mother; and one
+could see that he had learned something in this school.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His outward appearance was also more prepossessing; in fact, as the
+Chief Forester expressed it, he had only now become a man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Dr. Volkmar could not resist these arguments. He well knew that if the
+war took away her betrothed, Marietta would again be without means and
+without protection; and a burden fell from his heart at the thought of
+her secure future. Therefore he gave up all argument and only asked:
+&quot;What does Marietta say to it? Has she given her consent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; we decided on it last night, directly after my arrival. Of
+course, I did not speak to her about security and widowhood, for she
+would have been beside herself if I had dwelt at length upon the case
+of my death; but I told her that in case of my being wounded, she, as
+my wife, could hasten to me without preliminaries or companions, and
+could remain with me, and this decided her. We should have had but a
+quiet wedding, anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His face clouded at the last words, and the doctor said, with a sigh:
+&quot;Yes, indeed, none of us would have been inclined to celebrate the
+wedding with festivities if the couple had to go to the altar without
+the blessing of the mother. Have you really tried every way with her,
+Willy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Everything,&quot; replied the young lord, solemnly. &quot;Do you think it will
+be easy for me to miss my mother on such a day? But she has left me no
+choice, therefore I must bear it. I shall now take the necessary steps
+instantly, and in anticipation thereof have brought my papers with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And do you believe that a marriage can be possible on such short
+notice?&quot; asked the doctor, doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At this time, yes. The formalities have been reduced to the
+necessities, and all preliminaries are dispensed with where a hasty
+marriage is desired. As soon as Marietta is my wife, she will accompany
+me to Berlin, where she will remain until my regiment leaves. Then she
+will return to you until the close of the war.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Volkmar arose and gave Willibald his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right; it is perhaps best so under the present circumstances.
+Well, my little <i>singvogel</i>, so you will really marry as quickly as
+your betrothed wishes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The question was addressed to Marietta, who now entered the garden. Her
+pale cheeks showed the trace of tears, but it was with an exceedingly
+happy look that she flew into Willibald's open arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am ready at any time, grandpapa,&quot; she said, simply. &quot;The
+leave-taking will be easier to us after we belong to each other and you
+give your blessing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old gentleman looked half sadly, half happily upon the young
+couple, who wished to be united before their sad separation should so
+quickly take place. Then he said, with emotion: &quot;Well, so be it: marry
+then with my blessing. I give it to you from my inmost heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Everything necessary was then quickly discussed. The marriage was to
+take place as soon as possible, and, of course, quietly and simply.
+Willibald intended to go to Furstenstein to-day to notify the Chief
+Forester of the settled plan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Dr. Volkmar left them to make a call upon a patient, and Willibald
+remained alone with his fiancée. They had not seen each other for so
+long, and now the future lay dark and threatening before them. But the
+next few days belonged to them, and they were happy in this thought, in
+spite of everything.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Engaged in their subdued chatting, they did not notice that the house
+door was opened, and some one came with slow, rather hesitating steps
+along the hall, until the rustle of a woman's dress upon the gravel
+path made them listen, and suddenly both sprang to their feet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My mother!&quot; cried Willibald, in joyful surprise; but at the same time
+he put his arm around Marietta as if he wished to protect her from a
+renewed attack, for Frau von Eschenhagen's face seemed hard and gloomy,
+and her bearing did not look like reconciliation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without noticing the young girl, she turned to her son:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I learned through Adelaide that you were here,&quot; she began in a rather
+harsh tone, &quot;and I only wanted to ask how everything is at Burgsdorf.
+Have you looked for a steward during your absence? One does not know
+how long the war will last?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The joyous expression on the face of the young lord vanished. He had
+really hoped for a different greeting at this unexpected appearance of
+his mother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have arranged everything to the best of my ability,&quot; he replied.
+&quot;The greater part of my people have been called to enlist; even the
+inspector has to leave in a few days, and a substitute cannot be had
+now. Work must therefore be reduced to the necessities, and old Martens
+will overlook everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Martens is a goose,&quot; said Regine, in her old, terse way. &quot;If he takes
+the reins, everything at Burgsdorf will go topsy-turvy. Nothing else is
+left for me to do but to go there myself and look after things right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How? You would?&quot; cried Willibald. But his mother cut him short.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think I would let your possessions go to nothing while you are
+in the war? It will be securely cared for in my hands--you know that. I
+have held the reins there long enough and will do it again--until you
+return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She still spoke in the hard, cold tones, as if she wished to exclude
+every warmer feeling. But now Willy stepped up to her, with his arm
+still around his bride-elect.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will take care of my worldly possessions, mamma,&quot; he said,
+reproachfully; &quot;you will take them under your protection. But for the
+best and dearest thing that belongs to me you have no word nor look.
+Have you really only come to tell me that you will go to Burgsdorf?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Fran von Eschenhagen's harsh reticence could not hold fast at this
+question. Her lips trembled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I came to see my only son once more before he goes to war--perhaps to
+death,&quot; she said, with painful bitterness. &quot;I had to hear from others
+that he had come to say farewell to his bride. He did not come to his
+mother, and that--that I could not bear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We should have come,&quot; cried the young lord; &quot;we should have made one
+more attempt to win your heart before leaving. See, mother, here is my
+bride-elect--my Marietta. She is waiting for a friendly word from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine threw a long look upon the young couple, and again her face
+quivered painfully as she saw how Marietta pressed shyly, but
+confidently, to the man in whose protection she knew herself so secure.
+Maternal jealousy stood a last, hard struggle; but finally she allowed
+herself to be conquered. She stretched out her hand to the young girl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I offended you once, Marietta,&quot; she said, in a half-stifled voice,
+&quot;and did you a possible wrong that time; but for that you have taken
+from me my boy, who, until then, had not loved anybody but his mother,
+and who now loves nobody but you. I believe we are quits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Willy loves his mother as dearly as ever,&quot; Marietta said heartily.
+&quot;I best know how he has suffered under the separation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? Well, we will have to agree with each other for his sake,&quot; said
+Regine, with an attempt at playfulness, which did not quite succeed.
+&quot;We shall be in a great deal of anxiety about him soon, when we know
+him in the battlefield; care, anxiety, will be plentiful then. What do
+you think, my child? I believe we could bear it easier if we worry
+about him together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She opened her arms, and the next second Marietta lay sobbing upon her
+breast. Tears glittered also in the eyes of the mother when she bent
+down to kiss her future daughter-in-law; but then she said in the old,
+commanding tone: &quot;Do not cry; hold up your head, Marietta, for a
+soldier's fiancée must be brave--remember that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A soldier's wife,&quot; corrected Willibald, who stood by with beaming
+eyes. &quot;We have just now decided to be married before I leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, Marietta really belongs to Burgsdorf,&quot; declared Regine,
+who was hardly surprised, and seemed to find this decision quite in
+order. &quot;No arguments, child. The young Frau von Eschenhagen has nothing
+to do further at Waldhofen, except as she comes for a visit to her
+grandfather. Or are you perhaps afraid of your grim mother-in-law? But
+I believe you have in him&quot;--she pointed to her son--&quot;a sufficient
+protection, even if he is not at home. He would be capable of declaring
+war upon his own mother if she did not bear his little wife upon her
+hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And she will do that, I know it. When my mother opens her heart, she
+does it perfectly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, now you can flatter,&quot; Frau von Eschenhagen said, with a rebuking
+glance. &quot;So you go with me to your future home, Marietta. You need not
+worry about the duties; I will attend to that. When I go away again it
+will be different; but I see already that Willy will hold you like a
+princess all your life long. It is right with me, just so he returns to
+us safe and sound.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She reached out her hands now to her son, and those two had perhaps
+never been in a closer or more loving embrace than to-day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the three entered the house, a quarter of an hour later, they met
+the Chief Forester, who actually started back at the sight of his
+sister-in-law. Regine marked his surprise with the liveliest
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Moritz, am I still the most unreasonable, obstinate person?&quot; she
+asked, offering her hand. But Schonan, who had not recovered from his
+jilting, kept his behind him, and muttered something incomprehensible.
+Then he turned to the young couple:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? And now you are to be married in hot haste. I met Dr. Volkmar just
+now and he told me about it; so I came to offer myself as best man. But
+perhaps that will not be acceptable, since the Frau Mamma is at her
+post.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you are just as cordially welcome, uncle,&quot; cried Willibald.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, yes, I can just be used as a secondary person in a marriage,&quot;
+grumbled the Chief Forester, with a reproachful glance at Regine. &quot;And
+so there will be a marriage before the war? One must say, Willy, you
+have marched with seven-league boots from your practical Burgsdorf into
+romance, and I should never have looked for it in you. However, my Toni
+is just as intent upon romance. She and Waldorf would have liked best
+to marry like this in steaming haste before marching orders came, but I
+have vetoed that, for circumstances are different with us, and I do not
+care to already sit at home, lonely as an owl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He glanced again with the very grimmest expression at Frau von
+Eschenhagen, but she approached him now, and said, cordially: &quot;Do not
+bear malice, Moritz. So far we have always made up again. Let us forget
+this quarrel also. You see, at least, that I can say 'Yes' for once,
+when the whole happiness of my boy depends upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Chief Forester hesitated a moment longer, then grasped the offered
+hand and pressed it cordially. &quot;I see it,&quot; he acknowledged, &quot;and
+perhaps you will now forget altogether that blamed 'No,' Regine, about
+another point.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The Steward of Rodeck stood in the study of Prince Adelsberg's palace,
+in the Residenz. He had been called there to receive various orders and
+plans before the departure of his young lord.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon, who already wore the uniform of his regiment, had given him
+verbal instructions, and now dismissed the old man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Keep the old forest nook in good order for me as heretofore,&quot; he
+concluded. &quot;It is just possible that I may go to Rodeck for a few hours
+before I leave, but I hardly believe so, for the order to march may
+come any day. How do I please you in my uniform?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He arose and drew himself up to his full height. The slender, youthful
+form looked well in the uniform of a lieutenant, and Stadinger measured
+him with admiring eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Real splendid!&quot; he assured the Prince. &quot;It is a pity that Your
+Highness is not a soldier by profession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think so? Well, I am one now, body and soul. Service in the
+field will come rather hard to me, and I will have to get used to it
+first. But it does not hurt when one is under strict discipline.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Your Highness, it will not hurt you at all,&quot; remarked Stadinger,
+with his terrible truthfulness. &quot;When Your Highness travels about for
+years in the Orient with a great sea serpent and a whole herd of
+elephants, or when you run away from the most gracious Court at Ostend
+because you do not want to marry at all--nothing comes of that but
+only----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But only stupidity,&quot; completed the Prince, wisely. &quot;Stadinger, I shall
+severely miss one thing in the campaign--your boundless tiresomeness.
+You want to give me a last curtain lecture--I see it in your face--but
+will spare you the trouble. Remember me rather to Lena when you get
+home. Is she back at Rodeck now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Your Highness, <i>now</i> she is there,&quot; said the old man, with heavy
+emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course, because I march to France. But be content; I shall return a
+genuine model of sense and virtue, and then--then I shall marry, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really?&quot; Stadinger cried in joyful surprise. &quot;How glad the most
+gracious Court will be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That depends,&quot; teased Egon. &quot;I may terrorize the most gracious Court
+with my engagement, and perhaps inflict cramps upon my most gracious
+Aunt Sophie with it. Don't look so stupid at this, Stadinger. You don't
+understand it, but I will permit you to crack your head over it
+during the campaign. But now go, and if we should not see each other
+again--keep your master in pleasant remembrance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger's face took on the grimmest of wrinkles to hide the upwelling
+tears, but he could not succeed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can Your Highness talk like that?&quot; he muttered. &quot;Shall I, an old
+man, remain perhaps alone in this world, and not see you any more--so
+handsome so young and happy! I could not live at that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I have vexed you so much, old Waldgeist,&quot; said the young Prince,
+giving him his hand; &quot;but you are right--we must think of victory and
+not death. But, when both come together, then death is easy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man bent over his master's hand, and a tear fell upon it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish I could go, too,&quot; he said, under his breath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe it,&quot; laughed Egon; &quot;and you would not look bad as a soldier,
+in spite of your snow-white hair. But we younger ones have to march
+now, and you old ones remain at home. Farewell, Stadinger----&quot; He shook
+his hand cordially. &quot;I really believe you are crying. You ought to be
+ashamed of yourself. Away with tears and sad anticipations. You will
+yet read me another lecture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May God grant it!&quot; sighed Peter Stadinger, from the depths of his
+heart. With wet eyes he looked once more into the youthful face, so
+full of life, smiling at him, so happy and sure of victory. Then he
+left sadly, with bowed head, realizing how much his young master had
+grown into his heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince cast a glance at the clock. He was to go to his superior,
+but saw that he had almost an hour yet, so he reached for the
+newspapers and plunged into the newest dispatches and reports.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A rapid footstep sounded in the ante-room. Egon looked up in surprise.
+Servants were not in the habit of making such a noise, and callers were
+always announced. But this caller did not need any announcing, as all
+the servants knew. All doors were open to him in the house of Prince
+Adelsberg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, is it you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon sprang to his feet in joyful surprise, and cast himself on the
+breast of the newcomer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You back in Germany, and I have no idea of it! You wicked monster, to
+leave me for fully two months without news of you! Have you come to say
+good-by to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut had neither returned the greeting nor the stormy embrace.
+Silently and gloomily he suffered both, and when he spoke at last, even
+his tone betrayed nothing of the joy of this <i>Wiedersehen</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I came straight from the depot. I hardly dared hope to find you still
+here, and yet everything depends upon it for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But why did you not announce your return to me? I wrote you
+immediately after the declaration of war. You were still in Sicily
+then, were you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I left there as soon as war seemed unavoidable, and did not
+receive your letter. I have been in Germany a week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you come to me only now?&quot; said Egon, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow did not notice this reproach. His eyes rested upon his friend's
+uniform with almost a jealous expression.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are already on duty, I see,&quot; he said, hastily. &quot;I also intend to
+enter the German army.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon evidently expected something entirely different. He retreated a
+step in boundless surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In the German army? You--a Roumanian?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, and therefore I have come to you. Will you make it possible for
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I?&quot; asked the Prince, whose surprise grew greater and greater. &quot;I am
+nothing more than a young officer. If you are really in earnest in this
+strange resolve, you must go to one of the standing posts of command.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have already done that at various places. I have tried it even in
+your neighboring state, but they will not accept the stranger. They
+demand all sorts of papers and references, which I do not possess, and
+torture me with endless questions. Everywhere suspicion and mistrust
+affront me. Nobody will understand my resolve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To speak the truth, Hartmut, I don't understand it, either,&quot; said
+Egon, solemnly. &quot;You have always showed such a deep antipathy to
+Germany--you are the son of a country whose higher circles know only
+French education and customs--which stands in sympathy exclusively with
+France. The mistrust of strangers is easily understood. But why do you
+not turn directly to the Duke, and personally accomplish your desires?
+You know how prepossessed he is with the poet of 'Arivana.' It will
+cost you only an audience, which will be granted you at any time, and
+an order from him will remove every difficulty and admit every
+exception.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rojanow's glance fell, and his clouded brow grew darker as he replied:
+&quot;I know that, but I cannot ask anything from that side. The Duke would
+put the same questions as all the rest, and I could not withhold the
+answer from him, and the truth--I cannot tell it to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not even to me?&quot; asked the Prince, stepping up to him and laying his
+hand on Hartmut's shoulder. &quot;Why do you insist so persistently upon
+entering our army? What do you look for under our colors?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut passed his hand across his brow, as if to wipe something away
+from there. Then he replied, heavily and huskily:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Salvation--or death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You return as you went--a puzzle,&quot; said Egon, shaking his head. &quot;You
+have hitherto refused every explanation. Can I not now learn your
+secret?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Obtain me an entrance into your army, and I will tell you everything,&quot;
+Rojanow cried in feverish excitement. &quot;No matter under what conditions,
+only see that it is granted me. But do not speak to the Duke nor to a
+general, but turn to one of the lower commanders. Your name, your
+relationship with the reigning house makes your word powerful. They
+will not answer Prince Adelsberg with a 'No' when he himself speaks for
+a volunteer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the same question will be put to him as to you--you, a Roumanian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; cried Hartmut, passionately. &quot;If I must confess it to you--I
+am a German.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The effect of this disclosure was not as great as Hartmut might have
+feared. The Prince looked at him for a moment, amazed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have thought so at times, for the one who could compose an Arivana
+in the German language did not get this language by education, but had
+grown up with it. But you bear the name Rojanow----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The name of my mother, who belonged to a Roumanian--Bojar's family. My
+name is--Hartmut von Falkenried.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His own name sounded strange in his ears, for he had not pronounced it
+for years; but Egon grew attentive at the name.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Falkenried? That was the name of the Prussian Colonel who came on that
+secret mission from Berlin. Are you any connection of his?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young Prince looked compassionately upon his friend, for he saw how
+terribly hard this confession came to him. He felt that a family drama
+was hidden here, and, too delicate to investigate further, he only
+asked: &quot;And you do not want to proclaim yourself the son of your
+father, not a Falkenried? Every Prussian regiment would be open to you
+then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, they would be closed to me forever. I fled from the cadets' school
+ten years ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut!&quot; Absolute terror was in the exclamation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you also, like my father, consider me worthy of death for it? You,
+of course, have grown up in freedom and have no conception of the iron
+rule which reigns in these institutions; of the tyranny with which one
+is bent under the yoke of blind obedience. I could not stand it. I was
+forced to freedom and light. I begged--entreated my father--but in
+vain. He held me fast in the chain--when I broke it, and fled with my
+mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He uttered this, all with wild, desperate defiance; but his eyes rested
+anxiously upon the face of his listener. His father, with his severe
+ideas of honor, had sentenced him; but his friend, who idolized him,
+who in passionate enthusiasm admired his genius and all that he did--he
+<i>must</i> understand the necessity of his step. But this friend was
+silent, and in this silence lay the sentence.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You too, Egon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the tone of the questioner who waited several minutes in vain for an
+answer, there lay deep bitterness. &quot;And you too, Egon, who have so
+often told me that nothing should hamper the flight of the poet; that
+he must break the fetters which would hold him to the ground. I did
+that--and you would have done the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince drew himself up with the firmness of decision.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Hartmut; you are mistaken there. Perhaps I should have fled from a
+strict school, but from the colors--never!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here it was again--the harsh words which he had already heard once
+before--&quot;fled from the colors.&quot; It forced the blood to his brow again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why did you not become an officer?&quot; continued Egon. &quot;You could
+have become one early at your home; you could have taken your leave
+then at an age when life only commences. Then you would have been
+free--honorably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was silent. His father had told him the same, but he had not
+wanted to wait and submit himself to rules. A barrier had stood in his
+way, and he simply threw it down unconcernedly. But he threw down duty
+and honor with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not know all that stormed upon me at that time,&quot; he replied,
+heavily. &quot;My mother--I do not wish to accuse her--but she has been my
+doom. My father had separated from her in early life. I thought her
+dead, when suddenly she entered my life and snatched me to her with her
+burning mother love--with her promise of freedom and happiness. She
+alone is responsible for that unfortunate breaking of my word----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What word?&quot; interrupted Egon, excitedly. &quot;Had you sworn to the
+standard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, but I had given my father my word to return when he allowed me the
+last conversation with my mother----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Instead of which you fled with her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The answer was almost inaudible and was followed by a long pause. The
+Prince spoke never a word; but in his open, sunny face deep, bitter
+pain was depicted--the bitterest of his life, for at this moment he
+lost his so passionately loved friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last Hartmut resumed, but he did not raise his eyes. &quot;You understand
+now why I want to force an entrance into the army at any price. Now
+that war has broken out, the man can atone for the boy's sin. Therefore
+I left Sicily immediately after the first threatening news, and flew as
+in a storm to Germany. I hoped to be able to hasten to arms. I had no
+idea of all the difficulties and hindrances which would be put in my
+way. But you can put them aside, if you intercede for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I cannot do that,&quot; said Egon, coldly. &quot;After what I have heard
+just now, this is impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut turned deathly white and stepped up close to Egon with a
+vehement gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You cannot? That means--you will not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince was silent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Egon!&quot; Wild, stormy entreaty was in the tone. &quot;You know I have never
+made a request of you--this is the first and last one. But now I
+beg--entreat you for this friendly service. It is the relief from the
+doom which has hung over me since that hour. The reconciliation with my
+father--the reconciliation with myself--you must help me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot,&quot; repeated the Prince. &quot;The rejection to which you have been
+subjected may hurt you deeply--I believe it--but it is only just. You
+have broken with your fatherland--with your duties--and that cannot be
+mended so easily without anything further, when one has become of a
+different opinion. You fled from the service of our standard--you, the
+son of an officer! Now the army is closed to you, and you must bear
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you tell me that so calmly--so coldly!&quot; cried Hartmut, beside
+himself. &quot;Do you not see that it is a question of life or death to me?
+I saw my father again that day at Rodeck, when he hastened to the
+deathbed of Wallmoden. He crushed me with his contempt--with the awful
+words he threw into my face. It was that which drove me away from
+Germany, which chased me ceaselessly from place to place. His words
+went with me and made life a hell to me. I have greeted the war cry as
+a deliverance. I want to fight for the fatherland which I once cast
+from me, and now the door which is open to every one is closed to me
+alone. Egon, you turn from me! Oh--there is only one way left for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a sudden, passionate motion he turned to the table, where the
+Prince's pistols were lying; but the Prince sprang at him and tore him
+back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, are you out of your senses?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps I shall be so. All of you torture me beyond endurance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Boundless despair lay in those words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon, too, had turned pale, and his voice trembled as he said: &quot;Before
+it goes so far--I will try to find an opening in a regiment for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At last! I thank you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;However, I cannot promise you anything, for the Duke has to be put
+altogether aside now. Besides, he leaves to-morrow for the battlefield.
+Should he learn later on that you serve in his corps, we shall then be
+in the midst of the storm of war, and one does not ask 'How' and 'Why'
+in the face of a completed fact. But it may take days before the
+decision arrives. Will you be my guest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Formerly the Prince would have accepted that as only natural and would
+have been exasperated if his friend had refused; now he made the
+inquiry, and Hartmut felt what lay in the cold question.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I shall not remain in town,&quot; he replied. &quot;I shall go to the
+Forester at Rodeck, and I beg that you will send your answer there. I
+can return here in a few hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you wish. Then you will not go to the castle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut gazed at him with a long, sad look.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; to the Forester's. Farewell, Egon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Farewell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They parted without a pressure of the hand, without a further word, and
+when the door closed behind him, Hartmut knew that he had lost the
+friend who had idolized him. Judged here, too--and cast out! He had to
+atone terribly for the old guilt.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER L.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Over the Wald hung a dark, cloudy sky, which, from time to time, sent
+down showers of rain. Gray mists clung around the heights, and storms
+raged through the crowns of the trees. It was a regular autumn day in
+the middle of summer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The mistress of Ostwalden was alone at her castle. She had received
+news from her brother that he had already left, and that the meeting
+planned between them could not take place. Therefore Adelaide had
+postponed her departure to be present at the marriage of Willibald and
+Marietta, which was quietly celebrated in the presence of the nearest
+relatives.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young couple had left for Berlin, where Willibald was to join his
+regiment immediately. His young wife wished to remain near him the few
+days before the order came to march. From there she was to go to
+Burgsdorf, whither her mother-in-law had preceded her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The morning hours had not yet passed when Prince Adelsberg drove up to
+the castle of Ostwalden. He had asked for leave of absence to-day to
+&quot;arrange some important matters&quot;; but the important matters did not
+carry him to Rodeck, but to Ostwalden. He came to say farewell to
+Adelaide, whom he had not seen since that first visit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As his carriage entered the castle yard, they met the priest of the
+neighboring village with the holy sacrament, and attendant chorister.
+Apparently the last rites had been administered to one seriously ill.
+The Prince inquired to whom the sad visit had been paid, and learned
+that it was to one of the inspectors of the estate, and that the
+mistress of the castle was at present with the dying man; but the guest
+should be announced to her instantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon restlessly paced up and down the reception room, into which he had
+been shown. He had come here to obtain an assurance, without which he
+did not feel able to march into a campaign of life or death; and the
+uncertainty with which such a campaign was ever taken, must serve as
+apology for thus approaching a young widow still in deep mourning. It
+need not yet be a proposal. He wanted to take with him only a hope the
+promise of which had risen so brightly at their last meeting, when
+Adelaide had shown such warm interest in his sorrow about his absent
+friend. He did not dream that he had made a fatal mistake. Still, in
+spite of this, a deep shadow rested upon the face of the Prince,
+usually so cheerful. It was not the leave-taking which gave him pain,
+for he went to the battlefield with glowing enthusiasm and the happy
+faith of youth, which dreams only of victory, and rejects all dark
+prospects. Besides, he dreamed of another happiness in the future,
+which he wished to secure now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door opened to admit Frau von Wallmoden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg your pardon for detaining you so long, Your Highness,&quot; she said,
+after the first greetings. &quot;It was probably told you that I was beside
+a deathbed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I learned so upon my arrival,&quot; replied Egon, who had hastened to meet
+her. &quot;Is the case really so serious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alas, yes! poor Tanner! He used to be tutor in a family in the
+neighborhood, but had to give up his position on account of a serious
+illness. At the request of the Chief Forester, I gave him employment in
+cataloguing my husband's library, which had been sent to Ostwalden, and
+it was hoped that he would quite recover in the easy office and the
+invigorating forest air. He was so grateful for it, and told me only
+yesterday how happy his mother was that he should be excused from
+military service, on account of not being yet quite well. But suddenly
+this morning he had a hemorrhage, and the physician tells me that he
+can live but an hour longer. It is awful to see a young life bleed to
+death like that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet this will happen to thousands in the next few weeks,&quot; said
+Egon, gravely. &quot;Have you been with the poor man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, at his request. He knew how it was with him, and wished to lay a
+prayer upon my heart for his old mother, who loses in him her only
+support. I have calmed his mind on that subject, but it was all I could
+do for him----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One could see how deeply the scene at the deathbed had impressed the
+young widow, and Egon, too, felt deep compassion at the narrative.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I come to say farewell,&quot; he said, after a short pause. &quot;We march the
+day after to-morrow, and I could not deny myself a visit to you once
+more. I am happy to have found you here, as I understand you intend
+leaving soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, for Berlin. Lonely Ostwalden is so far remote, and in this time
+of feverish expectation one wishes to be as near the centre of
+communications and connections as possible. I am anxious about my
+brother, who has joined the standard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again a pause ensued, and the Prince was about to break it with
+expression of what lay so near his heart, when Frau von Wallmoden
+anticipated him with a question, asked with apparent indifference, but
+in a voice which trembled slightly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You were in much anxiety about the non-arrival of news of your friend
+at your last visit, Your Highness. Have you heard from him yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon's eyes fell, and the shadow which had been dispelled during the
+conversation returned, heavily and gloomily, to his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; he replied, coldly. &quot;Rojanow is back in Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Since the declaration of war?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he came----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To join the army! Oh, I knew it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince looked at her amazed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You knew it, Your Excellency? I thought you had known Hartmut as a
+Roumanian only, and through me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A deep blush suffused the cheeks of the young Frau von Wallmoden. She
+felt the exclamation had been a betrayal, but she quickly regained
+composure. &quot;I became acquainted with Herr Rojanow last fall, when he
+was your guest at Rodeck,&quot; she answered, composedly; &quot;but I have known
+his father for long years, and he---- I suppose your Highness knows all
+that has happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know it now,&quot; said Egon, with heavy emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Colonel Falkenried was a near friend of my father's and visited our
+house frequently, although I had never heard of his son. I had
+considered the Colonel childless until that awful hour at Rodeck, the
+day my husband died. Then I learned the truth, and was a witness of a
+meeting between father and son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince breathed a sigh of relief at this explanation, which
+dispelled the disastrous thought just dawning upon him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand your concern, then,&quot; he replied. &quot;Colonel Falkenried is,
+indeed, to be pitied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He only?&quot; asked Adelaide, struck by the harsh tone of the last words.
+&quot;And your friend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have no friend--I have lost him!&quot; cried Egon, with passionate pain.
+&quot;What he confessed to me two days ago opened an abyss between us, and
+what I know now parts us forever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You judge the misdemeanor of a seventeen-year-old lad very severely.
+He must have been only a boy then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A deep reproach lay in the words of the young widow; but the Prince
+shook his head vehemently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not speak of that flight and that breaking of his word, although
+they weigh heavily with the son of an officer. But what I heard
+yesterday--I see you do not yet know the worst, gracious lady, and how
+should you? Spare me this report.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide had turned pale, and her eyes, full of fear, hung fixed upon
+the speaker.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg of Your Highness,&quot; Adelaide commenced again, &quot;to tell me the
+truth--the whole truth. You said that Herr Rojanow had returned to join
+the army. I had thought he would--had expected it--for it is the only
+thing by which he can atone for his old guilt. Has he joined the
+standard already?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Happily it has not gone so far, and that has spared me a heavy
+responsibility,&quot; said Egon, with supreme bitterness. &quot;He reported to
+several regiments, but was refused everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Refused! But why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because he did not dare to confess himself a German, and because a
+very just suspicion was raised toward the strange Roumanian. One has to
+be cautious at the present time that no--spies may force their way into
+the ranks of our armies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For God's sake, what do you mean?&quot; cried Adelaide, who began now to
+comprehend the situation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon sprang up in great excitement and drew nearer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you wish, then, to know it, gracious lady--listen. Hartmut came to
+me and requested me to use my influence to make the entrance into one
+of our regiments possible to him. I refused at first, but he forced me
+to consent by a threat which was hardly meant seriously. I kept my word
+and asked one of our higher officers, whose brother was secretary to
+our embassy at Paris and who had just returned from there with him.
+This gentleman was present at our interview. He heard the name,
+Rojanow--inquired further into the matter and gave me disclosures; I
+cannot repeat them. I have loved Hartmut as I have nothing else upon
+this earth--have almost idolized him. I let myself be carried away by
+the force of his genius, and now I learn that the friend who was
+everything to me is a monster; that he and his mother did service as
+spies at Paris. Perhaps he wished to do the same in our army!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He covered his eyes with his hand, and there was something awful in the
+agony of the young man whose idol had been so ruthlessly shattered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide had risen, and the hand with which she leaned upon the back of
+the chair trembled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what have you--has he--answered to that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you mean Rojanow? I have not seen him since and shall not see him
+again. I shall spare myself and him that much. He is now at the
+forestry at Rodeck and awaits my answer there. I have notified him in
+three lines of what I learned, without adding a remark or a word. He
+has probably received the letter and will understand it sufficiently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God! that will drive him to his death,&quot; Adelaide burst forth.
+&quot;How could you do it! How could you judge the unfortunate one without
+hearing him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The unfortunate one!&quot; repeated the Prince cuttingly. &quot;Do you really
+consider him that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, for I do not hear these awful accusations for the first time. His
+father cast them in his face at that meeting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, if even his own father accuses him----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The deeply offended, deeply embittered man! He cannot have an unbiased
+judgment, but you--the friend of Hartmut--you, who stood so near
+him--you ought to have stepped in and defended him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon looked with questioning surprise upon the excited lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You appear to wish to do so now, Your Excellency,&quot; he said slowly. &quot;I
+cannot do it, for there is too much in Hartmut's life which confirms
+the suspicion. It explains everything to me that has hitherto seemed
+mysterious. These are quite decided facts upon which the accusation is
+based----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Against the mother! She has ever been the doom--the ruin--of her son;
+but he did not know the shameful work to which she had fallen; he lived
+at her side ignorant of it. I saw how he broke down when his father
+uttered the awful words--how he struggled against it as in a death
+struggle. That was truth--that was the despair of a man who is being
+punished more deeply than he has transgressed. That flight--that
+breaking of his word--robs him now of the faith of those who stand
+nearest to him. But if his father and his friend both so judge him--<i>I
+believe in him!</i> It is not true! He is not guilty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had drawn herself fully erect in her stormy excitement. Her cheeks
+glowed; her eyes sparkled, and her tone and words contained that
+convincing passion which only love knows when defending the loved one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon stood there transfixed and looked at her. There it was--the
+awakening, of which he had often dreamed, Fire and life glowed there
+now--a blooming world arose from the ice; but it was another who had
+called it forth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not dare to decide as to whether you are right, gracious lady,&quot;
+said the Prince in a toneless voice, after a brief silence. &quot;I only
+know one thing. Whether Hartmut be guilty or not, he is enviable in
+this hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide shrank back; she understood the hint and lowered her head
+mutely before the reproachful glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I came to say farewell,&quot; continued Egon. &quot;I intended to add a
+question--a prayer--to this leave-taking, but that is over now. I have
+only to bid you farewell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide raised her eyes, in which hot tears glistened, and offered her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Farewell, and may God take you in His care and keeping during the
+campaign!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Prince Adelsberg shook his head silently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What shall I do with life?&quot; he finally cried in overwhelming sorrow.
+&quot;I should like best--no, do not look at me so entreatingly! I know now
+that I made a fatal mistake, and I will not torture you with a
+confession; but, Adelaide, I would gladly die could I buy with death
+the look and tone you had just now for another. Farewell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Once more he pressed her hand to his lips, then hastened away.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The storm had increased in violence during the afternoon. It roamed in
+the forest, dashed among the open heights and chased the clouds over
+the sky with increasing wrath. It raged with full force around that
+forest height which had once witnessed such a significant encounter
+between two people, but the man who leaned there now alone and lonely
+at the trunk of a tree did not seem to feel it, for he stood immovable
+in the midst of it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut's face was deathly pale; a stony, unnatural calm rested upon
+it, and the sparkle of the eyes had died out, while the hair fell heavy
+and damp over his brow. The storm had torn his hat from his head; he
+had noticed it as little as the rain which drenched him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had found himself at this place after hours of roaming through the
+forest--here, where a remembrance drew him unconsciously. It was the
+right place for his purpose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The news which had been looked for so feverishly had finally come; no
+letter; nothing but a few lines without any preface, and with only the
+signature, &quot;Egon--Prince Adelsberg.&quot; But in these lines there lay
+annihilation for him who received them. Cast out forever--judged by his
+friend without a hearing! Doom had awfully fulfilled itself in the son
+of Zalika.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The crashing of a huge limb which broke under the pressure of the storm
+and fell whizzing to the ground, aroused Hartmut from his despairing
+revery. He had not even started at the crash, but slowly turned his
+glance to the heavy mass which fell close to him. A foot nearer and it
+would have struck him--would perhaps have made an end of all the shame
+and torture in one moment; but death was not made so easy for him. That
+blessing came to him only who loved life--he who wished to throw it
+away must do so with his own hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut took the gun from his shoulder and put the butt to the ground;
+then he laid his hand upon his breast to find the right place. Once
+more he glanced up to the veiled skies with their scudding masses of
+clouds, and down to the little dark forest lake in the deceiving
+meadow, over which the fog clustered as at that time at home. The
+beckoning, charming will-o'-the-wisp had appeared to him there; he had
+followed the flame of the depths, and now it drew him down hopelessly;
+there was no further rising into the heights where other, brighter
+lights shone. A bullet in the heart and everything would be at an end.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was about to grasp the trigger when he heard his name called in a
+tone of deadly anxiety. A slender figure in a dark cloak sprang toward
+him from the edge of the forest, and the weapon fell from his hand, for
+he gazed into the face of Adelaide, who stood trembling before him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moments passed without a word from either. It was Hartmut who recovered
+first.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You here, gracious lady?&quot; he asked with enforced calmness. &quot;Are you
+out in the forest in this weather?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should like to put the same question to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have been hunting, but the weather is unpropitious, and I was about
+to discharge my gun----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not finish, for the sad, reproachful glance upon him told that
+the lie was in vain. He broke off and looked gloomily before him.
+Adelaide, too, gave up all pretense, and in her voice all her anxiety
+trembled as she cried: &quot;Herr von Falkenried, what did you intend to
+do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What would have now been done had you not interfered,&quot; said Hartmut,
+harshly. &quot;And believe me, gracious lady, it would have been better if
+coincidence had brought you here a few moments later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was no coincidence. I was at the forestry at Rodeck, and heard that
+you had been gone for hours. An awful presentiment drove me to look for
+you here. I was almost sure I should find you here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You looked for me? Me, Ada?&quot; His voice shook at the question. &quot;How did
+you know that I was at the forestry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Through Prince Adelsberg, who called to see me this morning. You
+received a letter from him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, only a communication,&quot; returned Hartmut with quivering lips. &quot;No
+single word was directed to me personally in the short lines; they
+brought only a communication in a business tone which the Prince
+thought necessary. I fully understood it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Adelaide was silent; she had known it would drive him to suicide.
+Slowly she walked with him under the protection of the trees, for it
+was hardly possible to keep erect out in the open space in this raging
+storm, but Hartmut did not seem to feel it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know the contents of the communication--I see that you do,&quot; he
+commenced again, &quot;and it is not new to you, either. You overheard what
+happened that night at Rodeck, but believe me, Ada, what I felt at that
+moment when you stood before me in that ghostly glow which shone
+through that night, and it grew clear to me that I had been ground into
+the dust before you--what I felt might have satisfied even my father's
+vengeance, might have atoned for all my sin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do him wrong,&quot; replied the young widow solemnly. &quot;You saw him only
+in the stern, iron inflexibility with which he cast you from him. I saw
+him differently after you had gone. He broke down there in wild
+anguish; he then let me look into the heart of a despairing father who
+loved his son above everything. Have you not made an attempt since then
+to convince him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; he would believe me as little as Egon does. He who has once broken
+his word, has lost forever their faith, even if he would regain it with
+his life. Perhaps my death upon the battlefield would have enlightened
+them, but when I fall now by my own hand they will see in it only the
+deed of a despairing man--a guilty one--and will despise me even in my
+grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not everybody will do that,&quot; said Adelaide lowly. &quot;I believe in you,
+Hartmut, in spite of everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked at her, and through the gloomy hopelessness of his soul there
+flamed something of the old fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You, Ada? And you tell me that upon this spot where you cast me off?
+You did not know anything about me then----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And for that reason I shuddered before the man to whom nothing was
+sacred--who recognized no law but his will and his passions; but that
+winter night, when I saw you at your father's feet, showed me that you
+fell more through doom than guilt. Since then I have known that you can
+and must cast that unfortunate inheritance from your mother far from
+you. Rouse yourself, Hartmut. The road which I then showed you is still
+open; whether it leads to life or death--it leads upward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He shook his head gloomily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, that is past. You have no conception of what my father has done to
+me with his terrible words. What my life has been since then I--but let
+me be silent about it; nobody can grasp it; but I thank you for your
+faith in me, Ada. Death is made easier to me through that faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young widow made a quick motion toward the weapon which lay at his
+feet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For God's sake, no! You dare not do that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What am I to do with life?&quot; Hartmut burst forth with terrible
+vehemence. &quot;My mother has branded me as with a red-hot iron, and this
+closes to me every way to atonement--to salvation. I am cast out from
+the ranks of my people, where even the poorest peasant can fight; a
+privilege which is denied only to the dishonorable criminal, is denied
+also to me, for I am nothing else in Egon's eyes. He fears that I might
+become a traitor--a spy to my own brothers!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He covered his face with both hands, and the last words died in a sob;
+then he felt a hand touch his arm gently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The brand is extinguished with the name Rojanow. Throw that from you,
+Hartmut; I bring you what you tried in vain to obtain--entrance into
+the army!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut started and gazed at her in unbelief.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Impossible! How could you----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take these papers,&quot; interrupted Adelaide, drawing forth a package.
+&quot;They are made out in the name of Joseph Tanner 29 years old, slender,
+with dark complexion, black hair and eyes--you see everything will
+suit--with these nobody will refuse you an entrance as a volunteer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She gave him the papers, around which his right hand closed
+spasmodically as upon the most precious jewel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And these papers?&quot; he asked, still doubting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Belong to a dead man. They were given me for another purpose, but the
+deceased has no further use for them and will pardon me if with them I
+save a living man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut stormily opened the package. The wind almost tore the sheets
+from his hand and he was scarcely able to decipher the contents as the
+young widow continued:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Joseph Tanner had a small office at Ostwalden, when seized with a
+hemorrhage this morning. He had but a few hours to live and gave me his
+last words and mementos for his mother. The poor woman shall receive
+everything--every letter, every scrap which can be a solace to her, but
+I have taken the official papers--for you. We do not rob anybody in
+doing this, for they are valueless to the mother to whom they now
+belong. Perhaps a strict judge would call that deceit, but I gladly
+shoulder the blame, and God will pardon it, and so will the
+fatherland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut closed the case and hid it in his breast, which heaved under a
+deep, deep breath. Then he drew himself up and pushed the rain-soaked
+locks from the high brow, so like his father's--his only inheritance
+from the Falkenrieds, but which gave him an unmistakable resemblance to
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right, Ada,&quot; he said. &quot;I cannot thank you in words for what
+you have done for me. Words have no power, but--I shall strive to
+deserve it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know that. Farewell and--<i>auf wiedersehen!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, do not wish that,&quot; said Hartmut gloomily. &quot;Death in battle can
+exonerate me to myself, but not to my father or Egon, for they would
+never hear of it; and if I remained among the living the old stain
+would return; but when I fall, tell them who rests under the foreign
+name. Perhaps then they will believe you and remove the curse from my
+grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you want to fall?&quot; asked Adelaide with plaintive reproach, &quot;even if
+I tell you that you sadden me inexpressibly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sadden you, Ada!&quot; he cried passionately. &quot;Do you no longer shudder at
+my love--at the fate which drew us together? Oh, I might have possessed
+the highest happiness, for you are--free; but it comes near to me now
+for only a fleeting moment, and vanishes again into unattainable
+heights, like the form of the legend who bears your name in my drama.
+Nevertheless, it has approached me, and I may be permitted for once
+only to clasp it to me in farewell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew her to him and pressed a kiss upon the brow of his love, who
+leaned against him sobbing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut, promise me that you will not seek death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; but it will know how to find me. Farewell, my own Ada.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He tore himself away hastily. Adelaide remained alone. The storm roared
+above her head; the giant crowns of the trees moaned and swayed; the
+storm sang its wild song on and on, but suddenly over in the west there
+flamed a dark-red rent through the clouds. It was only for a brief
+moment--only one solitary ray of the sinking sun, but it shiningly
+illumined the forest height and the departing one, who turned once more
+and sent back a last greeting. Then the clouds massed together again,
+and the ray was extinguished.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The reddish, flickering glow of a wood fire lighted up the interior of
+a small, isolated house which had formerly served as a dwelling to a
+station-keeper, but was now pressed into service for the sentinels of
+the outpost. The room did not bear an expression of cosiness with its
+bare, smoked walls, low ceiling and small, barricaded windows, but the
+tremendous logs which flared and burned in the uncouth stone fireplace
+offered a very welcome warmth, for it was bitterly cold out of doors,
+and the whole country was buried in the snow of a severe winter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The regiment here was hardly better off than their comrades before
+Paris, although they belonged to the Southern army corps.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At present two young officers were entering, and the one who still held
+the door open called laughingly to the one preceding: &quot;Please bend
+down, Herr Comrade, or you might take our door frame along, for our
+villa is in rather a dilapidated condition, as you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The warning was not without need, for the giant figure of the guest--a
+Prussian Lieutenant of the Reserve--was not at all in proportion to the
+door. Nevertheless, he succeeded in entering safely and looked around
+at the four walls, while his companion, who wore the uniform of a South
+German regiment, continued: &quot;Permit me to offer you a seat in our
+'salon,' which is not so bad considering the circumstances. We have
+already had it worse during the campaign. So you are looking for
+Stahlberg? He is with my comrade out at the post, but will probably
+return directly. You will have to be patient for a quarter of an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With pleasure,&quot; assured the Prussian. &quot;I see from that that Eugene's
+injury is really as slight as he reported. I looked for him in the
+hospital, and heard that he was making a visit to the outposts, but as
+we shall probably march on by to-morrow, I did not wish to let this
+opportunity pass by unimproved, and therefore came to see him now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;His wound was indeed only slight--a shot in the arm, which is already
+far advanced toward healing, but will, nevertheless, disable him for
+service for a short time. You are a friend of Stahlberg?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, and connected besides through the marriage of his sister. I
+see that you do not remember me, Your Highness. Let me give you my
+name--Willibald von Eschenhagen. We met last year----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At Furstenstein,&quot; interrupted Egon von Adelsberg quickly. &quot;Certainly,
+now I remember you perfectly. It is remarkable how the uniform changes
+one; I really did not know you at first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He glanced with a half-admiring look at the once awkward country squire
+who had appeared so ridiculous to him, but who now possessed a stately,
+military appearance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was not the uniform alone, though, which had changed Willibald so
+completely. What love had begun the campaign had finished by tearing
+him from the accustomed surroundings and circumstances. The young Baron
+had not only, as his Uncle Schonan expressed it, &quot;become a man,&quot; but
+had developed into a true, genuine man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our meeting at that time was a brief one,&quot; continued the Prince, &quot;but
+nevertheless you will permit me to offer my congratulations? You are
+betrothed----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe you are under a mistake, Your Highness,&quot; interrupted
+Willibald with some embarrassment. &quot;Although I had been introduced to
+you at Furstenstein as the future son-in-law of the house, but----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That has been changed,&quot; finished Egon, smiling. &quot;I knew it, for the
+comrade of whom I spoke just now is Lieutenant Waldorf, the happy
+fiancé of Baroness Schonan. My words were meant for Fraulein Marietta
+Volkmar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At present Frau von Eschenhagen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! You are already married?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have been for five months. We were married just before marching orders
+came, and my wife is now at Burgsdorf with my mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then accept my congratulations on your marriage. But really, Herr
+Comrade, I ought to call you to account for the unwarrantable damage
+you have done to art. Please tell your wife that, as far as I can learn
+out here in the campaign, the entire Residenz still mourns her loss in
+sackcloth and ashes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall not forget it, although I fear the Residenz has not much time
+for such mourning at present. Ah, the gentlemen are returning--I hear
+Eugene's voice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Steps were heard outside and the expected ones entered. Young Stahlberg
+greeted his relative with an exclamation of the most joyful surprise.
+He had not seen Willibald during the campaign, although both served in
+the same army corps. He still bore his arm in a sling, but otherwise
+looked well and happy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Eugene did not possess the beauty of his sister, and the feature of
+decided will-power which the daughter had inherited from her father was
+missing. The son showed a gentle, more conciliatory nature in his
+appearance as well as demeanor, but still he resembled his sister
+closely, which might have been the cause of Prince Adelsberg's intimacy
+with him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His companion, a handsome young officer with sparkling, saucy eyes, now
+approached, and the Prince performed the introduction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will not fear that the gentlemen will challenge each other when I
+mention the names,&quot; he said, jestingly. &quot;They are obliged to be
+called--so then, Herr von Eschenhagen--Herr von Waldorf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God forbid! For my part I am peace personified,&quot; cried Waldorf gayly.
+&quot;Herr von Eschenhagen, I am glad to meet the cousin of my fiancée, and
+so much more so because he is already in the bonds of holy matrimony.
+We also would have liked to do as you did--marry before the march--but
+my father-in-law put on his grimmest mien and declared, 'Gain victory
+first and then marry.' Well, we have done the first continually for
+five months, and as soon as I return home I shall speedily ask for the
+second.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He cordially shook the hand of his bride-elect's former fiancé, then
+turned to the Prince.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We brought along something for Your Highness--something we seized
+outside. Orderly of Rodeck, advance to His Highness--the Lieutenant,
+Prince Adelsberg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door opened, and in spite of the gathering twilight the Prince
+recognized the wrinkled face and snow-white hair of him who entered. He
+started.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All good spirits defend us! It is Peter Stadinger!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was, indeed, the live Stadinger who stood before his young master.
+He did not seem to be wholly a stranger to the others, for although
+they now saw him for the first time, they greeted his appearance with
+the liveliest joy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Above everything, let us have light to take a good look at the
+'Waldgeist' of His Highness,&quot; cried Waldorf, lighting candles and
+holding them with comical solemnity close before the old man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You see, Stadinger, what a well-known and frequently spoken of person
+you are here. Now let me introduce you in proper form. Behold here,
+gentlemen, Peter Stadinger--celebrated for his unequaled churlishness
+and his moral lectures, which make one quake. He probably thinks I
+cannot exist without them, and he will doubtless give to me here also
+upon the battlefield the satisfaction of this friendly habit. I hope
+that some of it will fall upon your heads, gentlemen--and now begin,
+Stadinger!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the old man, instead of obeying, grasped the hand of his master in
+both of his and said in a heartrending tone: &quot;Ach, Your Highness, how
+we have trembled and feared for you at Rodeck!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, that is polite!&quot; said Eugene Stahlberg, but the Prince assumed a
+displeased air.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So? And you therefore took to your legs speedily and left everything
+to go topsy-turvy at Rodeck. I should not have thought you would
+neglect your duty like that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger looked at him in doubting perplexity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I have come according to orders. Your Highness has written me to
+make haste and come and take Louis from the hospital--you would attend
+to the travel and everything. I arrived this noon, and found the lad as
+well as could be expected. The doctor thinks I can take him home with
+me in a week, for then all danger would be over. But the kindness Your
+Highness has shown to Louis and all the others from Rodeck who are in
+the army can never be told. May God reward you a thousand times!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon withdrew his hand impatiently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is 'Herr Lieutenant' now, remember that. I insist upon my military
+title--and what does this mean, now that when I count upon your
+churlishness you are meek as a lamb and give us a pathetic scene!
+I forbid it! This Louis, gentlemen, is a grandson of this old
+Waldgeist--a fine, brave fellow, but he has a sister who is much
+handsomer. I am sorry to say this senseless grandfather sends her away
+regularly when I go to Rodeck. Why did Lena not come along? You should
+have thought of bringing her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This proved effective against the meekness and affection, which were as
+unusual as embarrassing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger drew himself up rigidly and replied with his usual terseness:
+&quot;I believed Your Highness had no time here in the war to think about
+such foolishness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha, now it is coming!&quot; said the Prince under his breath to Waldorf,
+who stood beside him, but aloud he continued: &quot;That is where you are
+very much mistaken. A fellow gets uncivilized in the war, and when I
+return home again----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then Your Highness has promised to get married at last,&quot; reminded the
+old man in the most emphatic tone, which called forth general laughter
+among the young officers. Egon joined it, but his laugh sounded forced,
+just as did his reply:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes; I have promised, but I have reconsidered the matter in the
+meantime. I may keep my word in ten years or perhaps in twenty, but no
+sooner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger, who in spite of the command would not have used the title of
+Lieutenant under any consideration, because that would be a humiliation
+to the ducal family in his eyes, flew into a high state of indignation
+and gave free vent to it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If I do not almost believe it! If Your Highness has really for once a
+sensible thought, it does not hold good for twenty-four hours--and your
+sacred father a married man, too! Man has to marry, anyhow, and all
+foolishness stops of its own accord after marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now that he is in the run of it, gentlemen, let him moralize to you,&quot;
+cried Egon, and the young officers, to whom this was great fun, teased
+the poor Stadinger until he lost all respect and exhibited himself in
+the full halo of his admonitory nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Half an hour later Willibald and Eugene Stahlberg approached the Prince
+to take leave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You march on by to-morrow?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At daybreak. We march toward R----, where Major-General von Falkenried
+is stationed with his brigade, though it will take several days to
+reach there, for the whole country between here and the fortress is
+occupied by the enemy, and we have to clear our way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But tell the General, Willy, that I shall follow in at least a week,&quot;
+said Eugene. &quot;It is bad enough that I have to remain behind so long on
+account of a shot wound not worth mentioning. Next week I shall report
+myself well, whatever the doctor may say, and after that I shall join
+my regiment without delay--I hope before the capture of R----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must, indeed, make haste then,&quot; said Egon, &quot;for resistance does
+not last long usually where General Falkenried stands; we have seen
+that often enough. He is always in front with his men always the first
+to storm a place, and has already won inconceivable things. It seems as
+if no impossibility exists for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But he has the good luck to be always put in the front,&quot; grumbled
+Lieutenant Waldorf. &quot;Now again he is to take R----, while we lie here,
+God knows how long. And he will take possession of it--there is no
+doubt of that--perhaps he has taken it already. News reaches us only by
+roundabout ways so long as the enemy stands between us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He arose to escort the two gentlemen out, while the Prince remained
+behind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Standing before the fire with folded arms, he gazed into it, and his
+face bore an expression not in accordance with the gayety which he had
+but now been showing. Seriously, yet gloomily, he looked into the
+dancing flames, and the shadow would not leave his usually sunny eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He seemed to have forgotten the presence of Stadinger, but as the
+latter made himself heard by clearing his throat, he started.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, you are still here? Remember me to Louis and tell him I will come
+to see him again to-morrow. We don't have to say farewell yet, as you
+remain here for the present. You did not think we had such gay times
+here? Yes, one makes life easy as possible when one has to be ready
+every day to lose it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man stood before his master and looked sharply into his eyes,
+then he spoke half aloud:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, the gentlemen were gay and Your Highness the gayest of all but
+you are not happy in spite of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I? What do you mean? Why should I not be happy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know that, but still I see it,&quot; insisted Stadinger. &quot;When Your
+Highness used to come from Furstenstein, or were up to all sorts of
+things with Herr Rojanow, you looked different and laughed different,
+and just now when you looked into the fire it seemed to me as if Your
+Highness had something very heavy upon your heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Get away with all your observations!&quot; cried Egon, to whom his old
+Waldgeist was again becoming uncomfortable. &quot;Do you suppose we are
+always jolly? I should say that when one has the bloody battlefield
+always before the mind, earnest thoughts come near.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nothing could be said to that, and Stadinger remained silent, but he
+could not be deceived. He knew quite well that something was wrong with
+his young master, and that something was hidden behind this ostensibly
+exhibited gayety.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LIV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Lieutenant Waldorf re-entered the room, but left the door open. &quot;Come
+right in here,&quot; he called to the man hesitating outside. &quot;Here is an
+orderly from the Seventh Regiment with a report. Well, don't you hear,
+orderly? Come in!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The repetition of the order sounded very impatient. The soldier who
+stood upon the threshold hesitated there, and had even made a start
+back, as if he wished to return to the darkness outside. He now obeyed,
+but kept close to the door, so that his face remained in the dusk.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you come from the outposts at the Capellenberg?&quot; asked Waldorf.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At your command, Herr Lieutenant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon, who had turned indifferently, started at the sound of that voice.
+He made a hasty step forward, then stopped as if suddenly recollecting
+himself, but his eyes were fixed with an almost terrified expression
+upon the speaker.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As far as could be discerned in the semi-darkness he was a tall young
+fellow in the coarse cloak of the common soldier, with helmet upon his
+closely-cut hair. He stood there, rigidly immovable, and delivered his
+report correctly, but his voice had a peculiarly choked, hollow sound.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From Captain Salfeld,&quot; he reported. &quot;We have seized a suspicious
+character, dressed as a peasant, but probably from the French reserve,
+who tried to steal into the fortress. What writings he had with
+him----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do come nearer,&quot; commanded Waldorf, impatiently. &quot;We cannot half
+understand you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The soldier obeyed, drawing near to the officers. The light now fell
+full and sharp upon his features, but his face bore an ashy paleness;
+the teeth were tightly closed, and the eyes were fastened to the floor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon's hand clutched the hilt of his sabre convulsively, and only by an
+effort he suppressed the stormy exclamation which was forced to his
+lips, while Stadinger, with wide-open eyes, glared at the man, who now
+continued: &quot;The writings which he had with him were not of much
+account, but contained hints which he was probably to fill out
+verbally. The Captain thinks that if he were strictly examined, more
+could be learned, and asks now whether he shall send the prisoner here
+or to headquarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The report was neither surprising nor unusual. It often happened that
+suspicious people were seized. The enemy's reserve tried obstinately to
+obtain connection with the fortress; perhaps they kept it up in spite
+of all the watchfulness of the besiegers: but Prince Adelsberg seemed
+to have to struggle for breath before he could give the answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg the Captain to send the prisoner here. We shall be relieved in
+two hours and then we march straight to headquarters. I shall attend to
+the fellow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope he can be made to speak when he is seriously pressed,&quot; remarked
+Waldorf. &quot;He would not be the first whose heart had fallen when his
+position became clear to him. Well, we shall see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The soldier stood there awaiting his dismissal; not a muscle quivered
+in his face, but neither did he raise his eyes from the floor. Egon had
+now collected himself, and, retaining the assumed ignorance, he asked
+in the curt tone of the superior:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you belong to the Seventh Regiment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At your command, Herr Lieutenant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Joseph Tanner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Drawn?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, volunteer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Since when?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Since the 30th of July.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have been in the whole campaign?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Herr Lieutenant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well; now take the message to your Captain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The soldier saluted, turned upon his heel and left.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Waldorf, who had been a little surprised at the examination, but had
+not attached any importance to it, looked after him, shrugging his
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Those out at the Capellenberg have the worst time of it. No rest by
+day or night; taxed to the utmost, and with all that they are often
+ordered to help the pioneer corps. The poor fellows work there in the
+hard, frozen ground until the sweat runs in streams from their brows,
+and their hands bleed. Our people surely are better off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He left the room to appoint an orderly to guard the expected prisoner
+and give him the necessary instructions; but Egon tore the window open
+and leaned out; it seemed as if he should suffocate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then he heard Stadinger's voice behind him in subdued tones, which
+nevertheless betrayed the greatest terror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it?&quot; Egon asked without turning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Has not Your Highness seen?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The orderly who was here just now. That was Herr Rojanow as sure as he
+lives and breathes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon saw that presence of mind was needed here, so he turned around and
+said coldly: &quot;I believe you see ghosts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Your Highness----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! there may be a little resemblance. I noticed it myself,
+therefore I wanted to know the name of the man. You heard that it was
+Joseph Tanner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But still it was the real live Herr Rojanow,&quot; cried the unshakable
+Stadinger, whose sharp eyes could not be deceived. &quot;Only the black
+locks were gone and the proud, haughty manner, but it was his voice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Get away from me with your fancies!&quot; Egon broke out angrily. &quot;You know
+that Herr Rojanow is in Sicily, but here you want to trace him in an
+orderly of the Seventh Regiment. It is truly worse than ridiculous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger held his peace. It was, indeed, ridiculous and impossible,
+and consequently was his young Prince so ungracious. He felt offended
+that a common soldier should be confounded with his friend. And really
+the haughty Rojanow, who understood how to command from the very
+bottom of his heart, and had often chased all the servants at Rodeck
+helter-skelter with his orders--and the orderly who had been snubbed by
+Lieutenant Waldorf because he did not speak loud enough--were two ever
+so different things. If only it had not been for the voice!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Think, Your Highness,&quot; besought the old man, who was now wavering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think that you are an old seer of spirits,&quot; said Egon more mildly.
+&quot;Go into your quarters and sleep away the fatigue of your journey, or
+you will be finding some more resemblances. Good-night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger obeyed and took his leave. Fortunately he had not known
+Joseph Tanner, who had only been at Ostwalden a few weeks, and the
+encounter had put him in such a fright that the partly concealed
+excitement of his master passed quite unnoticed by him. But he clung to
+his doubts; the thing was strange--very strange.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the Prince found himself alone he began to pace the floor in
+violent excitement. So! what he had refused his former friend had been
+enforced. Joseph Tanner! He plainly remembered the name, which had been
+mentioned to him at Ostwalden, and he knew now whose hand had opened
+for Hartmut the ranks of the army which had been closed to a Rojanow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What will not the love of a woman attain!--a woman who desires to see
+her love exonerated at any price. She herself had sent him out into
+danger and death--to save him for life and--herself. Jealousy rose wild
+and hot in Egon's breast at the thought, and with it that awful
+suspicion, not yet overcome, raised its head again threateningly. Did
+Hartmut really wish to atone only in this war? Was not his presence at
+the outposts a danger, for which one was responsible if he kept it a
+secret?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then came back to the Prince's mind the pale, gloomy face of the man
+to-night--the friend who had once been so dear to him, and who must
+have suffered agonies of torture at this encounter, far exceeding his
+imagination. He well knew Hartmut's unbending pride, and this pride was
+now bowed low in the dust in that subordinate position day after day.
+He had heard it; how out there on the Capellenberg they often worked so
+hard that in spite of the icy weather the sweat poured in streams from
+their brows, and their hands bled. This was what the spoiled, famed
+Rojanow was doing; the man at whose feet the whole town laid its homage
+only a year ago, and whom the house of the reigning Prince had
+overwhelmed with distinction; and he was doing it of his own free will,
+when the success of his poetical work afforded him the richest
+revenues. And with it all, he was the son of General Falkenried!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon's breast rose under a deep but relieved breath. This view of it
+was giving him back slowly his lost faith; all torturing doubts fled
+before this. The old sin of the boy Hartmut was now being atoned for,
+and the other more awful sin was the mother's alone--not his.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was toward nine o'clock in the evening when Prince Adelsberg left
+his quarters to go to the Commanding General. He was not obeying an
+official order, but an invitation, for the General had been close
+friends with his father, and had shown paternal attention to the son
+all during the campaign.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon would have given much to have been permitted to remain at home
+to-night, for the encounter with Hartmut had shaken him to the inmost
+heart, but the invitation of the superior could not be disregarded, and
+one could not follow one's inclinations in war-time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An adjutant met the Prince upon the stairs, seeming to be in the
+greatest haste, and only dropping a hint of bad news, which Prince
+Adelsberg would probably hear from the General. Egon mounted the stairs
+shaking his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The General was alone, pacing the room in apparent excitement and with
+a face which boded no good.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good evening, Prince Adelsberg,&quot; he said, pausing in his walk at the
+entrance of the young officer. &quot;I am sorry I cannot promise you a
+pleasant evening, but we have received news which will probably ruin
+every pleasure of being together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I just heard a hint about it,&quot; replied Egon; &quot;but what has happened,
+Your Excellency? The dispatches of to-day noon sounded favorable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have had this news but an hour. You yourself delivered the
+suspicious man who had been seized by our outposts to headquarters. Do
+you know what he had with him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, for Captain Salfeld sent the papers with the prisoner. I was also
+of the opinion that he was to complete the information verbally, as
+they had been carefully prepared. They had apparently counted upon the
+possibility of the man's falling into our hands. He would not confess
+anything, but I knew he would be examined closely here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Which has been done. The man was a coward, and when he saw the bullet
+threatening him he saved himself by a confession, the truth of which
+cannot be doubted. You remember that in one of the papers it was
+mentioned that one could in an extreme case follow the heroic example
+of the commander of R----?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that is incomprehensible, as the fortress is on the eve of
+surrender. General Falkenried sent word that he hopes to move in by
+to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I fear he will make his word good,&quot; cried the General. Egon looked
+at him in amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You <i>fear</i>, Excellency?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, for there is a scoundrelly scheme--a betrayal without example.
+They mean to surrender the fortress, and when their garrison has
+withdrawn to a safe distance, and our army has moved in, they intend to
+blow the citadel to atoms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For God's sake!&quot; shrieked the Prince in horror. &quot;Cannot General
+Falkenried be notified?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the question. I fear that it will not be possible. I have sent
+out warnings upon two different routes, but our direct connection with
+R---- is cut off; the enemy has the mountain passes in possession; the
+messengers will have to make a wide circuit and cannot arrive there in
+time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon was silent in deepest consternation. The passes were, indeed,
+occupied by the hostile forces. Eschenhagen's regiment had been sent to
+clear the way, but that might take several days.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have considered all possibilities,&quot; continued the General, &quot;but
+there is no way out of it--nothing but a slight hope that the surrender
+has been delayed in some way; but Falkenried is not the man to allow
+himself to be kept waiting. He will hasten the finale and then he is
+lost with perhaps thousands with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He resumed his walk through the room. One could see how the fate of his
+endangered comrades went to the heart of this iron man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Prince, too, stood helpless, but suddenly a thought flashed upon
+him. He drew himself up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If it should be possible to send a dispatch over the passes, a good
+horseman might possibly get to R---- by to-morrow morning. Of course,
+he would have to ride for life and death----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And through the midst of the enemy--nonsense! You are a soldier and
+must tell yourself that it is impossible. The foolhardy rider would not
+get half a mile--he would be shot down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But if a man could be found who would be willing to make the attempt
+in spite of everything? I know such a man, Your Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The General frowned angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Does that mean that you wish to offer yourself for this useless
+sacrifice? I would have to prohibit that, Prince Adelsberg. I know how
+to value the courage of my officers, but I shall not give them
+permission for such impossible enterprises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not speak of myself,&quot; said Egon earnestly. &quot;The man of whom I am
+thinking belongs to the Seventh Regiment, and is at present upon
+sentinel duty on the Capellenberg. It was he who reported the
+prisoner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The General had grown thoughtful, but he shook his head incredulously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I say it is impossible; but what is this man's name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Joseph Tanner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Private?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he entered voluntarily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know him, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Your Excellency; he is perhaps the best rider in the whole army;
+dauntless to foolhardiness, and capable to act in such a case with the
+circumspection of an officer. If the thing can possibly be done, he
+will do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you believe--such a thing cannot be commanded--it is, indeed, an
+act of despair--you believe that the man would take this message of his
+own free will?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I stand for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, indeed, I cannot nor dare not say no where so much is at stake.
+I will order Tanner up immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I not take the order to him?&quot; Egon quickly interrupted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The General stopped and looked at him searchingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You wish to do it yourself--why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To save time; the road which Tanner has to take leads by the
+Capellenberg; an hour would pass before he could get to headquarters
+and back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nothing could be said against that, but the General seemed to feel that
+something important was hidden beneath this. An ordinary private would
+hardly undertake such peril, which drove him almost into death's
+embrace, but the old warrior did not inquire further. He only asked:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you stand for the man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; returned the Prince, firmly and calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well; then you can inform him yourself. But one thing more--he
+must have statements for the outposts on the other side, if indeed he
+reaches it, for every detention may prove fatal where moments count.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stepped to his desk and wrote a few lines upon a paper, which he
+handed to the Prince.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here is the necessary passport, and here the dispatch to Falkenried.
+Will you bring me immediate news whether or not Tanner consents to go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Instantly, Your Excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon received the papers, took his leave, and hastened to his quarters,
+where he ordered his horse saddled at once. Five minutes later saw him
+on his way.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LVI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The Capellenberg, of Chapel Mountain, which had probably borne
+originally another name, but was so called by the Germans because it
+bore a chapel, was only a small height, partly covered with forests. It
+was the last outrunner of the mountains at this side, and formed here
+the border of the German troops. A company of the Seventh Regiment was
+stationed in the farms which lay scattered over its side. Their
+position was rightly considered very hard and most dangerous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The chapel lay desolate and lonely, half buried in the deep snow.
+Priests and choir had long since fled, and the little edifice bore
+traces of destruction everywhere, for hot battles had been fought
+around this height. Walls and roof still stood intact, but a part of
+the ceiling had fallen, and the wind whistled through the shattered
+windows. Behind it rose the forest, clad in ice and snow, and all this
+lay in the uncertain light of the half-moon which was now visible in
+the heavily clouded sky, shedding her ghostly light upon the
+surroundings, only to again quickly disappear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was an icy winter night, as at that time at Rodeck, and, as then,
+the horizon was lit up by a dark reddish glow; but no aurora beamed
+here in gorgeous beauty; the glow which flared here in the north bore
+witness of battles fought all around; it had its origin in burning
+villages and farms; the awful signs of the flame of war, which were
+reflected in the skies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A lonely sentinel stood here with gun on shoulder--Hartmut von
+Falkenried.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His eyes hung on the flaming horizon, the dark masses of cloud shone
+there blood-red, and from time to time a shower of fiery sparks burst
+from the seething smoke which rested over the earth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Glow and flame there; ice and night here! The cold, which had been
+intense already during the day, now grew to the breath of ice, in which
+all life seemed to become stark, and which chilled the lonely sentinel
+to the very marrow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Although he was not the only one who had to do this hard duty, his
+comrades had not been spoiled by years of life in the Orient and the
+balmy air of Sicily. Hartmut had not lived through a northern winter
+since his boyhood; this cold grew disastrous to him, for it seemed to
+change the blood in his veins into ice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Slowly the deadly sleepiness, which is not sleep, crept upon him; it
+made the limbs heavy as lead, and drooped the eyelids forcibly. He who
+was so terribly threatened, struggled against it with all his
+will-power; he tried to collect himself and move about; he succeeded
+for a moment, but exhaustion again approached, the end of which he
+knew.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Was it not even to be granted him to fall by a bullet?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut's glance turned to the half-destroyed house of God, as if
+beseeching help; but what were church and altar to him? He had cast
+faith from him long ago; only night with death stared him in the face,
+and life would have given him so much when the atonement should have
+been completed--possession of his love, the fame of a poet, and perhaps
+even reconciliation with his father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it was not to be. He must stand to his post and wait for the
+ignominous death which was creeping upon him from the icy darkness.
+Duty commanded and he--obeyed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But in the distance sounded steps and voices which came nearer and
+nearer. They tore Hartmut from the semi-unconsciousness which had
+already begun to veil his senses.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He roused himself with an effort and made his gun ready, but it was his
+comrades who drew near. What did it mean? The hour for relief had not
+yet come; but in a moment a sergeant stood before him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Relief--command from headquarters brought by an officer,&quot; came the
+order.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The change was made and a sturdy peasant, who did not seem to mind the
+cold much, took Hartmut's place. As Hartmut was about to join the
+sergeant an officer approached him from the other side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let the sergeant go on. I wish to speak to you, Tanner; follow me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Prince Adelsberg, who did not wish the sentinel to witness the
+conversation, entered the chapel, into which Hartmut followed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The pale moonlight falling through the windows revealed all the
+dismantled and destroyed interior. The fallen ceiling had shattered
+some of the pews; the altar alone stood undemolished.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon had walked to the middle of the room, where he stopped and turned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hartmut.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Lieutenant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stop that, we are alone,&quot; said the Prince. &quot;I did not think, that we
+should meet like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I hoped I should be spared it,&quot; said Hartmut hoarsely, &quot;You have
+come----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From headquarters. I heard that you had been ordered to sentinel duty
+on the Capellenberg. That is awful duty for such a night as this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was silent; he knew that without this interruption it would
+have been his last duty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon looked at him with concern. In spite of the uncertain light he saw
+how rigid and exhausted was the man who leaned against one of the
+pillars as if he needed support.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I came to bring you an order, but it is left to your own free will to
+accept it or not. The matter is considered almost impossible, and it
+would be, perhaps, to any one else. You have courage for it, I know,
+but the question is, have you the strength after all these exertions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fifteen minutes' rest and warmth will give me the strength. But what
+does it concern?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A ride for life or death. You are to take a message through the midst
+of the enemy--to R----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To the fortress?&quot; cried Hartmut with a start. &quot;There stands----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;General Falkenried with his brigade; he is lost if the message does
+not reach him. We lay his safety in the hands of his son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again Hartmut started. Gone were frost and exhaustion. With feverish
+excitement he grasped the Prince's arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am to save my father? I? What has happened? What must I do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Listen. The prisoner whom you reported to me to-day has given us a
+terrible disclosure; it concerns a betrayal. The fortress is to be
+blown up as soon as their troops are in safety and ours have taken
+possession. The General sent warnings instantly, but they will not
+reach them in time, as they have to take a circuitous route. Your
+father thinks of taking possession to-morrow. He must be warned before
+that, and there is only one possibility. The messenger must go over the
+mountain passes, which are held by the enemy. If successful, the news
+will reach there to-morrow before noon, but the way----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it,&quot; interrupted Hartmut. &quot;Our regiment took it only fourteen
+days ago coming here. The passes were free then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So much the better! Of course you must take off your uniform, which
+would betray you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall change only cloak and helmet. If I am held up at all, my fate
+is sealed--so it is only important that I be not recognized in flying
+past. If only a good capable horse can be found!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is at hand. I brought my Arab--my Saladin--with me. You know him
+and have often ridden him. He flies like a bird, and must do his master
+achievement this night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The conversation had been conducted with flying haste, and now the
+Prince drew out the papers which he had received at headquarters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here is the order of the Commanding General, which puts everything at
+your disposal when you reach our outposts--and here the dispatch. Give
+yourself half an hour's rest, for your strength might not hold out, and
+you will break down on the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think that I need rest and recreation now,&quot; cried Hartmut,
+flashing up. &quot;I shall surely not break down now; it will have to be
+under the fire of the enemy if I do. I thank you, Egon, for this hour,
+in which you at last--at last--speak to me free from that base
+suspicion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And in which I send you out into death,&quot; said the Prince softly. &quot;We
+will not shun the truth. It will be a miracle if you get through
+safely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A miracle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut's glance wandered to the altar, upon which rested the pale
+light of the moon. He had forgotten long ago how to pray, yet at this
+moment he sent up a silent, fervent prayer to the heavens--to the power
+which could do miracles.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only until I have saved my father and his men--only so long guide and
+keep me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the next second he drew himself up. It was as if Egon had poured
+glowing life power into the veins of the man who so shortly since was
+threatened with death through cold and exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And now let us say good-by,&quot; whispered Egon. &quot;Farewell, Hartmut.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He opened wide his arms and Hartmut fell upon his breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All that had stood between them was buried in this embrace. The old
+glowing love burst forth powerfully again for the last time, for both
+felt that they would not meet again--that this was a final farewell.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scarce fifteen minutes later a horseman dashed away; the slender Arab
+flying so that his hoof seemed not to touch the ground. In furious
+gallop he flew along over the snow through ice-covered forests, over
+frozen brooks on and on into the mountain passes!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LVII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The next day brought clear, frosty weather, but the sun shone brightly
+and the cold had somewhat abated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In Prince Adelsberg's quarters were Eugene Stahlberg and Waldorf, the
+latter being off duty today on account of a fall upon the ice,
+resulting in an injury to his hand, which prevented him from marching
+with his company as Egon had done.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen were awaiting their princely comrade, who was expected
+soon, and entertained themselves in the meantime by teasing Peter
+Stadinger, who had, as in duty bound, appeared at his young master's
+this morning, and who also awaited him now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officers knew nothing as yet of the news which had
+been obtained at headquarters yesterday, and were in the best of
+spirits--taking all possible pains to call forth in Stadinger the
+far-famed churlishness. But it was not successful today. The old man
+remained laconic and reticent. He would only repeat his question: When
+would His Highness return? and if it would be a serious skirmish to
+which His Highness had marched? until finally Waldorf lost all
+patience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stadinger, I believe you would like best to pack up your Prince and
+take him back with you to your Rodeck, which is safe from bombs,&quot; he
+asserted. &quot;You must get over this anxiety in the war--remember that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And, besides, the Prince has only marched out to reconnoitre,&quot; added
+Eugene. &quot;He is just taking a little walk with his people from the
+Capellenberg into the neighboring dales and ravines, to ascertain how
+it really looks there. They will probably exchange a few compliments
+with the French gentlemen, and then retreat politely; the more impolite
+attacks will follow in a few days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But is there shooting with it all?&quot; asked Stadinger, with such anxious
+mien that the two officers laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, shots are being exchanged, too,&quot; confirmed Waldorf. &quot;You seem to
+have great fear of them, yet you are at a safe distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I?&quot; The old man drew himself up, deeply offended.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish I could be in the midst of it also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps to protect your much loved Highness. The Prince would decline
+that. You would hold on to his coat tails and cry continually, 'Take
+care, Your Highness, there comes a ball.' That would look fine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Lieutenant,&quot; said the old man, so seriously that the gay tease
+was silenced, &quot;you should not do that to an old hunter who has often
+climbed after the chamois, and has fired his gun when he had scarcely a
+foot's breadth of ground to stand on; I feel so depressed and anxious
+to-day. I wish the day would end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, it was not meant so seriously,&quot; said Eugene, soothingly. &quot;We
+believe you, Stadinger; you do not look like a man who is afraid. But
+you must not speak to us about your depressing presentiments. One does
+not think of them after one has stood so many times in the shower of
+bullets. When we are happily at home again, I will come to my sister at
+Ostwalden, and we will then be good neighbors with Rodeck. The Prince
+loves his old forest nook so well. And now abandon your anxiety, for
+there he comes already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rapid steps were heard on the stairs outside; the old man sighed with
+relief. But it was only Egon's attendant who appeared in the open door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, has His Highness arrived?&quot; asked Waldorf; but Stadinger did not
+allow the man time to answer. He had cast one glance at his face--only
+a single one--then suddenly grasped his hand with a convulsive clutch.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it? Where--where is my master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man shook his head sadly and pointed silently to the window, to
+which both officers hastened with fear and dread. But Stadinger lost no
+time. He dashed out down the stairs, into the little garden which lay
+before the house, and with a loud, bitter cry sank upon his knees at
+the side of a stretcher, upon which there lay a slender, youthful
+figure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quietly,&quot; said the physician who had accompanied the sad group.
+&quot;Control yourself--the Prince is seriously wounded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see it,&quot; gasped the faithful old servant; &quot;but not fatally--oh, say
+not fatally. Only tell me that, Herr Doctor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked up to the surgeon with such despairing entreaty that the
+latter had not courage to tell him the truth, but turned to the two
+officers who now hastened near and overwhelmed him with low, anxious
+questioning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A ball in the breast,&quot; he explained, in the same tone. &quot;The Prince
+begged to be brought to his quarters, and we have used all possible
+care in the moving; but it will bring the end more quickly than I
+thought.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fatal?&quot; asked Waldorf.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Beyond a doubt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The surgeon gave the bearers who prepared to take their charge into the
+house, a sign to desist.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stop, the Prince seems to have something to say to his old servant,
+and there are no moments to lose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stadinger saw and heard nothing of what happened at his side. He looked
+only upon his master.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Egon seemed to be unconscious. The light hair had become disheveled,
+the eyes were closed, and beneath the cloak with which he had been
+covered, and which had partly fallen open, the blood-stained uniform
+could be seen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Highness,&quot; besought Stadinger, softly, according to the doctor's
+warning, but with heartbreaking accents, &quot;only look at me! Speak to me!
+It is I--Stadinger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The well-known voice found its way to the ear of the desperately
+wounded man. Slowly his eyes opened, and a slight smile flitted over
+his features as he recognized the old man who knelt at his side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My old Waldgeist,&quot; he whispered, &quot;did you have to come--to see this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you will not die, Your Highness,&quot; murmured Stadinger, his whole
+body a-tremble, but never removing his eyes from his dying master;
+&quot;no--do not die--surely not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think that it is hard?&quot; said Egon, calmly. &quot;Yesterday--you saw
+quite correctly--my heart felt heavy; but now it is light. Give my love
+to Rodeck--and to my forests and--to her, too, the mistress of
+Ostwalden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whom? Frau Wallmoden?&quot; asked Stadinger, almost terrified at this turn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes--take her my last greeting--tell her to think of me sometimes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The words came painfully--brokenly--from the lips which seemed to
+almost refuse their duty; but they left no doubt as to the meaning of
+the last greeting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Eugene had started when he heard the name of his sister, and now bent
+low over the dying man, who saw the brother of Adelaide--recognized the
+features which resembled hers so much--and again a smile passed over
+his face. Then he leaned his fair head quietly and calmly on the breast
+of his old Waldgeist, and the beautiful blue eyes closed forever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It had been a short, painless struggle--almost a falling asleep.
+Stadinger had not moved--had not uttered a sound, for he knew it would
+hurt his young master, whom he had borne in his arms as a child, and
+who now drew his last breath in those arms. But, when all was over, the
+composure of the old man gave way. He threw himself despairingly upon
+the body and wept like a child.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LVIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Over on the other side of the mountain passes also the winter sun shone
+clear and bright upon the new achievements which the victorious German
+troops had acquired.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The negotiations with the commander of R---- had been brought to an
+end, and the fortress had surrendered. The captive garrison moved out,
+while a portion of the victors had already marched in.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">General Falkenried stood in the main square of the lower town with his
+staff, about to move also into the fortress. The helmets and arms of
+the troops who were on their way into the citadel glittered in the
+sunshine. Falkenried issued various orders, then took his stand at the
+head of his staff and gave the signal to march.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But now there came a horseman in furious haste over the main road; the
+noble animal he rode was covered with sweat and foam, and his sides
+bled from the cruel spurs which had hurried him on and on when his
+strength threatened to desert him. The face also of the rider was
+disfigured by the blood trickling from beneath the cloth that had been
+wound around the forehead.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He came flying, as if driven by a tornado, and everything fled from
+before him until he reached the open square, dashed through the midst
+of the officers straight up to the General. A few steps from the end of
+the journey the strength of the noble horse failed, he broke down
+completely; but at the same moment the rider sprang from the saddle and
+hastened toward the commander.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From the Commanding General.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried started at the first word. He had not recognized the
+blood-covered face; he only saw that the man who dashed up as if for
+life or death must bring an important message. But at the sound of that
+voice, an idea of the truth flashed upon him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut swayed and laid his hand for a moment on his brow; it seemed as
+if he were about to break down, too, like his horse. But he recovered
+with an effort.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The General sends word to be cautious--betrayal is planned--the
+fortress will be blown up as soon as its garrison has moved off. Here
+is the dispatch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He tore a paper from his breast and gave it to Falkenried. The officers
+had become violently excited at the awful news, and pressed around
+their chief as if expecting to hear from him confirmation of the
+incredible report. But they had a strange sight before them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The General, whose iron composure they all knew--who never lost control
+of himself--had turned deathly pale, and stared at the speaker as if a
+spirit had risen before him from the ground, while he held the paper
+unopened in his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr General--the dispatch!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One of the adjutants who understood the proceedings as little as the
+others, gently reminded him; but it was enough to bring Falkenried back
+to consciousness. He tore the dispatch open and glanced it over, and
+was now again the soldier who knew nothing but his duty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With full, firm voice he gave his orders. The officers galloped right
+and left; signals and commands resounded in all directions, and in a
+few moments the last detachment of soldiers came to a standstill. Upon
+the fortress sounded the signal of alarm. Neither friend nor foe knew
+what it meant. Did it not appear as if the so recently conquered place
+was to be vacated at once? But the orders were executed with the usual
+alacrity and dispatch; the movements were completed with perfect
+composure, in spite of the haste, and the troops turned back into the
+town.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried was still in the open square, giving orders, receiving
+reports, watching and guiding everything with his eyes. But still he
+found a moment's time to turn to his son, to whom he had not as yet
+given any sign of recognition.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are bleeding--let it be bandaged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut shook his head hastily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Later--I must first see the retreat--the rescue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The awful excitement sustained him; he did not falter again, but
+followed with feverish attention every movement of the troops.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried looked at him and then asked:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Which way did you come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Over the mountain passes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Over the passes! The enemy stands there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, there they stand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you came over that way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had to, otherwise the news would not have reached here in time. I
+started only last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But that is an heroic deed without an equal! Man, how could you
+accomplish it?&quot; exclaimed one of the higher officers, who had just
+brought a report and heard the last words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut was silent; only he slowly raised his eyes to his father. He no
+longer feared the eyes he had feared so long, and what he read in them
+now told him that here, too, he was free from that awful suspicion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But even the greatest will power has its limits, and this was reached
+with the man who had rendered almost superhuman assistance. The face of
+his father was the last thing he saw--then it disappeared as behind a
+bloody veil; something hot and wet flowed over his forehead--all became
+night around him, and he sank to the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And now resounded a crash, under the appalling force of which the whole
+town trembled and quaked. The citadel, whose outlines had just stood
+out sharp and clear against the blue sky, was suddenly transformed into
+a crater, vomiting forth fire and destruction. In those walls a hell
+seemed to open; showers of rocks and stones rose high in the air, only
+to come down with thunderous clatter, and immediately there leaped and
+flickered over all the huge pile of débris a giant pillar of fire and
+smoke which rose up to the heavens--a terrible sign of flame!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The warning had arrived at the last possible moment. But, in spite of
+it, there was a sacrifice of life, for whoever had been still in the
+neighborhood of the citadel had been crushed or severely injured. Still
+the loss was small in comparison with the incalculable disaster which
+would surely have taken place had not the warning been brought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The General, with his officers and nearly all his troops, had been
+saved. Falkenried had made all the arrangements required by the
+dreadful catastrophe with his usual promptitude and circumspection. He
+was everywhere, and his activity and example succeeded in giving back
+to the men who had been betrayed in the height of victory their
+equilibrium. Only when the commander had done his duty did the father
+seek his natural rights.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut still lay unconscious in one of the neighboring houses, into
+which he had been carried when he sank to the ground. He neither saw
+nor heard the father, who stood at his bedside with one of the
+physicians.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried silently gazed down upon the pale face and closed eyes, then
+turned to the physician.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not consider the wound fatal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The doctor sadly shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not the wound in itself, but the great overexertion of that life and
+death ride--the heavy loss of blood, the bitter cold of the night. I
+fear, Herr General, you must be prepared for the worst.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am prepared for it,&quot; said Falkenried, solemnly. Then he knelt down
+and kissed the son whom perhaps he had found only to lose again; and
+hot, burning tears fell upon the deathly white face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it was not granted the father to remain with his child for any
+length of time; he was forced to leave after a few moments, requesting
+the doctor once more to give his greatest care and skill to the
+patient.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the open square were collected the General's staff and other
+officers, awaiting their chief. They knew he was at present with the
+wounded man who had brought the warning, and whom nobody knew.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It had become known that he had come over the mountain passes, through
+the midst of the foe--that he had ventured upon a ride the like of
+which nobody in the army could imitate--and when the General at last
+appeared, everybody gathered around him, questioningly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried was deeply serious, but the rigid, gloomy look which his
+face was accustomed to bear had disappeared and given place to an
+expression which the attendant officers saw now for the first time. In
+his eyes tears still glistened, but his voice sounded firm and clear as
+he answered:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, gentlemen, he is desperately injured, and perhaps it was his last
+ride that brought rescue to us. But he has done his duty as a man and a
+soldier, and if you want to know his name--he is my son, Hartmut von
+Falkenried!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LIX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The old mansion of Burgsdorf lay peaceful and cosy in the brightest
+sunlight. It had but recently received back its lord, who had been
+absent nearly a year, and who returned now after the war was over, to
+his home and his young wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The large estate, with its extensive work, had not suffered through his
+long absence, for it had been under safe guidance. The master's mother
+had stepped into her old place, and held the reins with her usual firm
+hand, until the return of her son; but now she laid those reins
+solemnly into his hands again and insisted, in spite of all prayers and
+entreaties, upon leaving Burgsdorf and returning to her city home.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At present Frau von Eschenhagen was standing upon the terrace, the
+broad stone steps of which led into the garden, talking with Willibald,
+who stood beside her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her glance rested with undeniable satisfaction upon the powerful, manly
+form of her son, who appeared even more stately now because of the
+acquired military bearing. Perhaps she felt that something different
+and better had been made of the young country squire than she could
+have done with her education. But she would not have confessed it at
+any price.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And so you wish to build,&quot; she was saying; &quot;I thought about as much.
+The plain old house in which your father and I lived so many years is,
+of course, not good enough for your little princess. She must be
+surrounded by every available splendor. Well, I don't mind; you have
+the money for it, and can allow yourself that pleasure. I am glad to
+say I have not the responsibility of it any longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not act so grim, mamma,&quot; laughed Willibald. &quot;If any one should hear
+you, they would think you the worst of mothers-in-law, whereas if I did
+not know it from Marietta's letters, I see it daily now, how you spoil
+her and carry her upon your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, well, one likes to play with pretty dolls sometimes, even in old
+age,&quot; replied Regine, dryly; &quot;and your wife is such a delicate little
+doll, who is only good for play. Do not imagine that she will ever get
+to be a competent farm manager. I saw that from the first moment, and
+have not allowed her to do it at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you were right in that,&quot; joined in the young lord. &quot;Work and
+management are my part. My Marietta shall not be worried with it. But,
+believe me, mamma, one can live and work quite differently when such a
+sweet little <i>singvogel</i> sings courage and love of work into one's
+heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Boy, I believe you are crazy still,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen, with
+her old grim manner. &quot;Has it ever been known that a <i>sensible</i> man--a
+husband and estate owner--speaks so of his wife--'sweet little
+<i>singvogel</i>'! Perhaps you get that from your bosom friend, Hartmut, who
+is considered by you all as such a great poet. You always did imitate
+him as a boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, mamma, it is really my own. I have composed poetry but once in my
+life, on the night when I saw Marietta in Hartmut's 'Arivana.' The poem
+fell into my hands the other day, when I was putting my desk in order,
+and I gave it to Hartmut, begging him to change it a little, for,
+strange to say, the rhymes would not fit, and I had not done very well
+with the meter. Do you know what he said? 'My dear Willy, your poem is
+very beautiful as far as sentiment is concerned, but I advise you to
+abandon poetry. Such verse is not to be tolerated, and your wife will
+seek a divorce if you sing to her in this style.' That is how my 'bosom
+friend' judges my poetical talent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It serves you right, too. What does an estate owner have to do with
+poetry?&quot; said Regine, caustically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door of the dining room was opened and a small head, running over
+with dark curls, peeped out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it permitted to disturb the assembly in their important business
+discourse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come along, you small elf,&quot; said Frau von Eschenhagen. But the
+permission was superfluous, for the young wife had already flown into
+her husband's open arms. He bent over her affectionately and whispered
+something in her ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you commencing again?&quot; scolded the mother. &quot;It is really
+unbearable in your presence nowadays.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marietta only turned her head, without freeing herself from the embrace
+which held her so closely, and said, roguishly: &quot;We are celebrating our
+honeymoon after the long separation, and you must know from your own
+experience how people act then, <i>nicht wahr</i>, mamma?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine shrugged her shoulders. Her honeymoon with the late Eschenhagen
+had been of a different kind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You received a letter from your grandfather, Marietta,&quot; she said,
+changing the subject; &quot;was it good news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The very best. Grandpapa is quite well and anticipating much pleasure
+in his visit to Burgsdorf next month. But he writes that everything is
+very quiet around Waldhofen since Rodeck has lost its master.
+Everything is closed and desolate since the death of the young Prince.
+Ostwalden is lonely, and Furstenstein will be deserted, too, after
+Toni's marriage, which occurs in two weeks. Poor Uncle Schonan will be
+all alone then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last words were spoken with a certain emphasis as the young wife
+threw a peculiar glance at her mother-in-law.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That upright lady did not pay any attention to it, but only remarked:
+&quot;Yes, it is a strange notion of Hartmut and Adelaide to live here in
+the pine forest in a small, rented villa during the first weeks of
+their married life, while the large castle of Ostwalden and all of the
+Stahlberg country seats are at their disposal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They probably wished to remain with their father a little longer,&quot;
+said Willibald.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Falkenried could have taken a vacation in this case and gone
+with them. Thank God that the man has really come back to life, since
+that terrible bitterness has fallen from him, and he has his son again.
+I knew well how very hard the flight of the boy struck him. He secretly
+idolized him, while showing him only severity and requiring in turn
+nothing but obedience. Of course, what Hartmut accomplished with that
+night's ride, by which he saved his father with his troops, erases even
+more than a senseless boy's escapade, for which the mother was really
+to blame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But we are cheated out of all the wedding festivities in the family,&quot;
+pouted Marietta. &quot;Willy and I had to be married quietly because the war
+broke out, and now, after the war has happily ceased, Hartmut and
+Adelaide do just like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child, when one has gone through such things as Hartmut has, all
+pleasure in festivities is lost,&quot; said Frau Eschenhagen, gravely. &quot;And,
+besides, he has not fully recuperated yet. You saw how pale he was at
+the wedding. Adelaide's first marriage was, indeed, celebrated with
+more pomp. Her father insisted upon it, in spite of his low state of
+health, and the bride was really a queenly, if cold, apparition in her
+satin train and her laces and diamonds. But, truly, she looked
+different when she drew near the altar with her Hartmut, in the simple
+white silk dress and the dainty veil. I never in my life saw her so
+lovely. Poor Herbert! He never possessed the love of his wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But how could one love such an old Excellency in his diplomatic frock
+coat? I could not have done it, either,&quot; said Marietta, pertly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But she had touched a weak point; her mother-in-law held the
+remembrance of her brother in high esteem.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The necessity would never have come to you,&quot; she remarked, with pique.
+&quot;A man like Herbert von Wallmoden would hardly have wooed you--you
+little saucy----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But she got no further, for the saucy little sprite already hung around
+her neck coaxingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Please don't get angry, mamma. How can I help it that my most
+undiplomatic Willy is dearer to me than all the Excellencies in the
+whole world, and he is that to you, too; eh, mamma?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You little flatterer!&quot; Regine tried in vain to keep up her severe
+mien. &quot;You know very well that nobody can get angry with you. A regime
+will now probably commence here at Burgsdorf which has had no
+precedent. Willy is ashamed before me now, but after I am gone, he will
+surrender to you upon grace or displeasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mamma, do you still cling to that idea?&quot; asked Willibald,
+reproachfully. &quot;Will you go now, when everything is love and peace
+between us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just because of that I shall go, so that it may remain. Do not oppose
+it, my son. I have to be first where I live and work. You want to be
+that now; therefore it is best we are not together; and your little
+princess must not get angry about it. We have heretofore had great
+anxiety about you, and people do not quarrel when they have to tremble
+anew each day for husband and son. But that is over now, and I am still
+too much of the old kind to fit myself to your youth. Do whatever you
+like, but things must go as I like in my house, and therefore I go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She turned and went into the house, while the young lord looked after
+her with a half-suppressed sigh.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is right, perhaps,&quot; Willibald said, half aloud, as his
+mother vanished; &quot;but she will be unhappy alone, and without the
+long-accustomed activity. I know that she will not be able to bear the
+enforced rest. You ought to have begged her to remain, too, Marietta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young wife laid her curly head upon her husband's shoulder and
+looked at him roguishly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no; I shall do something better. I shall see to it that mamma does
+not get unhappy when she leaves us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You? How will you do that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite easily. I shall marry mamma off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Marietta, what are you thinking of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you wise Willy; have you really not noticed anything?&quot; laughed
+Marietta, and it was the old, silvery laugh with which she had
+bewitched him at Waldhofen. &quot;And you do not know why Uncle Schonan was
+in such a grim temper when we saw him in Berlin three days ago? And why
+he did not want to come to Burgsdorf at all, although we begged him so
+much? Mamma did not ask him, because she feared a renewed proposal. He
+understood it, and consequently he was so angry. I have known all about
+it ever so long; even at the time when mamma came to us at Waldhofen,
+and he told her so fiercely that she would only use him as a secondary
+person at a wedding. I saw then that he would like to be one of the
+principals. Willy, you are making a superb face now! You look exactly
+as you did at the beginning of our acquaintance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lord did not, indeed, look very intellectual in his boundless
+surprise. He had never considered the possibility of his mother
+marrying again, and to her brother-in-law, besides! But it broke upon
+him that this was an excellent solution of the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Marietta, you are surpassingly clever!&quot; he cried, looking with the
+greatest admiration at his wife, who accepted the homage with much
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am even more clever than you think,&quot; she said, triumphantly, &quot;for I
+have put the matter to rights. I got behind Uncle Schonan and gave him
+to understand that if he would storm once more now, the fortress would
+probably surrender. He grumbled mightily and said that he had had
+enough of it and did not want to be made a fool of again; but at last
+he reconsidered the matter. He arrived fifteen minutes ago. I did not
+dare tell mamma anything about it, and--here he is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She nodded to the Chief Forester, who emerged upon the terrace and
+heard the last words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, here I am; but take care, little woman, if you have 'led me
+behind the light,' for&quot;--to Willibald--&quot;I have come solely at her
+request. She has probably given you the details about how it stands
+with us--that is, with me, for your Frau Mamma is probably again
+unreasonable, obstinate and self-willed as she usually is--but I will
+marry her yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All right, uncle, if she will only have you,&quot; laughed Willibald, who
+could not help thinking this description of his mother from a wooer
+very peculiar.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that is the question,&quot; said Schonan, doubtfully; &quot;but your wife
+thinks----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That we dare not lose another minute!&quot; interrupted Marietta. &quot;Mamma is
+in her room, and has no conception of the attack. Willy and I will
+remain in the background, and join in the battle if the worst should
+happen. Forward, march, uncle; forward, Willy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And Frau Marietta von Eschenhagen, with her little, delicate hands
+pushed the stately Chief Forester and her huge husband forward, without
+more ado. They patiently submitted, although Schonan muttered:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Strange how they all understand how to order one about--little ones as
+well as big ones. It must be born in them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine von Eschenhagen stood at the window of her room, looking out
+upon her beloved Burgsdorf, which she intended to leave in a few days.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Much as she was convinced of the wisdom of this decision, it was yet
+not easy to execute it. The strong, restlessly active woman, who had
+stood thirty years at the head of a large work, felt a shudder at the
+rest and inactivity which awaited her. She had been made acquainted
+with the city life during her first separation from her son, and had
+been very unhappy in it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door opened and the Chief Forester entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Moritz, you here!&quot; Regine started with surprise. &quot;This is sensible of
+you to come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I am always sensible,&quot; remarked Herr von Schonan, very pointedly.
+&quot;Although you did not have the grace to invite me, I came to get your
+consent to attend Toni's wedding. Of course, you will come to
+Furstenstein with your children?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, certainly we will come; but we were all much surprised at this
+haste. Did you not intend to buy an estate first? And that is not
+usually accomplished so quickly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, but they want to get married. Our victors have become very
+assuming since their heroic deeds. Waldorf simply declared upon his
+return, 'Papa, you said when I left, First win in war and then marry;
+now we have won and now I want to marry. I'll not wait any longer. The
+estate has time to wait, but not the wedding, for that is the most
+important.' So, since Toni is also convinced of this importance,
+nothing was left for me to do but to name the wedding day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau von Eschenhagen laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, young people are quick to marry, and they have so much time to
+wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is not so with older folks,&quot; said Schonan, who had only been
+looking for this opportunity and speedily made use of it. &quot;Have you
+considered the question at last, Regine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What question?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our marrying. I hope you are now in the 'humor' for it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine turned away, somewhat offended.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You like to be abrupt, Moritz. How did you get into the notion so
+suddenly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! you call that sudden?&quot; the Chief Forester cried, indignantly. &quot;I
+made my first proposal to you five years ago; the second one last year,
+and now I come for the third time, and yet you have not had sufficient
+time to consider. Yes or no? If you send me away this time, I shall not
+come back--depend upon that--and the whole courtship can go where it
+wants to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regine did not answer, but it was not indecision which made her
+hesitate. Even this strange, original nature had a spice of deep
+romance in her heart--love for the man who was once to be her husband,
+Hartmut von Falkenried. When he had married another, she too had
+pledged her hand, for she was not the kind to mourn her life away
+uselessly; but the same bitter pain which had stung the young girl when
+she approached the altar, awoke now again in the aging woman and closed
+her lips; but it lasted only a few moments, then she threw the dream
+from her with decision, and stretched out her hand to von Schonan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, yes, Moritz. I will be a good and true wife to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God!&quot; cried Schonan, with a deep sigh of relief, for he had
+taken the hesitation as a preliminary to a third refusal. &quot;You should
+have said that five years ago, Regine, but better late than never. At
+last we have gotten so far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And with that the persistent wooer enclosed the finally won life
+companion in a hearty embrace.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER LXI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a hot summer day. Even in the forest one felt something of the
+intense heat which flickered upon meadows and fields. Upon the forest
+path a little group walked beneath the tall firs. It was General
+Falkenried, with his son and daughter, who were accompanying him a part
+of the way to Burgsdorf, where he intended making a visit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Falkenried had indeed become another person.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The war which had been fatal to so many, and made others old before
+their time, in spite of the victories and triumphs won, appeared to
+have been a source of rejuvenation to him. Although the white hair and
+deep furrows in the face remained, witnesses not to be erased of a
+painful time, yet the face had life in it again; the eyes had regained
+their old fire, and one saw now at the first glance that the man was
+not so old, but stood yet in the fulness and power of life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut had not yet entirely recovered, as his appearance proved. The
+campaign had not made him younger. He looked older and graver, and the
+still pale face, with the broad red scar upon the forehead, spoke of a
+time of heavy suffering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The wound in itself had not been serious, but had become so through the
+severe loss of blood, and the overexertion of the ride in the night of
+the severe cold, so that at first all hope had been abandoned, and it
+required months of careful nursing to give Hartmut back to life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the old Hartmut, the son of Zalika, with his wild blood and
+unbridled desire for freedom, had also died in this time of suffering.
+It seemed as if with the name Rojanow, which he had cast forever from
+him, the unfortunate inheritance from the mother had also been lost.
+The heavy, dark curls were just beginning to grow again, and the high,
+powerful forehead appeared more striking in its resemblance to his
+father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the young wife at his side bloomed in the fullest beauty of youth
+and happiness. Whoever had seen her in her cold hauteur--her icy,
+unapproachable manner, would hardly have recognized her in this bright,
+slender woman, in her light summer costume, with fresh forest flowers
+in her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The smile and tone with which she spoke to her husband and father had
+never been known to Frau von Wallmoden; they had been learned only by
+Adelaide von Falkenried.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not any farther, now,&quot; said the General, pausing in their walk. &quot;You
+have to take the return walk, and Hartmut must still be careful. The
+physicians request that he be very prudent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, if you only knew how depressing it feels to be considered an
+invalid still, when I already feel full of life and power! I am really
+well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not place in jeopardy again what has been so hardly won,&quot; continued
+the father. &quot;You have not yet learned patience, but fortunately I know
+you are under Ada's supervision, and she is strict on this subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, had it not been for Ada, there probably would not have been
+anything to take care of,&quot; said Hartmut, with a look of deepest
+affection upon his wife. &quot;I believe I was in rather a hopeless
+condition when she came to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The physicians, at least, gave me no hope when I sent off the dispatch
+which called Ada to your side. You called for her in your first
+conscious moment, to my boundless surprise, for I did not dream that
+you ever knew each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Was it not right to you, Papa?&quot; asked the young wife, looking
+smilingly up to the father, who drew her to his breast and pressed a
+kiss upon her brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know best what you are to Hartmut and me, my child. I thanked God
+that I could leave him under your nursing when I had to march on. And
+you were right, too, when you persuaded him to remain here, although
+the doctors wished to send him away. He has to learn to feel at home
+first in the fatherland--must learn to understand and love again that
+from which he has so long been estranged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Has</i> to learn it?&quot; said Ada reproachfully. &quot;What he read to you and
+me to-day I should think would show that he has learned it already, and
+that this new work bears another language from the wild, glowing
+Arivana.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Hartmut, your new work is of great merit,&quot; said Falkenried,
+giving his hand to his son. &quot;I believe the fatherland will be proud of
+my boy, even in times of peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut's eyes sparkled as he returned the pressure of the hand. He
+knew what praise from his father's lips was worth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And now, good-by.&quot; The General kissed his daughter-in-law again, &quot;I
+will drive from Burgsdorf directly to town, but we shall see each other
+in a few days again. Farewell, children!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he had disappeared behind the trees, Hartmut and Adelaide turned
+on their homeward way, which led them by the Burgsdorf pond.
+Involuntarily they paused beside it, and gazed upon the calm sheet of
+water which lay so shiningly in the sun with its wreath of rushes and
+water lilies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have played boys' games here so often with Willy,&quot; said Hartmut
+softly, &quot;and here my future was decided on that fatal night. I realize
+only now what I did to my father in that unfortunate hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you have atoned for it fully,&quot; returned Ada, leaning her head on
+her husband's shoulder. &quot;It has been wiped out before the world, too,
+which overwhelmed you and father on all sides with admiration and
+appreciation when it was known who had done that heroic deed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartmut shook his head gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was a deed of despair, not heroism. I did not believe that it would
+succeed--nobody believed it; but even if I had fallen I should have
+regained my lost honor by that ride through the enemy. Egon knew that,
+and for that reason he put the rescue into my hands. When we said
+farewell that icy winter night in the shattered walls of the little
+chapel, we both felt that it was a final farewell, but we thought, too,
+that I should be the victim, for I went into almost certain death. Fate
+decreed differently. I was borne as by spirit hands through the dangers
+to the accomplishment of my aim, and almost at the same hour Egon fell.
+You need not hide your tears from me, Ada; I am not jealous of the
+dead, for I loved him just as--he loved you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Eugene brought me his last greeting,&quot; said the young wife, in whose
+eyes shone the tears she had wished to conceal from her husband. &quot;And
+Stadinger, too, wrote me to fulfill his dying master's last request. I
+fear the old man will not live much longer; his letter sounded as if he
+were utterly crushed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor Egon!&quot; In Hartmut's voice sounded the deep pain he felt for his
+friend. &quot;He was so full of sunny happiness and joy; he was created for
+it and to give it. Perhaps you would have been happier at his side,
+Ada, than with your wild, passionate Hartmut, who will trouble you
+often enough with the dark side of his nature.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ada smiled up at him with the tears still in her eyes. &quot;But I love this
+wild, stormy Hartmut, and do not desire any greater happiness than to
+be his wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The forest lake lay in dreamy noonday stillness; grave and dark stood
+the old firs over it; the rushes at its border whispered low, and
+thousands of bright sparkles danced upon its surface.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Above it curved the blue sky into which the boy had once wished to soar
+like the falcon of which his race bore the name, higher and higher to
+the sun. It beamed, too, now up there in shining splendor the powerful,
+eternal sign of flame in the heavens!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>[THE END.]</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign of Flame, by E. Werner
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign of Flame, by E. Werner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sign of Flame
+
+Author: E. Werner
+
+Translator: Eva Freeman Hart
+            E. Van Gerpen
+
+Release Date: January 25, 2011 [EBook #35069]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIGN OF FLAME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+   Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/signofflame00werniala
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "My son'. My only child! Do you not know your mother?"
+Hartmut retreated, startled. "My mother is dead," he said in a low
+tone. Page 26. _The Sign of Flame_.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE SIGN OF FLAME.
+
+
+
+                      FROM THE GERMAN OF E. WERNER
+
+
+
+                             TRANSLATED BY
+
+                   EVA FREEMAN HART AND E. VAN GERPEN
+
+
+
+
+           "Give me a nook and a book,
+            And let the proud world spin round."
+
+
+
+                    A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,
+                      52-58 DUANE STREET, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                Copyright, 1902. BY A. L. BURT COMPANY.
+
+                           THE SIGN OF FLAME.
+
+           Translated by Eva Freeman Hart and E. Van Gerpen.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE SIGN OF FLAME
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Through the gray fog of an autumn morning a flock of birds took flight;
+sweeping now, as if in farewell, close to the firs, so recently their
+home--rising now to a goodly height, directing their flight toward the
+south, and disappearing slowly in the veiled distance.
+
+The gloomy eyes of a man standing at a window of the large castle-like
+mansion situated at the edge of the forest, followed this flight.
+
+He was of tall stature and powerful in physique; the erect bearing
+would have betrayed the soldier even without the uniform which he wore:
+his features not handsome but strong; hair light, and eyes blue; in
+short, a typical German in appearance; but something like a shadow
+rested on those features, and the high brow bore deeper furrows than
+the years seemed to warrant.
+
+"There, the birds are already leaving," he said, pointing to the flock
+which fluttered in the distance until lost entirely in the mass of fog.
+"The autumn is here in nature and also in our lives."
+
+"Not yet in yours," interrupted his companion. "You are standing in
+full strength at the height of your life."
+
+"Perhaps so considering years; but I feel as if old age would approach
+me sooner than any one else. I feel much like the autumn of the year."
+
+The other gentleman, who was in civilian dress, was probably older than
+his companion. His stature was of medium height and frail. At first
+sight he appeared almost insignificant beside the powerful form of the
+officer, but the pale, sharply outlined face bore an expression of
+cold, superior calm; and the sarcastic line around the thin lips proved
+that behind the cold composure expressed in his whole manner something
+deeper lay concealed.
+
+He now shook his head with displeasure.
+
+"You take life too hard, Falkenried," he said reproachfully; "you have
+changed remarkably in these last years. He who has seen you as a young
+officer, merry as the day, would not recognize you now. And why all
+this? The shadow which once clouded your life has long ago vanished;
+you are heart and soul a soldier; you receive distinction at every
+opportunity; an important position is assured you in the near future;
+and, what is best--you have kept your son."
+
+Falkenried did not reply; he folded his arms and again looked out into
+the gray distance. The other continued:
+
+"The boy has grown as handsome as a picture in these last few years. I
+was quite surprised when I saw him, and even you confess that he is
+extraordinarily gifted, and, moreover, in several respects is endowed
+with absolute genius."
+
+"I wish Hartmut were less gifted and had more character instead,"
+Falkenried said in almost harsh tones. "He can make poetry and learn
+languages as if it were play, but as soon as he begins earnest study he
+remains far behind the others; while as to military strategy, nothing
+whatever can be done with him. You have no idea, Wallmoden, what iron
+severity I have to bring to bear on that."
+
+"I only fear that you do not accomplish much with this severity,"
+interrupted Wallmoden. "You should have followed my advice and sent
+your son to the University. That he is not cut out for a soldier you
+ought now finally to see."
+
+"He must and shall be fit for it; it is the only thing possible for his
+unruly disposition, which chafes under every curb and feels every duty
+a burden. The University--the life of a student--would give him fullest
+liberty. Nothing but the iron discipline to which he has to bow keeps
+him in check."
+
+"Yes, for a while; but can it force him in the future? You should not
+deceive yourself. His are, unfortunately, inherited faults, which may
+possibly be suppressed, but never uprooted. Hartmut is in appearance
+the image of his mother; he has her features--her eyes."
+
+"Yes, I know," Falkenried said, gloomily, "her dark, demoniacal,
+glowing eyes, which knew how to charm everything----"
+
+"And which became your ruin," completed Wallmoden. "How did I not warn
+and implore against them, but you would not listen to anything. Passion
+had taken hold of you like a fever and held you in bonds altogether. I
+have never been able to understand it."
+
+A bitter smile flitted around Falkenried's mouth.
+
+"I believe that. You, the cool, calculating diplomat who carefully
+measure every step, are safe from such charms."
+
+"I should at least be more careful in my choice. Your marriage brought
+misfortune with it from the beginning. A wife of foreign race and
+blood--of wild Slavian nature, without character, without any
+understanding for that which is custom and duty to us, and you with
+your strict principles--your irritable sense of honor--it had finally
+to come to such an end. And I believe you loved her up to the
+separation in spite of everything!"
+
+"No," said Falkenried harshly. "The illusion vanished in the first
+year. I saw only too clearly--but I shuddered at the idea of laying my
+domestic miseries open to the world by a divorce. I bore it until no
+choice was left me--until I finally--but enough of it!"
+
+He turned quickly, and again looked out of the window. There was
+suppressed torture in the sudden breaking off.
+
+"Yes, it needed much to tear a nature like yours from the roots,"
+Wallmoden said seriously; "but nevertheless the separation left you
+free from the unfortunate claim, and with that you should have also
+buried the reminiscences."
+
+"One cannot bury such reminiscences; they always rise up again from the
+supposed grave, and just now----" Falkenried broke off suddenly.
+
+"Just now--what do you mean?"
+
+"Nothing; let us speak of other things. You have been at Burgsdorf
+since the day before yesterday. How long do you intend to stay?"
+
+"Perhaps two weeks. I have not much time at my disposal, and am
+Willibald's guardian really only in name, since the diplomatic service
+keeps me mostly in foreign countries. In fact, the guardianship rests
+in the hands of my sister, who rules everything, anyhow."
+
+"Yes, Regine is well up to her position," assented Falkenried. "She
+rules the large estates and numerous people like a man."
+
+"And issues commands from morning to night like a sergeant," completed
+Wallmoden. "With all due appreciation for her excellent qualities, I
+always feel a slight rising of the hair at the prospect of a visit to
+Burgsdorf, and I return from there regularly with shattered nerves.
+Real primitive conditions rule in that place. Willibald is actually a
+young bear, but the ideal of his mother for all that. She does her best
+to raise him an ignorant young country squire. All interposition is of
+no use, for he has every inclination for it, anyway."
+
+The entrance of a servant interrupted them. He handed a card to
+Falkenried, which the latter glanced at hastily.
+
+"Herr Egern, Solicitor. Very well, show the gentleman in."
+
+"Have you a business engagement?" asked Wallmoden, rising. "I will not
+disturb you."
+
+"On the contrary, I beg you to remain. I have been advised of this
+visit, and know what will be discussed. It concerns----"
+
+He did not conclude, for the door opened and the one announced entered.
+
+He seemed surprised not to find the officer alone, as he had expected,
+but the latter took no notice of the surprise.
+
+"Herr Egern, Solicitor--Herr von Wallmoden, Secretary of the
+Ambassador."
+
+The barrister bowed with cool courtesy, and accepted the offered chair.
+
+"I probably have the honor of being familiar to you, Herr Major," he
+began. "As counsel for your wife, I had occasional cause to meet you
+personally in that suit for divorce."
+
+He stopped, and seemed to expect an answer, but Major Falkenried only
+bowed in mute assent. Wallmoden now began to be attentive. He could now
+understand the strangely irritable mood in which he had found his
+friend upon his arrival.
+
+"I come to-day also in the name of my former client," continued the
+lawyer. "She has asked me--may I speak freely?"
+
+He cast a glance at the Secretary, but Falkenried said shortly:
+
+"Herr von Wallmoden is my friend, and as such is familiar with the
+case. I beg you to speak without restraint."
+
+"Very well, then--the lady has returned to Germany after long years of
+absence, and naturally wishes to see her son. She has already written
+to you on that behalf, but has not received an answer."
+
+"I should consider that a sufficient answer. I do not desire this
+meeting, and therefore shall not permit it."
+
+"That sounds very harsh, Herr Major. Frau von Falkenried has
+surely----"
+
+"Frau Zalika Rojanow, you mean to say," interrupted the Major. "She
+resumed her maiden name, so far as I know, when she returned to her
+country."
+
+"The name is of no consequence," replied the lawyer calmly. "The sole
+consideration here is the perfectly justifiable wish of a mother, which
+the father cannot and must not deny, even when, as in this case, the
+son is given to him unconditionally."
+
+"Must not! And if he should do it, notwithstanding?"
+
+"Then he oversteps the borders of his rights. I would like to ask you,
+Herr Major, to consider the matter calmly before speaking such a
+decided 'No.' The rights of a mother cannot be so completely cancelled
+by a decision of the court that one may even deny her a meeting with
+her only child. The law is upon the side of my client in this case, and
+she will enforce it, if my personal appeal is ignored as was her
+written request."
+
+"She may try it then. I will let it come to the test. My son does not
+know that his mother is alive, and shall not learn it just yet. I do
+not wish that he should see and speak to her, and I shall know how to
+prevent it. My 'No' remains unchanged."
+
+These remarks were given quietly, but upon Falkenried's features there
+lay an ashy paleness, and his voice sounded hollow and threatening. The
+awful excitement under which he labored was apparent; only with supreme
+effort could he force himself to outward calm. The lawyer seemed to
+understand the fruitlessness of further effort. He only shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"If this be your final decision, then my errand is, of course,
+finished, and we must decide later upon further moves. I am sorry to
+have disturbed you, Herr Major."
+
+He took his leave with the same cool politeness with which he had
+entered.
+
+Falkenried sprang up and paced the room stormily after the door had
+closed upon the lawyer. A depressing silence reigned for a few moments,
+after which Wallmoden spoke half audibly.
+
+"You ought not to have done that. Zalika will hardly submit to your
+'No.' If you remember, she carried on a life-and-death struggle for her
+child at that time."
+
+"But I remained victor. I hope she has not forgotten that."
+
+"At that time it concerned the possession of the boy," interrupted the
+friend. "The mother now only requests to see him again, and you will
+not be able to deny her that when she demands it with decision."
+
+The Major came to a sudden standstill, but there was a scarcely veiled
+contempt in his voice as he said:
+
+"She dares not do that after all that happened. Zalika learned to know
+me in our parting hour. She will take care not to force me to extremes
+a second time."
+
+"But she will perhaps try to obtain secretly what you refuse her
+openly."
+
+"That will be impossible; the discipline of our school is too strict.
+No relations could be started there of which I would not be notified
+immediately."
+
+Wallmoden did not seem to share this confidence; he shook his head
+doubtingly.
+
+"I confess that I consider your keeping, with such persistence, the
+knowledge of his mother's existence from your son a mistake. If he
+should hear it now from another source--what then? And you will have to
+tell him finally."
+
+"Perhaps after two years, when he enters life independently. He is
+still but a scholar--a mere boy. I cannot yet draw the veil from the
+tragedy which was once enacted in the home of his parents--I cannot."
+
+"Then at least be upon your guard. You know your former wife--know what
+can be expected from her. I fear there are no impossibilities for that
+woman."
+
+"Yes, I know her," said Falkenried with boundless bitterness, "and just
+for that reason I will protect my son from her at any cost. He shall
+not breathe the poison of her presence for even an hour. Rest assured,
+I do not underrate the danger of Zalika's return, but as long as
+Hartmut remains at my side he will be safe from her, for she will not
+approach me again. I pledge you my word for that."
+
+"We will hope so," returned Wallmoden, rising and giving his hand, "but
+do not forget that the greatest danger lies in Hartmut himself. He is
+in every respect the son of his mother. I hear you will come with him
+to Burgsdorf the day after tomorrow?"
+
+"Yes; he always spends the short autumn vacation with Willibald. I
+myself can probably stay only for the day, but I shall surely come with
+him. Au revoir!"
+
+The Ambassador's Secretary departed, and Falkenried again approached
+the window, glancing only hastily after the friend, who bowed once
+more. His glance was again lost with the former gloom, in the gray
+masses of fog.
+
+"The son of his mother!"
+
+The words rang in his ears, but there was no need for another to tell
+him that. He had long known it, and it was this knowledge that furrowed
+his brow so deeply and caused those heavy sighs.
+
+He was a man to offer himself to every open danger, but he had
+struggled in vain, with all his energy for years, against this
+unfortunate inheritance of the blood in his only son.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"Now I request that this utter foolishness shall end, for my patience
+is exhausted. There has been an awful turmoil in all Burgsdorf for
+three days, as if the place were conjured. Hartmut is full of
+foolishness from head to toe. When once he gets free from the rein
+which his father draws so tight there is no getting on with him. And
+you, of course, go with him through thick and thin, following
+obediently everything that your lord and master starts. You are a fine
+team!"
+
+This lecture, delivered in very loud tones, came from the lips of Frau
+von Eschenhagen of Burgsdorf, who sat at breakfast with her son and
+brother.
+
+The large dining-room was in the lower story of the old mansion, and
+was a rather bare room, the glass doors of which led to a broad
+terrace, and from there into the garden. Some antlers hung upon the
+whitewashed walls, giving evidence of the Nimrod proclivities of former
+owners. They were also the only ornament of the room.
+
+A dozen straightback chairs standing in stiff rows like grenadiers, a
+heavy dining table, and two old-fashioned sideboards constituted all of
+the furniture, which, as one could see, had already served several
+generations.
+
+Articles of luxury, such as carpets, wallpaper or paintings, were not
+there. The inmates were apparently satisfied with the old, inherited
+things, although Burgsdorf was one of the richest estates in the
+vicinity.
+
+The appearance of the lady of the house corresponded fully with the
+surroundings. She was about forty years old; of tall, powerful figure,
+blooming complexion, and strong, heavy features, which were very
+energetic, but which could never have been beautiful. Nothing escaped
+easily the glance of those sharp, gray eyes; the dark hair was combed
+back plainly; the dress was simple and serviceable, and one could see
+that her hands knew how to work.
+
+This robust person lacked gracefulness, certainly, but possessed
+something decidedly masculine in carriage and appearance.
+
+The heir and future lord of Burgsdorf, who was scolded in this way, sat
+opposite his mother, listening, as in duty bound, while he helped
+himself bountifully to ham and eggs. He was a handsome, ruddy-faced boy
+of about seventeen years, with features which might portray great good
+nature, but no surplus of intellect. His sunburned face was full of
+glowing health, but otherwise bore little resemblance to his mother's.
+It lacked her energetic expression. The blue eyes and light hair must
+have been an inheritance from the father. With his powerful but awkward
+limbs he looked like a young giant, and offered the completest contrast
+to his Uncle Wallmoden, who sat at his side, and who now said with a
+tinge of sarcasm:
+
+"You really ought not to make Willibald responsible for the pranks and
+tricks. He is certainly the ideal of a well-raised son."
+
+"I should advise him not to be anything else. Obeying of orders is what
+I insist upon," exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen, slapping the table with
+such force as to cause her brother to start nervously.
+
+"Yes, one learns that under your regime," he replied, "but I would like
+to advise you, dear Regine, to do a little more for the mental training
+of your son. I do not doubt that he will grow up a splendid farmer
+under your leadership, but something more is required in the education
+of a future lord, and as Willibald has outgrown tutors, it may be time
+to send him off."
+
+"Send him----" Frau Regine laid down knife and fork in boundless
+amazement. "Send him off!" she repeated indignantly. "In gracious name,
+where to?"
+
+"Well, to the University, and later on let him travel, that he may see
+something of the world and its people."
+
+"And that he may be totally ruined in this world and among these
+people! No, Herbert, that will not do. I tell you right now. I have
+raised my boy in honesty and the fear of God, and have no idea of
+letting him go into that Sodom and Gomorrah from which our dear Lord
+keeps the rain of fire and brimstone by His long-suffering alone."
+
+"But you know this Sodom and Gomorrah only by hearsay, Regine,"
+interrupted Herbert sarcastically. "You have lived in Burgsdorf ever
+since your marriage, but your son must one day enter life as a man--you
+must acknowledge that."
+
+"I do not acknowledge anything," declared Frau von Eschenhagen
+stubbornly. "Willy shall be a thoroughly capable farmer. He is fitted
+for that and does not need your learned trash for it. Or do you,
+perhaps, wish to take him in training for a diplomat. That would be
+capital fun!"
+
+She laughed loudly, and Willy, to whom this proposition seemed as
+ridiculous, joined in in the same key.
+
+Herr von Wallmoden did not indulge in this hilarity, which seemed to
+jar upon his nerves. He only shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I do not intend that, indeed; it would probably be lost pains; but I
+and Willibald are now the only representatives of the family, and if I
+should remain unmarried----"
+
+"_If?_ Are you contemplating marriage in your old age?" interrupted his
+sister in her inconsiderate manner.
+
+"I am forty-five years old, dear Regine. That is not usually considered
+old in a man," said Wallmoden, somewhat offended. "At any rate, I
+consider a late contracted marriage the best, because then one is not
+influenced by passion as was Falkenried to his great misfortune, but
+one allows reason to guide the decision."
+
+"May God help me! Must Willy wait until he has fifty years upon his
+back and gray hairs upon his head before he marries!" exclaimed Frau
+von Eschenhagen, horrified.
+
+"No; for he must consider the fact that he is an only son and future
+lord of the estates; besides, it will depend upon an individual
+attachment. What do you say, Willibald?"
+
+The young future lord, who had just finished his ham and eggs, and was
+now turning with unappeased appetite to the _wurst_, was apparently
+greatly surprised at having his opinion asked. Such a thing happened so
+seldom that he was now thrown into a spell of deep musing, declaring as
+the result of it:
+
+"Yes; I shall probably have to marry some time, but mamma will find me
+a wife when the time comes."
+
+"That she will, my boy," affirmed Frau von Eschenhagen. "That is my
+affair; you do not need to worry about it at all. You will remain here
+in Burgsdorf, where I shall have you under my eyes. Universities and
+travels are not to be considered--that is decided."
+
+She threw a challenging glance at her brother, but he was regarding
+with a kind of horror the enormous amount of eatables which his nephew
+was piling upon his plate for the second time.
+
+"Do you always have such a healthy appetite, Willy?" he asked.
+
+"Always," assured Willy with satisfaction, taking another huge piece of
+bread and butter.
+
+"Yes; God be thanked, we do not suffer from indigestion here," said
+Frau Regine, somewhat pointedly. "We deserve our meals honestly. First
+play and work, then eat and drink, and heartily--that keeps soul and
+body together. Just look at Willy, how he has prospered with that
+treatment. He need never be ashamed to be seen."
+
+She slapped her brother upon the shoulder in a friendly manner at these
+words, but so heartily that Wallmoden hastily pushed his chair out of
+her reach. His face betrayed plainly that his hair was "standing on
+end" again; but he gave up the enforcing of his rights as guardian in
+the face of these primitive conditions.
+
+Willy, on the contrary, apparently discovered that he had turned out
+extraordinarily well, and looked very pleased at this praise of his
+mother, who continued now rather vexedly:
+
+"And Hartmut has not come to breakfast again! He seems to allow himself
+all sorts of irregularities here at Burgsdorf, but I shall lecture the
+young man when he comes, and make him----"
+
+"Here he is already!" cried a voice from the garden.
+
+A shadow fell athwart the bright sunshine that poured in through the
+open window, in which there suddenly appeared a youthful form, which
+swung itself through from the outside.
+
+"Boy, are you out of your senses that you enter through the window?"
+exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen indignantly. "What are the doors for?"
+
+"For Willy and other well-raised people," laughed the intruder
+mirthfully. "I always take the shortest route, and this time it led
+through this window."
+
+With one jump he landed in the middle of the room from the high sill.
+
+Hartmut Falkenried, like the future lord of Burgsdorf, stood at the
+border between boyhood and manhood, but beyond that likeness it
+required but a glance to see the superiority of Hartmut in every
+respect.
+
+He wore the cadet uniform, which became him wonderfully, but there was
+something in his whole appearance indicative of a revolt against the
+strict military cut.
+
+The tall, slender boy was a true picture of youth and beauty, but this
+beauty had something strange and foreign about it; the movement and
+whole appearance had a wild, unruled element; and not a feature
+reminded one of the powerful, soldierly figure and grave composure of
+the father. The thick, curly hair of a blue-black color, falling over
+the high brow, denoted a son of the South, rather than a German; the
+eyes also, which glowed in the youthful face, did not belong to the
+cold, calm North; they were mysterious eyes, dark as night, yet full of
+hot, passionate fire. Beautiful as they were, there was something
+uncanny about them.
+
+And now the laugh, with which Hartmut looked from one to another of the
+assembly, had more of the supercilious about it than of a boy's hearty
+mirth.
+
+"You introduce yourself in a very unconventional manner," said
+Wallmoden sharply; "you seem to think that no etiquette is to be
+observed at Burgsdorf. I hardly think your father would have permitted
+such an entrance into a dining-room."
+
+"He does not take such liberties with his father," said Frau von
+Eschenhagen, who fortunately did not feel the stab which lay for her
+also in her brother's words. "So you finally come now, Hartmut, when
+we have finished breakfast? But late people do not get anything to
+eat--you know that."
+
+"Yes, I know it," returned Hartmut, quite unconcerned; "therefore I got
+the housekeeper to give me some breakfast. You can't starve me out,
+Aunt Regine. I am on too good terms with all your people."
+
+"So you think you will be able to take all sorts of liberties
+unpunished," cried the lady of the house angrily. "You break all the
+rules of the house; you leave no person nor thing in peace; you stand
+all Burgsdorf upon its head! We shall know how to stop all that, my
+boy. I shall send a messenger over to your father to-morrow, to ask him
+to kindly come for his son, who can be taught no punctuality or
+obedience."
+
+This threat was effective; the boy grew serious and found it best to
+yield.
+
+"Oh, all that is only jesting," he said. "Am I not to utilize the short
+vacation----"
+
+"For all sorts of foolishness?" interrupted Frau von Eschenhagen.
+"Willy in all his life has not done so many pranks as you in these last
+three days. You will ruin him for me by your bad example and make him
+also disobedient."
+
+"Oh, Willy can't be ruined; all pains are thrown away with him,"
+confessed Hartmut frankly.
+
+The young lord did not look, indeed, as if he had any inclination to
+disobedience. Quite unconcerned by all this conversation, he calmly
+finished his breakfast by still another piece of bread and butter; but
+his mother was highly incensed over this remark.
+
+"You are doubtless extremely sorry for that," she exclaimed. "You
+have taken pains enough to ruin him. Very well, it remains as I
+said--to-morrow I write to your father."
+
+"To come for me? You will not do that, Aunt Regine. You are too good to
+do that. You know very well how strict papa is--how harshly he can
+punish. You surely will not accuse me to him--you have never done so
+before."
+
+"Leave me alone, boy, with your flatteries." Frau Regine's face was
+still very grim, but her voice already betrayed a perceptible wavering,
+and Hartmut knew how to take the advantage offered. With the artless
+frankness of a boy, he laid his arm around her shoulders.
+
+"I thought you loved me a little bit, Aunt Regine. I--I have
+anticipated this trip to Burgsdorf so joyously for weeks. I have longed
+until I was sick, for forest and lake, for the green meadows and the
+wide, blue sky; I have been so happy here--but, of course, if you do
+not want me, I shall leave immediately; you do not need to send me
+away."
+
+His voice sank to a soft, coaxing whisper, while the large, dark eyes
+helped with the pleading only too effectively. They could speak more
+fervently than the lips; they seemed, indeed, to have peculiar power.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen, who to Willy and all Burgsdorf, was the stern,
+absolute ruler, now allowed herself to be moved to compliance.
+
+"Well, then, behave yourself, you Eulenspiegel," she said, running her
+fingers through his thick curls. "As to sending you away, you know only
+too well that Willy and all my people are perfectly foolish about
+you--and so am I."
+
+Hartmut shouted in his happiness at these last words, and kissed her
+hand in fervent gratitude. Then he turned to his friend, who had now
+happily mastered his last sandwich, and was regarding the scene before
+him in quiet amazement.
+
+"Are you through with your breakfast at last, Willy? Come on; we wished
+to go to the Burgsdorf pond--now don't be so slow and deliberate.
+Good-by, Aunt Regine. I see that Uncle Wallmoden is not pleased in the
+least that you have pardoned me. Hurrah! Now we are off for the woods."
+
+And away he dashed over the terraces and down to the garden. There was
+in this unruliness an overflowing youthful happiness and strength that
+were enchanting; the lad was all life and fire. Willy trotted behind
+him like a young bear, and they disappeared in a few seconds behind the
+trees and shrubberies.
+
+"He comes and goes like a whirlwind," said Frau von Eschenhagen,
+looking after them. "That boy cannot be restrained when once the reins
+are slackened."
+
+"A dangerous lad!" declared Wallmoden. "He understands how to rule even
+you, who otherwise rule supreme. It is the first time in my knowledge
+that you pardon disobedience and unpunctuality."
+
+"Yes, Hartmut has something about him that really bewitches a body,"
+exclaimed Frau von Eschenhagen, half vexed over her yielding. "When he
+looks at one with those glowing, black eyes, and begs and pleads
+besides, I would like to see the one who could say no. You are right;
+he is a dangerous lad."
+
+"Yes, very true; but let us leave Hartmut alone now and consider the
+education of your own son. You have really decided----"
+
+"To keep him at home. Do not trouble yourself, Herbert. You may be an
+important diplomat and carry the whole political business in your
+pockets, but nevertheless I do not surrender my boy to you. He belongs
+to me alone, and I keep him--settled!"
+
+A hearty slap upon the table accompanied this "settled," with which the
+reigning mistress of Burgsdorf arose and walked out of doors; but her
+brother shrugged his shoulders, and muttered half audibly: "Let him
+become a country squire, for all I care--it may be best, anyhow."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+In the meantime, Hartmut and Willibald had reached the forest belonging
+to the estate. The Burgsdorf pond, a lonely water bordered by rushes in
+the midst of the forest, lay motionless, shining in the sunlight of the
+quiet morning hour.
+
+The young lord found for himself a shady place upon the bank, and
+devoted himself comfortably and persistently to the interesting
+occupation of fishing, while the impatient Hartmut roamed around,
+starting a bird here, plucking rushes and flowers there, and finally
+indulging in gymnastics upon the trunk of a tree which lay half in the
+water.
+
+"Can you never be quiet in one place? You scare off all the fishes,"
+said Willy, displeased. "I have not caught a thing to-day."
+
+"How can you sit for hours in one spot waiting for the stupid
+fishes--but, of course, you can roam through field and forest all the
+year round whenever you like. You are free--free!"
+
+"Are you imprisoned?" asked Willy. "Are not you and your companions out
+of doors every day?"
+
+"But never alone--never without restraint and supervision. We are
+eternally on duty, even in the hours of recreation. Oh, how I hate
+it--this duty and life of slavery!"
+
+"But, Hartmut, what if your father should hear that?"
+
+"He would punish me again, then, as usual. He has nothing for me but
+severity and punishment. I don't care--it's all the same to me."
+
+He threw himself upon the grass, but harsh and disagreeable as his
+words sounded, there was in them something like a pained, passionate
+complaint.
+
+Willy only shook his head deliberately fastening a new bait to his hook
+meanwhile, and deep silence reigned for a few moments.
+
+Suddenly something dashed down from on high, lightning-like; the water,
+just now so motionless, splashed and foamed, and in the next moment a
+heron rose high in the air, carrying the struggling, silver-shining
+prey in his bill.
+
+"Bravo! that was a splendid shot," cried Hartmut, starting up, but
+Willy scolded vexedly. "The con---- robber strips our whole pond. I
+shall tell the forester to keep an eye on him."
+
+"A robber!" repeated Hartmut, as his eyes followed the heron, which now
+disappeared behind the tree-tops. "Yes, surely; but it must be
+beautiful--such a free robber's life high up in the air. To dash down
+from the heights like a flash of lightning--to grab the booty, then
+soar high with it again where no one can follow--that is worthy of the
+chase."
+
+"Hartmut, I actually believe you have a good notion to lead such a
+robber's life," said Willy, with the deep horror of a well-raised boy
+for such inclinations.
+
+His companion laughed, but it was again that harsh, strange laugh which
+had in it nothing youthful.
+
+"And if I should have it, they would know how to get it out of me at
+the cadets' school. There is obedience--discipline--the Alpha and Omega
+of all things, and one finally learns it, too. Willy, have you never
+longed for wings?"
+
+"I? Wings?" ejaculated Willy, whose full attention was again directed
+to hook and line. "Nonsense! who could wish for impossibilities?"
+
+"I wish I had some," cried Hartmut, flaming up. "I wish I were one of
+the falcons of which we hear. Then I would soar high up into the blue
+air--always higher and higher toward the sun, and would never, never
+come back."
+
+"I think you are crazy," said the young lord calmly; "but I have not
+caught anything yet; the fish will not bite at all to-day. I must try
+another spot."
+
+He gathered up his fishing paraphernalia and went to the other side of
+the pond.
+
+Hartmut threw himself upon the ground again.
+
+How could he expect that the stolid, matter-of-fact Willibald should
+harbor thoughts of flying!
+
+It was one of those autumn days which seem to charm back the summer for
+a few short hours--the sunshine was so golden, the air so mild, the
+woods so fresh and fragrant. Thousands of brilliant sparkles danced
+upon the water; the rushes whispered low and mysteriously as the air
+breathed through them.
+
+Hartmut lay quite motionless, listening to this mystery of whispering
+and fluttering. The wild, passionate flame, which had flared up almost
+uncannily when he spoke of the bird of prey, had disappeared from his
+eyes. Now they were riveted dreamily upon the shining blue of the sky,
+with a consuming longing in their depths.
+
+Light footsteps drew near, almost inaudible on the soft forest soil;
+the bushes rustled as if brushed by a silken garment, and parted; a
+female figure emerged noiselessly and stopped short, fixing an intent
+look upon the young dreamer.
+
+"Hartmut!"
+
+He started and sprang up quickly. He did not know the voice, nor the
+stranger, but it was a lady, and he bowed chivalrously.
+
+"Gracious lady----"
+
+A slender and trembling hand was laid hastily and warningly upon his
+arm.
+
+"Hush--not so loud--your companion might hear us, and I must speak with
+you, Hartmut--with you alone."
+
+She stepped back again and motioned him to follow. Hartmut hesitated a
+moment. How came this stranger, whose face was closely veiled, but who,
+to judge by her dress, belonged to the highest class, at this lonely
+forest pond? And what was the meaning of the familiar "thou" from her
+to him, whom she saw now for the first time? But the mystery of the
+encounter began to interest him, and he followed her.
+
+They stopped under the protection of the bushes where they could not be
+seen from the other side, and the stranger slowly raised her veil.
+
+She was no longer in her youth--a woman still in her thirties--but the
+face with the dark, flashing eyes possessed a strange fascination, and
+the same charm was in the voice, which, even in the whisper, was soft
+and deep, with a foreign accent, as if the German which she spoke so
+fluently was not her native tongue.
+
+"Hartmut, look at me. Do you really not remember me? Have you not kept
+some recollection from your childhood that tells you who I am?"
+
+The young man shook his head slowly, and yet there arose in his mind a
+remembrance, misty and dreamlike, that told him he did not now hear
+this voice for the first time--that he had seen this face before in
+times long, long past. Half timidly, half transfixed, he stood there
+gazing upon the stranger, who suddenly stretched out both arms toward
+him.
+
+"My son! my only child! do you not know your mother?"
+
+Hartmut retreated, startled.
+
+"My mother is dead," he said in a low tone.
+
+The stranger laughed bitterly; it sounded exactly like that harsh,
+unchildlike laugh which had come from the lips of the lad only a short
+while ago.
+
+"So that is it; they have called me dead. They would not leave you even
+the memory of your mother. But it is not true, Hartmut. I live--I stand
+before you. Look at me! look at my features, which are yours also. They
+could not take those from you. Child of my heart, do you not feel that
+you belong to me?"
+
+Still Hartmut stood motionless, looking into the face in which he saw
+his own reflected as in a mirror. There were the same features,
+the same abundant, blue-black hair; the same large, deep black
+eyes--yes--even the strange demoniac expression which glowed like a
+flame in the mother's eyes, glimmered as a spark in the eyes of the
+son. The natural resemblance showed that they were of the same blood,
+and now the voice of that blood woke up in the young man.
+
+He did not ask for explanations--for proofs; the confused, dream-like
+recollections suddenly became clear. Only one more second of
+hesitation, then he threw himself into the arms which were open for
+him.
+
+"Mother!"
+
+In the exclamation lay the glowing devotion of the lad, who had never
+known what it was to possess a mother, and who had longed for it with
+all his passionate nature.
+
+His mother! As he lay in her arms while she overwhelmed him with
+passionate caresses--with tender, fond names such as he had never
+heard, all else disappeared in the flood of overwhelming delight.
+
+Several minutes passed thus, then Hartmut disengaged himself from the
+embrace which would have detained him.
+
+"Why have you never been with me, mamma?" he asked vehemently. "Why did
+they tell me that you were dead?"
+
+Zalika drew back. In a moment all the tenderness vanished from her
+face; a light kindled there of wild, deadly hatred, and the answer came
+hissing from her lips:
+
+"Because your father hates me, my son, and because he did not wish to
+leave me even the love of my only child when he thrust me from him."
+
+Hartmut was silent with consternation. He knew well that no one dared
+mention his mother's name in his father's presence--that his father had
+once silenced him with the greatest harshness when he had ventured to
+ask for her, but he had been too young to muse over the why.
+
+Zalika did not give him time for it now. She stroked the dark, curly
+hair back from the high forehead, and a shadow rested on her face.
+
+"You have his brow," she said slowly, "but that is the only thing to
+remind of him; everything else belongs to me--to me alone. Every
+feature tells that you are wholly mine. I knew it would be so."
+
+Again she embraced him, overwhelming him with caresses, which Hartmut
+returned as passionately. It was an intoxication of happiness to
+him--like one of the fairy tales of which he had so often dreamed, and
+he gave himself up to the charm unquestioningly and unreservedly.
+
+But now Willy made himself heard on the opposite bank, calling loudly
+for his friend, and reminding him that it was time to return home.
+
+Zalika started.
+
+"We must part. Nobody must know that I have seen you and spoken with
+you, particularly your father. When do you return to him?"
+
+"In eight days."
+
+"Not until then?" The tone was triumphant. "I shall see you every day
+until then. Be here at the pond to-morrow at the same hour. Dispense
+with your companion under some pretext, so that we may be undisturbed.
+You will come, Hartmut?"
+
+"Certainly mother, but----"
+
+She did not give him time for an excuse, but continued in the same
+passionate whisper:
+
+"Above all, be silent to everybody; do not forget that. Farewell, my
+child, my beloved only son. Au revoir!"
+
+One more fervent kiss upon Hartmut's brow, then she vanished in the
+bushes as mysteriously as she had appeared. It was quite time, for
+Willy appeared on the scene, his approach being heralded by his heavy
+stamping upon the forest ground.
+
+"Why do you not answer?" he demanded. "I have called three times. Did
+you fall asleep? You look as if you had been startled from a dream."
+
+Hartmut stood as if stunned, gazing upon the bushes in which his mother
+had disappeared. At his cousin's words he straightened himself and drew
+his hand across his brow.
+
+"Yes, I have been dreaming," he said, slowly; "quite a wonderful,
+strange dream."
+
+"You might rather have been fishing," said Willy; "just see what a
+splendid catch I got over on the other bank. A person ought not to
+dream in broad daylight. He ought to be properly occupied, my mother
+says--and my mother is always right."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The families of Falkenried and Wallmoden had been friendly for years.
+As owners of adjoining estates they visited each other frequently; the
+children grew up together, and many mutual interests drew the bonds of
+friendship still closer.
+
+As both families were only comfortably well off, the sons had their own
+way to make, which, after completing their education, Major Hartmut von
+Falkenried and Herbert Wallmoden had done. They had been playmates as
+children, and had remained true to that friendship when grown to
+manhood.
+
+At one time the parents thought to cement this friendship by a marriage
+between the--at that time--Lieutenant Falkenried and Regine Wallmoden.
+The young couple seemed in perfect accord with it, and all looked
+propitious for the match, when something took place which brought the
+plan to a sudden end.
+
+A cousin of the Wallmoden family--an incorrigible fellow who, through
+divers bad capers, had made it impossible to remain at home, had, long
+ago, gone out into the wide world. After much travel and a rather
+adventurous life, he had landed in Roumania, where he acted as
+inspector upon the estates of a rich Bojar. The rich man died, and the
+inspector thought best to retrieve his lost fortunes and position in
+life by marriage with the widow.
+
+It was consummated, and he returned to his old home, accompanied by his
+wife, for a visit to his relatives, after an absence of more than ten
+years.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden's bloom of youth had long passed, but she brought
+with her her daughter by her first marriage--Zalika Rojanow.
+
+The young girl, hardly seventeen years old, with her foreign beauty and
+charm of her glowing temperament, burst like a meteor upon the horizon
+of this German country nobility, whose life flowed in such calm, even
+channels.
+
+And she was a strange object in this circle, whose forms and manners
+she disregarded with sovereign indifference, and who stared at her as
+at a being from another world. There was many a serious shaking of
+heads and much condemnation, which was not uttered aloud, because they
+saw in the girl only a temporary visitor, who would disappear as
+suddenly as she had come into view.
+
+Just about this time Hartmut Falkenried came from his garrison to the
+paternal estates, and became acquainted with the new relatives of his
+friends. He saw Zalika and recognized in her his fate. It was one of
+those passions which spring up lightning-like--which resemble the
+intoxication of a dream, and are paid for only too frequently with the
+penance of the whole life.
+
+Forgotten were the wishes of the parents, his own plans for the
+future--forgotten the quiet affection which had drawn him to his
+playmate Regine. He no longer had eyes for the domestic flower which
+bloomed young and fresh for him; he breathed only the intoxicating
+perfume of the foreign wonder-plant. All else disappeared before her,
+and in a quiet hour with her he threw himself at her feet, confessing
+his love.
+
+Strangely enough, his feelings were returned. Perhaps it was the truth
+of extremes meeting which drew Zalika to a man who was her opposite in
+every respect; perhaps she was flattered by the fact that a glance, a
+word from her could change the grave, calm and almost gloomy nature of
+the young officer to enthusiasm.
+
+Enough, she accepted his proposal and he was permitted to embrace her
+as his betrothed.
+
+The news of this engagement created a storm in the whole family circle;
+entreaties and warnings came from all sides; even Zalika's mother and
+stepfather opposed it, but the universal disapproval only increased the
+determination of the young couple, and six months later Falkenried led
+his young wife into his home.
+
+But the voices who prophesied misfortune to this marriage were in the
+right. The bitterest disappointment followed the short term of
+happiness. It had been a dangerous mistake to believe that a woman like
+Zalika Rojanow, grown up in boundless freedom and accustomed to the
+uncontrolled, extravagant life of the families of the Bojars of her
+country, could ever submit herself to German views and conditions.
+
+To gallop about on fiery horses; to associate freely with men who spent
+their time in hunting and gambling, and who surrounded themselves in
+their homes with a splendor which went hand in hand with the most
+corrupted indebtedness of estates--such was life as she had known it so
+far, and the only life which suited her.
+
+A conception of duty was as foreign to her as the knowledge of her new
+position in life. And this woman was to accommodate herself now to the
+household of a young officer of but limited means, and to the
+conditions of a small German garrison!
+
+That this was impossible was proved in the first weeks. Zalika began by
+throwing aside every consideration, and furnishing her house in her
+usual style, squandering heedlessly her by no means insignificant
+dowry.
+
+In vain her husband entreated, remonstrated; he found no hearing. She
+had only sarcasm for forms and rules which were holy to him; only a
+shrug of the shoulder for his strict sense of honor and ideas of
+decorum.
+
+Very soon they had the most vehement controversies, and Falkenried
+recognized too late the serious error which he had committed. He had
+counted upon the all-powerful efficacy of love to battle against those
+warning voices which had pointed out the difference of descent,
+education and character, but he was forced now to recognize that Zalika
+had never loved him; that caprice alone, or a sudden outburst of
+passion, which died as suddenly, had brought her to his arms.
+
+She saw in him now only the uncomfortable companion who begrudged her
+every pleasure of life; who, with his foolish--his ridiculous ideas of
+honor, fettered and bound her on every side. Still, she feared this
+man, whose dominant will succeeded always in bowing her characterless
+nature under his rod.
+
+Even the birth of little Hartmut was not sufficient to reconcile this
+unhappy marriage; it only held it, apparently, together. Zalika loved
+her child passionately; she knew her husband would never permit her to
+keep it if they separated. This alone retained her at his side, while
+Falkenried bore his domestic misery with concealed pain, putting forth
+every effort to hide it at least from the world.
+
+Nevertheless, the world knew the truth; it knew things of which the
+husband did not even dream and which were kept concealed from him
+through sheer compassion.
+
+But finally the day came when the deceived husband was told what was no
+secret to others.
+
+The immediate result following was a duel in which Falkenried's
+opponent fell. Falkenried himself was imprisoned, but was soon
+pardoned.
+
+Every one knew that the offended husband had only vindicated his honor.
+
+In the meantime, steps were taken for a divorce, which was granted in
+due time. Zalika made no opposition. She dared not approach her
+husband; she trembled before him since that hour of separation, when he
+had called her to account; but she made desperate efforts to secure the
+possession of her child, fighting as for life.
+
+It was in vain. Hartmut was given unconditionally to his father, who
+knew how to prevent every approach of the mother with iron
+inflexibility.
+
+Zalika was not even allowed to see her son again, and it was only after
+convincing herself entirely on that point that she left--returning to
+the home of her mother.
+
+She had seemed lost to and forgotten by her former husband until she
+suddenly reappeared in Germany, where Major Falkenried now held an
+important position in the large military school at the Residenz.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+It was about a week after the arrival of Hartmut at Burgsdorf. Frau von
+Eschenhagen was in her sitting-room with Major Falkenried, who had but
+just arrived.
+
+The topic of their conversation seemed to be very serious and of a
+rather disagreeable nature, for Falkenried listened with a gloomy face
+to his friend, who was speaking.
+
+"I noticed Hartmut's changed demeanor the third or fourth day. The boy,
+whose mirth at first knew no bounds, so that I even threatened to send
+him back home, suddenly became subdued. He committed no more foolish
+pranks, but roamed for hours through the woods alone, and when he
+returned was always dreaming with his eyes open, to such an extent that
+one had almost to awake him. 'He is beginning to get sensible,' said
+Herbert; but I said, 'Things are not going right; there is something
+behind all this,' and I questioned my Willy, who also appeared quite
+peculiar. He was actually in the plot. He had surprised the two one
+day. Hartmut had made him promise to keep silent, and my boy positively
+hid something from _me, his mother!_ He confessed only when I got after
+him seriously. Well, he will not do it a second time. I have taken care
+of that."
+
+"And Hartmut? What did he say?" interrupted the Major hastily.
+
+"Nothing at all, for I have not spoken a syllable to him about it. He
+would probably have asked me why he should not see and speak to his own
+mother, and only--his father can give him the answer to that question."
+
+"He has probably heard it already from the other side," said Falkenried
+bitterly; "but he has hardly learned the truth."
+
+"I fear so, too, and therefore I did not lose a minute in notifying you
+after discovering the affair. But what next?"
+
+"I shall have to interfere now," replied the Major with forced
+composure. "I thank you, Regine. I apprehended trouble when your letter
+called me so imperatively. Herbert was right. I ought not to have
+allowed my son to leave my side for an hour under the circumstances.
+But I believed him safe from every approach here at Burgsdorf. And he
+anticipated the trip with such pleasure--he longed for it almost
+passionately. I did not have the heart to refuse him. He is happy,
+anyway, only when absent from me."
+
+There was deep pain in the last words, but Frau von Eschenhagen only
+shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"That is not the fault of the boy alone," she said straightforwardly.
+"I also keep my Willy under good control, but nevertheless he knows
+that he has a mother whose heart is full of him. Hartmut does not know
+that of his father. He knows him only from a grave, unapproachable
+side. If he had an idea that you idolize him secretly----"
+
+"He would abuse the knowledge and disarm me with his caressing
+tenderness. Shall I allow myself to be ruled by him as every one else
+is who comes into his presence? His comrades follow him blindly
+although he brings punishment upon them by his pranks. He has your
+Willibald completely under control--yes, even his teachers treat him
+with particular indulgence. I am the only one he fears, and
+consequently the only one he respects."
+
+"And you think by fear alone to succeed with the boy, who is doubtless
+now being overwhelmed with the most senseless caresses! Do not turn
+away, Falkenried; you know I have never mentioned that name to you, but
+now that it is brought forward so prominently, one may speak it. And
+since we happen to be upon the subject, I tell you frankly that nothing
+else could be expected since Frau Zalika's appearance. It would have
+done no good to have kept Hartmut from Burgsdorf, for one cannot treat
+a seventeen-year-old lad like a little child. The mother would have
+found her way to him in spite of all--and it was her right. I would
+have done just so, too."
+
+"Her right!" cried the Major angrily. "And you tell me that, Regine?"
+
+"I say it because I know what it is to have an only child. That you
+should take the child from its mother was right--such a mother was not
+fit for the raising of a boy--but that you now refuse to let her see
+her son again after twelve years is harshness and cruelty, which hatred
+alone can teach you. However great her faults may be, that punishment
+is too severe."
+
+Falkenried stared gloomily before him--he might have felt the truth of
+the words. Finally he said, slowly:
+
+"I would never have thought that you would take Zalika's part. I
+offended you bitterly once for her sake--I broke a bond----"
+
+"Which had not even been tied," interrupted Frau von Eschenhagen. "It
+was a plan of our parents--nothing more."
+
+"But the idea was dear and familiar to us from childhood. Do not
+attempt to excuse me, Regine; I only know too well what I did at that
+time to you and--to myself."
+
+Regine fixed her clear, gray eyes upon him, but there was a moist gleam
+in them as she replied:
+
+"Well, yes, Hartmut; now since we are both long past our youth, I may,
+perhaps, confess that I liked you then. You might have been able to
+make something better of me than I am now. I was always a self-willed
+child--not easy to rule; but I would have followed you--perhaps you
+alone of all the world. When I went to the altar with Eschenhagen three
+months after your marriage, matters were reversed.
+
+"I took the reins into my own hands and began to command, and since then
+I have learned it thoroughly---- But now, away with that old story,
+long since past. I have not thought hard of you because of it--you know
+that.
+
+"We have remained friends in spite of it, and if you need me now, in
+advice as well as deed, I am ready to help you."
+
+She offered her hand, which he grasped.
+
+"I know it, Regine, but I alone can advise here. Please send Hartmut to
+me. I must speak to him."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen arose and left the room, murmuring as she went:
+"If only it is not too late already! She blinded and enraptured the
+father once. She has probably secured her son now."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Hartmut entered the room and closed the door behind him, but remained
+standing near it. Falkenried turned toward him.
+
+"Come nearer, Hartmut; I must speak with you."
+
+The youth obeyed, drawing near slowly.
+
+He already knew that Willibald had had to confess; that his rendezvous
+with his mother had been betrayed; but the awe with which he always
+approached his father was mingled to-day with defiance, which was not
+unnoticed by the Major.
+
+He scanned the youthful, handsome person of his son with a long, gloomy
+glance.
+
+"My sudden arrival does not seem to surprise you," he began; "you
+probably know what brought me here."
+
+"Yes, father, I surmise it."
+
+"Very well, we do not need then to continue with preliminaries. You
+have learned that your mother is still living. She has approached you
+and you are in communication with her. I know it already. When did you
+see her for the first time?"
+
+"Five days ago."
+
+"And since then you have spoken with her daily?"
+
+"Yes, near the Burgsdorf pond."
+
+Question and reply alike sounded curt and calm.
+
+Hartmut was accustomed to this strict, military manner, even in his
+private intercourse with his father, who never allowed a superfluous
+word, a hesitation or evasion in the answers. This tone was kept up
+even to-day to veil his painful excitement from the eyes of his son.
+Hartmut saw only the grave, unmoved face; heard only the sound of cold
+severity as the Major continued:
+
+"I will not make it a reproach to you, as I have never forbidden you
+anything regarding it; the subject has never been mentioned between us.
+But since matters have gone so far, I will have to break the silence.
+You thought your mother dead, and I have silently allowed you to think
+so, for I wished to save you from reminiscences which have poisoned my
+life. I meant that your youth, at least, should be free from it. It
+seems that it cannot be, so you may hear the truth."
+
+He paused for a moment. It was torture to the man, with his delicate
+sense of honor, to talk on this subject before his son, but there was
+no longer a choice--he must speak on.
+
+"I loved your mother passionately when a young officer, and married her
+against the wish of my parents, who saw no good to result from a
+marriage with a woman of foreign race. They were right, the marriage
+was deeply unfortunate, and we finally separated at my desire. I had an
+undeniable right to demand the separation, and also the possession of
+my son, which was granted me unconditionally. I cannot tell you any
+more, for I will not accuse the mother to the son; therefore let this
+suffice you."
+
+Short and harsh as this explanation sounded, it yet made a strange
+impression upon Hartmut. The father would not accuse the mother to him,
+who had been hearing daily the most bitter accusation, abuse and
+slander against the father.
+
+Zalika had put the whole blame of the separation upon her husband, upon
+his unheard-of tyranny, and she found only too willing a listener in
+the youth whose unruly nature suffered so intensely under that
+severity. And yet those short, earnest words now weighed more than all
+the passionate outbursts of the mother. Hartmut felt instinctively upon
+which side the truth stood.
+
+"But now to the most important point," resumed Falkenried. "What has
+been the subject of your conversation?"
+
+Hartmut had not expected this question, and a burning blush suffused
+his face. He was silent and looked to the ground.
+
+"Ah, so! you do not dare to repeat it to me; but I request to know it.
+Answer, I command you!"
+
+But Hartmut remained silent; he only closed his lips more firmly, and
+his eyes met his father's with dark defiance.
+
+Falkenried now drew nearer.
+
+"You will not speak? Has a command from that side, perhaps, made you
+silent? Never mind, your silence says more than words. I see how much
+estranged from me you have become, and you would become lost entirely
+to me if I should leave you longer under that influence. These meetings
+with your mother must be ended. I forbid them. You will accompany me
+home to-day and remain under my supervision. Whether it seems cruel to
+you or not, it must be so, and you will obey."
+
+But the Major was mistaken when he thought to bow his son to his will
+by a simple command.
+
+Hartmut had been in a school during these last days where defiance
+against the father had been taught him in the most effectual manner.
+
+"Father, you will not--you cannot command that," he burst forth now
+with overpowering vehemence. "It is my mother who is found again; the
+only one in the whole world who loves me. I shall not let her be taken
+from me again as she has already been taken. I shall not allow myself
+to be forced to hate her because you hate her. Threaten--punish me do
+whatever you will with me, but I do not obey this time. I will not
+obey."
+
+The whole unruly, passionate nature of the young man was in these
+words; the uncanny fire flamed again in his eyes; the hands were
+clenched; every fibre throbbed in wild rebellion. He was apparently
+decided to do battle against the long-feared father.
+
+But the burst of anger which he so confidently expected did not come.
+Falkenried only looked at him silently, but with a glance of grave,
+deep reproach.
+
+"The only one in the whole world who loves you!" he repeated slowly.
+"You have, perhaps, forgotten that you still have a father."
+
+"Who does not love me, though," cried Hartmut in overwhelming
+bitterness. "Only since I have found my mother have I known what love
+is."
+
+"Hartmut!"
+
+The youth looked up, startled by the strange, pained tone which he
+heard for the first time, and the defiance which was about to break
+forth again died on his lips.
+
+"Because I have no pet names and caresses for you; because I have
+raised you with seriousness and firmness, do you doubt my love?" said
+Falkenried, still in the same voice. "Do you know what this severity
+toward my only, my beloved child has cost me?"
+
+"Father!"
+
+The word sounded still timid and hesitating, but no longer with the old
+fear and awe; it now contained something like budding faith and trust;
+like a happy but half-comprehended surprise, and with it Hartmut's eyes
+hung as if riveted upon his father's features. Falkenried now put his
+hand upon his son's arm, drawing him nearer, while he continued:
+
+"I once had high ambitions, proud hopes of life, great plans and
+aspirations, which came to an end when a blow fell upon me from which I
+shall never be able to rally. If I still aspire and struggle, it is
+from a sense of duty and because of you, Hartmut. In you centers all my
+ambition; to make your future great and happy is the only thing which I
+yet desire of life; and your future can be made great, my son, for your
+gifts are extraordinary ones; your will is strong in good as well as
+evil. But there is yet something dangerous in your nature, which is
+less your fault than your doom, and which must be taken in hand in
+time, if it is not to develop and dash you into destruction. I had to
+be severe to banish this unfortunate tendency; it has not been easy for
+me."
+
+The face of the youth was covered by a deep blush. With panting breath
+he seemed to read every word from his father's lips, and now he said in
+a whisper, in which the suppressed joy could scarcely be hidden:
+
+"I have not dared to love you so far. You have always been so cold--so
+unapproachable, and I----"
+
+He broke off and glanced up at his father, who now put his arm around
+Hartmut's shoulders, drawing him still closer to him. Then eyes looked
+deep into eyes, and the voice of the iron man broke as he said, lowly:
+
+"You are my only child, Hartmut, the only thing which has remained to
+me from a dream of happiness that dispersed in bitterness and
+disappointment. I lost much at that time and have borne it; but if I
+should lose you--you--I could not bear it."
+
+His arms closed around his son tightly, as if they could never be
+detached. Hartmut had thrown himself sobbing upon his father's breast,
+and father and son held each other in a long, passionate embrace.
+
+Both had forgotten that a shadow from the past still stood
+threateningly and separatingly between them.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+In the meantime, Frau von Eschenhagen, in her dining-room, was giving
+Willy a curtain lecture. She had done so, in fact, this morning, but
+was of the opinion that a double portion would not come amiss in this
+case. The young heir looked completely crushed. He felt himself in the
+wrong, as well toward his mother as toward his friend, and yet he was
+quite blameless. He allowed himself to be lectured patiently, like an
+obedient son, only throwing an occasional sad look over at the supper
+which already stood upon the table, although his mother did not take
+any notice of it at all.
+
+"This is what comes of having secrets behind the backs of parents," she
+said severely, concluding her lecture.
+
+"Hartmut is getting what he deserves in yonder; the Major will not
+treat him very mildly. I think you will let playing helpmate in such, a
+plot alone in the future."
+
+"But I have not helped in it," Willy defended himself. "I had only
+promised to be silent and I had to keep my word."
+
+"You ought not dare to keep silence to your mother; she is always an
+exception," Frau Regine said decidedly.
+
+"Yes, mamma, Hartmut probably thought so, too, when it concerned his
+mother," remarked Willibald, and the remark was so correct that she
+could not well say anything against it; but that angered her the more.
+
+"That is different--entirely different," she said curtly; but the young
+lord asked persistently:
+
+"Why is it entirely different?"
+
+"Boy, you will kill me yet with your questions and talking," cried his
+mother angrily. "That is an affair which you do not and shall not
+understand. It is bad enough that Hartmut has brought you in connection
+with it at all. Now do you keep quiet, and do not concern yourself
+further about it. Do you hear?"
+
+Willy was dutifully silent. It was perhaps the first time in his life
+that he had been reproved for too much talking; besides, his Uncle
+Wallmoden, who had just returned from a drive, entered now.
+
+"Falkenried has already arrived, I hear," he said, approaching his
+sister.
+
+"Yes," she replied. "He came immediately upon receiving my letter."
+
+"And how has he borne the news?"
+
+"Outwardly very calm, but I saw only too well how it rent his
+heartstrings. He is alone now with Hartmut, and the storm will probably
+burst."
+
+"I am sorry; but I prophesied this turn of affairs when I learned of
+Zalika's return. He ought to have spoken then to Hartmut. Now I fear he
+will but add a second mistake to the first one by trying to accomplish
+a separation by force and dictating. This unfortunate obstinacy which
+knows only 'either--or'! It is least of all in the right place here."
+
+"Yes, the meeting yonder lasts too long for me," said Frau von
+Eschenhagen with concern. "I shall go and see how far the two have
+gotten, whether it offends the Major or not. Remain here, Herbert; I
+shall return directly."
+
+She left the room, which Wallmoden paced disconsolately. His nephew sat
+alone at the supper table, about which nobody seemed to think. He did
+not dare to begin eating by himself, for a regular turmoil reigned
+to-day in Burgsdorf, and the Frau Mamma was in a very ungracious mood.
+But fortunately she returned after a few minutes, and her face was
+beaming with satisfaction.
+
+"The affair is settled in the best way," she said in her short and
+decided tone. "He has the boy in his embrace. Hartmut is hanging upon
+his father's neck, and the rest will arrange itself easily now. God be
+praised! And now you may eat your supper, Willy. The confusion which
+has disturbed our whole household has come to an end."
+
+Willy did not allow himself to be told twice, but made brisk use of the
+coveted permission. But Wallmoden shook his head and muttered: "If it
+were only truly at an end!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Neither Falkenried nor his son had noticed that the door had been
+quietly opened and closed again. Hartmut still clung to his father's
+neck. He seemed to have lost in a moment all awe and reserve, and was
+overwhelmingly lovable in his new-found, stormy caresses, the charm of
+which the Major had rightly feared would disarm him. He spoke but
+little, but again and again he pressed his lips upon the brow of his
+son, looking steadily into the beautiful face, full of life, which
+pressed so close to his own.
+
+Finally Hartmut asked in a low voice: "And--my mother?"
+
+A shadow passed again over Falkenried's brow, but he did not release
+his son from his arms.
+
+"Your mother will leave Germany as soon as she is convinced that she
+must in the future, as in the past, stay away from you," he said, this
+time without harshness, but with decision. "You may write to her. I
+will allow a correspondence with certain restrictions, but I cannot--I
+dare not permit a personal intercourse."
+
+"Father, think----"
+
+"I cannot, Hartmut; it is impossible."
+
+"Do you hate her, then, so very much?" asked the youth reproachfully.
+"You wished the separation--not my mother--I know it from herself."
+
+Falkenried's lips quivered. He was about to speak the bitter words and
+tell his son that the separation had been at the command of honor; but
+he looked again in those dark, inquiring eyes, and the words died
+unspoken. He could not accuse the mother to the son.
+
+"Let that question rest," he replied gloomily; "I cannot answer it to
+you. Perhaps you will learn my reasons later and will understand them.
+I cannot spare you the hard choice now. You can belong only to one--the
+other you must shun. Accept it as a doom."
+
+Hartmut bowed his head; he might have felt that nothing further could
+be gained. That the meetings with his mother had to end when he
+returned to the strict discipline of the school, he knew; but now a
+correspondence was permitted, which was more than he had dared to hope
+for.
+
+"Then I will tell mamma so," he said in a crestfallen way. "Now, since
+you know everything, I may see her openly, may I not?"
+
+The Major started; he had not considered this possibility.
+
+"When were you to see her again?" he asked.
+
+"To-day, at this hour, at the Burgsdorf pond. She is surely awaiting me
+there now."
+
+Falkenried seemed to battle with himself. A warning voice arose in him
+not to allow this leave-taking, yet he felt that to refuse would be
+cruel.
+
+"Will you be back in two hours?" he asked finally.
+
+"Certainly, father; even earlier if you desire it."
+
+"Go, then," said the Major, with a deep breath. One could hear how
+reluctant was the permission which his sense of duty forced from him.
+"We shall drive home as soon as you return. Your vacation ends shortly,
+anyway."
+
+Hartmut, who was just about to leave, came to a standstill. The words
+recalled to him what he had entirely forgotten in the last half hour:
+the discipline and severity of the service which was awaiting him.
+Heretofore he had not dared to betray his aversion to it openly, but
+this hour which banished the awe of his father broke also the seal from
+his lips. Obeying a sudden impulse, he turned and put his arms again
+around the neck of his father.
+
+"I have a request," he whispered, "a great, great request which you
+must grant me; and I know you will do it as a proof that you love me."
+
+A furrow appeared between the Major's eyebrows as he asked with slight
+reproach: "Do you require proofs of it? Well, let's hear it."
+
+Hartmut nestled still more closely to him; his voice had again that
+sweet, coaxing sound which made his prayers so irresistible, and the
+dark eyes implored intensely, beseechingly.
+
+"Do not let me become a soldier, father. I do not love the calling for
+which you have decided me. I shall never learn to love it. If I have
+bowed until now to your will, it has been with aversion, with secret
+grumbling, and I have been unbearably unhappy, only I did not dare to
+confess it to you."
+
+The furrow on Falkenried's brow sank deeper, and he released his son
+slowly from his embrace.
+
+"That means, in other words, that you do not like to obey," he said
+harshly, "and just that is more important to you than to any one else."
+
+"But I cannot bear any compulsion," Hartmut burst forth passionately,
+"and the military service is nothing but duty and fetters. To obey
+always and eternally--never to have a will of your own--to bow day
+after day to an iron discipline and strict, cold forms by which every
+individual movement is suppressed. I cannot bear it any longer.
+Everything in me demands freedom for light and life. Let me go, father;
+do not keep me any longer in these bonds. I die--I suffocate under
+them."
+
+To a man, who was heart and soul a soldier, he could not have done his
+cause greater harm than by these imprudent words. It sounded like a
+stormy, glowing prayer. His arm yet lay around his father's neck, but
+Falkenried now straightened himself suddenly and pushed him back.
+
+"I should consider the service an honor and no fetter," he said
+cuttingly. "It is sad that I should have to recall that to my son's
+mind. Freedom--light--life! You think perhaps that one can throw
+himself at seventeen years into life and grasp all its treasures. The
+longed-for freedom for you would be only recklessness, ruin,
+destruction."
+
+"And what if it should be so!" cried Hartmut, totally beside himself.
+"Better go to ruin in freedom than to live in this depression. To me it
+is a chain--a fetter--slavery----"
+
+"Be silent! not a word further," commanded Falkenried so threateningly
+that the youth grew silent despite his awful excitement. "You have no
+choice, and take care that you do not forget your duty. You must become
+an officer and fulfill your duty completely as does every one of your
+comrades. When you are of age, I no longer have any power to hinder
+you. You may then resign, even if it give me my deathblow to see my
+only son flee the service."
+
+"Father, do you consider me a coward?" Hartmut burst forth. "I could
+stand a war--I could fight----"
+
+"You would fight foolhardily and rush blindly into every danger; and
+with this obstinacy which knows no discipline you would destroy
+yourself and your men. I know this wild, boundless desire for freedom
+and life to which no barrier, no duty is sacred. I know from whom you
+have inherited it and where it will finally lead; therefore I keep you
+securely in the 'fetters,' no matter whether you hate it or not. You
+shall learn to obey and to bow your will while yet there is time; and
+you shall learn it. I pledge my word to that."
+
+Again the old, inflexible harshness sounded in his voice; every line of
+tenderness, of softness, had disappeared, and Hartmut knew his father
+too well to continue supplication or defiance. He did not answer a
+syllable, but his eyes glowed again with that demoniac spark which
+robbed him of all his beauty; and around his lips, which were pressed
+closely together, there settled a strange, bad expression as he now
+turned to go.
+
+The Major's eyes followed him. Again the warning voice came to him like
+a presentiment of evil, and he called his son back.
+
+"Hartmut, you are sure to be back in time? You give me your word?"
+
+"Yes, father." The answer sounded grim, but firm.
+
+"Very well. I shall trust you as a man. I let you go in peace with this
+promise which you have given me. Be punctual."
+
+Hartmut had been gone but a few moments when Wallmoden entered.
+
+"Are you alone?" he asked, somewhat surprised. "I did not wish to
+disturb you, but I saw Hartmut hasten through the garden just now.
+Where was he going so late?"
+
+"To his mother, to take leave of her."
+
+The Secretary started at this news. "With your consent?" he asked
+quickly.
+
+"Certainly, I have permitted him to go."
+
+"How imprudent! I should think that you knew now how Zalika manages to
+get her own way, and yet you leave your son to her mercy."
+
+"For only half an hour to say farewell. I could not refuse that. What
+do you fear? Surely no force. Hartmut is no longer a child to be borne
+into a carriage and carried off in spite of his resistance."
+
+"But if he should not refuse a flight?"
+
+"I have his word that he will return in two hours," said the Major with
+emphasis.
+
+"The word of a seventeen-year-old lad!"
+
+"Who has been raised a soldier and who knows the importance of a word
+of honor. That gives me no care; my fear lies in another direction."
+
+"Regine told me that you were reconciled," remarked Wallmoden, with a
+glance upon the still clouded brow of his friend.
+
+"For a few moments only; after that I had to become again the firm,
+severe father. This hour has showed me how hard the task is to bend, to
+educate this roving nature. Nevertheless I shall conquer him."
+
+The Secretary approached the window and looked out in the garden.
+
+"It is twilight already, and the Burgsdorf pond is half an hour's
+distance," he said, half aloud. "You ought to have allowed the
+rendezvous only in your presence, if it had to take place."
+
+"And see Zalika again? Impossible! I could not and would not do that."
+
+"But if the leave-taking end differently from what you expect--if
+Hartmut does not return?"
+
+"Then he would be a scoundrel to break his word!" burst out Falkenried;
+"a deserter, for he carries the sword already at his side. Do not
+offend me with such thoughts, Herbert; it is my son of whom you speak."
+
+"He is also Zalika's son; but do not let us quarrel about that now.
+They await you in the dining room. And you will really leave us
+to-day?"
+
+"Yes, in two hours," the Major said, calmly and firmly. "Hartmut will
+have returned by that time. My word stands for that."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The gray shadows of twilight were gathering in forest and field,
+becoming closer and denser with every moment. The short, foggy autumn
+day drew near its close. Through the heavy-clouded sky the night
+lowered sooner than usual.
+
+A female figure paced impatiently and restlessly up and down the bank
+of the Burgsdorf pond. She had drawn the dark cloak tightly around her
+shoulders, but was unmindful of her shivering, caused by the cold
+evening air. Her whole manner was feverish expectation and intense
+listening for the sound of a step which could not as yet be heard.
+
+Zalika had arranged the meetings with her son for a later hour, when it
+was desolate and dim in the forest, since the day Willibald had
+surprised them and had to be admitted into the secret. They had parted,
+however, before dark, so that Hartmut's late return should not cause
+suspicion at Burgsdorf. He had always been punctual, but now his mother
+had waited in vain for an hour.
+
+Did a trifle detain him, or was the secret betrayed? One had to expect
+that, since a third party knew it.
+
+Deathlike silence reigned in the forest; the dry leaves alone rustled
+beneath the hem of the gown of the restlessly moving woman.
+
+Night shades already lingered under the tree-tops; a cloud of mist
+floated over the pond where it was lighter and more open; and over
+there where the water was bordered by a marsh, whitish-gray veils of
+mist arose yet more thickly. The wind blew damp and cold from over
+there, like the air of a vault. A light footstep finally sounded at a
+distance, coming nearer in the direction of the pond with flying haste.
+Now a slender figure appeared, scarcely recognizable in the gathering
+dusk. Zalika flew toward him, and in the next moment her son was in her
+arms.
+
+"What has happened?" she demanded, amidst the usual stormy caresses.
+"Why do you come so late? I had given up in despair seeing you to-day.
+What kept you back?"
+
+"I could not come any sooner," panted Hartmut, still breathless from
+his rapid run. "I come from my father."
+
+Zalika started.
+
+"From your father? Then he knows----"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"So he is at Burgsdorf? Since when? Who notified him?"
+
+The young man, with fluttering breath, reported what had happened, but
+he had not finished when the bitter laugh of his mother interrupted
+him.
+
+"Naturally they are all in the plot when it concerns the tearing of my
+child from me. And your father, he has probably threatened and punished
+and made you suffer for the heavy crime of having been in the arms of
+your mother?"
+
+Hartmut shook his head.
+
+The remembrance of that moment when his father drew him to his breast
+stood firm, in spite of the bitterness with which that scene had ended.
+
+"No," he said in a low voice; "but he commanded me not to see you
+again, and requested irrevocable separation from you."
+
+"And yet you are here? Oh, I knew it!"
+
+The exclamation was full of joyous victory.
+
+"Do not triumph too soon, mamma," said the youth bitterly. "I came only
+to say farewell."
+
+"Hartmut!"
+
+"Father knows it. He allowed me this meeting, and then----"
+
+"Then he will grasp you again, and you will be lost to me forever, is
+it not so?"
+
+Hartmut did not answer; he folded his mother in his arms, and a wild,
+passionate sob, which had in it as much of anger as pain, escaped his
+breast.
+
+It had now grown quite dark; the night had commenced; a cold, gloomy
+autumn night, without moon or star shining, but over there upon the
+marsh where lately the veils of mist floated, something now shot up
+with a bluish light, glimmering dimly in the fog, but growing brighter
+and clearer like a flame; now appearing, now disappearing, and with it
+a second and a third. The will-o'-the-wisp had commenced its ghostly,
+uncanny play.
+
+"You weep," cried Zalika, pressing her son closely to her; "but I have
+seen it coming long ago, and if your Eschenhagen had not betrayed us,
+the day you had to return to your father would have brought your forced
+choice between separation or--decision."
+
+"What decision? What do you mean?" asked Hartmut, perplexed.
+
+Zalika bent over him, and, although they were alone, her voice sank to
+a whisper.
+
+"Will you bow feebly and defenselessly to a tyranny which tears asunder
+the sacred bond between mother and child, and which stamps under foot
+our rights as well as our love? If you can do that, you are not my son;
+you have inherited nothing of the blood that flows in my veins. He sent
+you to bid me farewell, and you accept it patiently as a last favor.
+Have you really come to take leave of me, perhaps for years? Actually,
+have you?"
+
+"I have to," interrupted the youth despairingly. "You know father and
+his iron will. Is there any possibility of anything else?"
+
+"If you return to him, no. But who forces you?"
+
+"Mamma, for God's sake!" shrieked Hartmut, terrified. But the
+encircling arms did not release him, and the hot, passionate whisper
+again reached his ear:
+
+"What frightens you so at the thought? You will only go with your
+mother, who loves you devotedly, and who will henceforth live for you
+alone. You have told me repeatedly that you hate the vocation which is
+forced upon you, that you languish with longing for freedom. There is
+no choice there for you; when you return your father will keep you
+irrevocably in the fetters. If he knew that you would die of them, he
+would not let you free."
+
+She had no need to tell that to her son; he knew it better than she
+did. Only an hour ago he had seen the full inflexibility of his father,
+his hard "You shall learn to obey and bow your will."
+
+His voice was almost smothered in bitterness as he answered:
+"Nevertheless, I must return. I have given my word to be back at
+Burgsdorf in two hours."
+
+"Really," said Zalika, sharply and sarcastically; "I thought so.
+Usually you are nothing but a boy, whose every step is prescribed;
+whose every moment counted out; who ought not even to have his own
+thoughts; but as soon as the retaining of you is concerned, you are
+given the independence of a man. Very well; now show that you are not
+only grown in words, but that you can also act like a man. A forced
+promise has no value. Tear asunder this invincible chain with which
+they want to bind you and make yourself free."
+
+"No--no," murmured Hartmut, with a renewed attempt to free himself. But
+he did not succeed. He only turned his face and looked with fixed eyes
+out into the night, into the desolate, silent forest darkness and over
+yonder where the will-o'-the-wisp still carried on its ghostly dance.
+
+Those quivering, tremulous flames appeared now everywhere; seeming
+to seek and flee from each other, they floated over the ground,
+disappearing or dissolving in the ocean of fog, only to reappear
+again and again. There was something ghastly yet fascinating in this
+spectre-like play; the demoniac charm of the depths which that
+treacherous mire concealed.
+
+"Come with me, my Hartmut," implored Zalika, now in those sweet,
+coaxing tones which were so effectively at hers as well as at her son's
+command. "I have foreseen everything and prepared for it. I knew that a
+day like this had to come. My carriage awaits me half an hour's
+distance from here. It will take us to the next station, and before
+anybody at Burgsdorf thinks you will not return, the train will have
+carried us into the far country. There are freedom, light and
+happiness. I will lead you out into the great distant world, and after
+you know that, you will breathe with relief and shout like a redeemed
+man. I myself know how one released feels. I too have borne that chain
+which I riveted myself in foolish error, but I would have broken it in
+the first year but for you. Oh, it is sweet, this freedom. You will
+feel it, too."
+
+She knew only too well how to succeed. Freedom, life, light! These
+words found a thousand-fold echo in the heart of the young man, whose
+passionate thirst for freedom had been so far suppressed. This promised
+life shone with a magic splendor like a beacon before him. He needed
+only to stretch forth his hand and it was his.
+
+"My promise," he murmured with a last attempt to gather strength.
+"Father will look at me with contempt if----"
+
+"If you have reached a great, proud future?" Zalika interrupted him
+passionately. "Then you can go before him and ask if he dares consider
+you with contempt. He would keep you upon the ground while you have
+wings which will carry you high up. He does not understand a nature
+like yours; he will never learn to understand it. Will you languish and
+go to ruin for only a word's sake? Go with me, my Hartmut--with me, to
+whom you are all in all--out into freedom."
+
+She drew him along, slowly but irresistibly. He still resisted, but did
+not tear himself away; and amidst the prayers and caresses of his
+mother this resistance slowly gave way--he followed.
+
+A few moments later the pond lay wholly deserted; mother and son had
+disappeared; the sound of their steps died away. Night and silence
+brooded alone. Only over yonder in the fog of the marsh fluttered that
+noiseless spectral life. It floated and vanished, rose and sank again
+in restless play--the mysterious sign of flame.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+The warm, golden light of a clear September day lay over the green
+ocean of forest, which stretched as far as the eye could reach. These
+immense forests had covered this part of Southern Germany for countless
+years; trees one hundred years old were no rarity among them. The whole
+bore the character of a mountainous forest, for hills and dales
+succeeded one another.
+
+While the railroads spun their web all around the country, drawing one
+place after another within their grasp, this "Wald," as these miles and
+miles of wooded land were briefly called by the people, lay still and
+deserted, like a green island, almost untouched by the life and strife
+around.
+
+Here and there a village rose from the forest green, or an old castle,
+almost in ruins, gray and dilapidated. There was one exception to it,
+in a powerful, old, gray edifice which stood upon a height and
+overlooked the whole vicinity. This was "Furstenstein," once the
+hunting lodge of the sovereign, but at present the habitation of the
+Chief of all the foresters.
+
+The castle dated from the beginning of the last century and had been
+built with all the waste of space of that epoch when the hunting lodge
+of the Prince had to accommodate for weeks the whole court suite.
+
+Furstenstein was only partly visible at a distance, for the forest
+covered all the castle mount, the gray walls, the steeples and bow
+windows lifting themselves from among the crown of green firs. The size
+of the old structure was only apparent when one stood before the
+entrance portal, for many additions belonging to later times were
+attached to it. It was to be understood that decay here was carefully
+kept back, for the numerous rooms of the upper floors were kept in
+readiness for the commands of the Prince, who came here occasionally in
+the fall.
+
+The similarly extensive lower floor was given to the chief of the
+forest department, Herr von Schonan, who had lived here for years, and
+who knew how to make the loneliness agreeable by keeping a very
+hospitable house and by frequent sociable visitings in the
+neighborhood.
+
+He was entertaining guests at present. His sister-in-law, Frau Regine
+von Eschenhagen, had arrived yesterday, and her son was also expected.
+
+The two daughters of the house of Wallmoden had made very desirable
+matches, the elder one marrying the lord of the Burgsdorf estates and
+the younger one Herr von Schonan, who belonged to a wealthy South
+German family. In spite of the distance separating them, the sisters
+and their families had remained in intimate association, and even after
+the death of the younger one, which had occurred several years
+previously, these family connections were continued.
+
+This friendship, however, had a quality of its own, for Herr von
+Schonan was always on the war-path with his sister-in-law. As both
+natures were terse and inconsiderate they came to a tussle at every
+opportunity, made up regularly, deciding to keep the peace in future,
+but the promise was broken just as regularly. A new difference of
+opinion would come up in the next hour, the dispute would be carried on
+with fullest passion, until it again raged with undiminished power.
+
+Just at present a very unusual harmony seemed to prevail between the
+two, who sat upon the terrace before the entrance room.
+
+The Chief Forester, who in spite of his advanced years, was still a
+very stately man, with strong, sunburned features and slightly gray but
+thick hair and beard, was leaning comfortably back in his chair,
+listening to his sister-in-law, who, as usual, was monopolizing the
+conversation.
+
+Frau Regine was now near her fiftieth year, but had scarcely changed in
+the last decade. The years could not make much impression upon her
+strong physique; a little wrinkle perhaps here and there in the face, a
+few silver threads mingled with the dark hair; but the gray eyes had
+lost none of their keen clearness; the voice was as full and steady,
+the carriage just as energetic as formerly. It was very evident that
+the lady bore the sceptre in her domain now as before.
+
+"As I said, Willy will be here in a week," she was saying. "He had not
+quite finished with his harvest work, but it will soon end, and then he
+will be ready for the betrothal. The affair has long been settled
+between us, but I decidedly advocated the delay, for a young girl of
+sixteen or seventeen years has all sorts of childish tricks still in
+her head, and cannot preside well over an orderly household. But
+Antonie is now twenty years old and Willy twenty-seven; this suits
+exactly. You are satisfied, are you not, brother, that we now arrange
+the betrothal of our children?"
+
+"Quite satisfied," affirmed the Chief Forester; "and we are of the same
+opinion in all else concerning it. Half of my money will fall to my son
+after my death, the other half to my daughter, and you can also be at
+rest about the dower which I have set apart for the wedding."
+
+"Yes, you have not been stingy about it. As to Willy, you know he has
+had possession of the Burgsdorf estates for three years. The money,
+according to the will, remains in my hands. After my death it will, of
+course, fall to him. The young couple will not be in need. Sufficient
+care has been taken for that; therefore all is decided."
+
+"Yes, decided. We will celebrate the betrothal now and the wedding in
+the spring."
+
+The thus far clear sky was darkened now by the first cloud. Frau von
+Eschenhagen shook her head and said dictatorially:
+
+"That will not do, the wedding must occur in the winter, for Willy will
+not have time to marry in the spring."
+
+"Nonsense! One always has time to marry," declared Schonan, just as
+dictatorially.
+
+"Not in the country," persisted Frau Regine; "there the motto is, first
+work and then pleasure. It has always been so with us, and Willy has
+learned it, too."
+
+"But I emphatically beg that he will make an exception in the case of
+his young wife, otherwise the deuce may take him!" cried the Chief
+angrily. "Besides, you know my conditions, Regine. My girl has not seen
+your son for two years; if he does not please her, she shall have a
+free choice."
+
+He had attacked his sister-in-law in a most sensitive spot. She
+straightened herself to her fullest height in her offended motherly
+pride.
+
+"My dear Moritz, I credit your daughter with some taste at least.
+Besides, I believe in the old custom of parents choosing for their
+children. It was so in our time and we have fared well with it. What do
+young people know of such important things? But you have always allowed
+your children their own way too much. One can see there is no mother in
+the house."
+
+"Is that my fault?" demanded Schonan, angrily. "Should I have given
+them a stepmother? In fact, I wished to once, but you would not consent
+to it, Regine."
+
+"No, I had enough of marriage with one trial," was the dry answer,
+which roused the Forester still more. He shrugged his shoulders
+sarcastically.
+
+"Why, I shouldn't think that you could possibly complain of the late
+Eschenhagen. He and all his Burgsdorf danced entirely after your
+piping. Of course, you would not have gotten the upper hand of me so
+easily."
+
+"But I should have had it in a month," remarked Frau Regine with
+perfect composure, "and I should have taken you under my command first
+of all, Moritz."
+
+"What! you tell me this to my face? Shall we try it, then?" shouted
+Schonan in a passion.
+
+"Thank you, I shall not marry a second time. Do not trouble yourself."
+
+"I have not the slightest idea of it. I had enough of it with that one
+jilting; you do not need to do it a second time"; with which the Chief
+Forester pushed back his chair angrily and left.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen remained quietly seated. After awhile she called
+in a quite friendly manner: "Moritz!"
+
+"What is it?" sounded crossly from the other side of the terrace.
+
+"When is Herbert to come with his young wife?"
+
+"At twelve o'clock," came the curt reply.
+
+"I am glad of that. I have not seen him since he was sent to your
+capitol, but I have always said that Herbert was the pride of our
+family, whom one could parade anywhere. He is now Prussian Ambassador
+to His Excellency at your court."
+
+"And a young husband of fifty-six years, besides," said Herr von
+Schonan scornfully.
+
+"Yes, he took his time to marry, but then he has made a splendid match
+for all that. It was surely no little thing for a man of his years to
+win a wife like Adelaide, young, beautiful, rich----"
+
+"And of burgher descent," interrupted Schonan.
+
+"Nonsense! Who asks nowadays after a pedigree when a million is
+involved. Herbert can make use of it. He has had to get along with
+small means all of his life, and the position of ambassador will
+require more display than the salary will admit of. And my brother does
+not need to be ashamed of his father-in-law, for Stahlberg is one of
+our first industry men and a man of honor from tip to toe, besides. It
+was a pity that he died after the marriage of his daughter, for she has
+surely made a sensible choice."
+
+"Pouf! You call it a sensible choice when a girl of eighteen takes a
+husband who could be her father?" cried the Chief, drawing near in the
+heat of the controversy. "Of course when one becomes a baroness and the
+wife of the Prussian Ambassador, one plays a big role in society. This
+beautiful, cool Adelaide, with her 'sensible' ideas which would do
+credit to a grandmother, is not congenial to me at all. A sensible girl
+who falls heels over head in love and declares to her parents, 'This
+one or none at all,' is much more to my taste."
+
+"Well, these are beautiful ideas for a father!" cried Frau von
+Eschenhagen indignantly. "It is exceedingly fortunate that Toni has
+taken after my sister and not after you, for otherwise you might live
+to see the like in her. Stahlberg raised his daughter better. I know
+from himself that she obeyed his wish when she gave her hand to
+Herbert, and so, of course, it is all right and as it should be. But
+you do not understand anything about educating children."
+
+"What! I, a man and a father, not understand the bringing up of
+children?" shouted Schonan, cherry-red with vexation.
+
+The two were in the best possible condition to fly at each other again,
+but fortunately they were interrupted this time, for a young girl, the
+daughter of the house, stepped out on the terrace.
+
+Antonie von Schonan could not be called exactly pretty, but she had a
+stately figure like her father and a fresh, blooming face, with light
+brown eyes. Her brown hair was folded in simple plaits around her head
+and her dress, although suitable to her position, was also plain. But
+Antonie was in those years when youth displaced every other charm, and
+as she drew near, fresh, healthy, stately in her whole appearance, she
+was exactly the daughter-in-law after Frau von Eschenhagen's own heart,
+and she nodded in a friendly way to her.
+
+"Father, the carriage is returning from the station," said the young
+lady in a very deliberate, somewhat drawling tone. "It is already at
+the foot of the castle mount. Uncle Wallmoden will be here in fifteen
+minutes."
+
+"What, tausend! They have driven like lightning!" exclaimed the Chief
+Forester, whose face brightened at the news. "Are the rooms all in
+order?"
+
+Toni nodded as calmly as if that were a self-evident fact. As her
+father started off to look for the carriage which was to bring his
+guests, Frau von Eschenhagen said with a glance at the little basket
+which the young girl carried: "Well Toni, you have been busy again?"
+
+"I have been in the kitchen garden, dear aunt. The gardener insisted
+that there were no pears ripe as yet, but I looked for myself and
+gathered a basketful."
+
+"That is right, my child," said her future mother-in-law, highly
+satisfied. "One must have her eyes and hands everywhere, and never rely
+upon servants. You will some day be a splendid housekeeper. But now let
+us go. We will also meet the uncle."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Herr von Schonan was already in advance and just descending the wide
+stone steps which led to the castle court, when a man emerged from one
+of the side buildings and came to a standstill, bowing his greeting
+respectfully.
+
+"Hallo, Stadinger; what are you doing at Furstenstein?" cried the Chief
+Forester. "Come up here."
+
+The man obeyed the command. He walked actively with firm, erect
+carriage, in spite of his snow-white hair, and a pair of keen, dark
+eyes shone from his tanned face.
+
+"I have been with the Herr Steward, Herr Oberforstmeister," he replied,
+"to ask if he could not let me have a few of his people to help me, for
+everything is topsy-turvy with us at Rodeck just now. We have not hands
+enough for the work."
+
+"Ah, yes; Prince Egon has returned from his travels in the Orient; I
+heard of it," said Schonan. "But how does it happen that he comes to
+Rodeck this time, this small forest nook which offers neither room nor
+comforts?"
+
+"Heaven alone knows that; one never dares ask why with our young
+Highness. The news came one morning, and the castle had to be put in
+order, good or bad. I have had pains and worry enough to get ready in
+two days."
+
+"I believe that. Rodeck has not been inhabited for years, but now there
+will be life once more in the old walls."
+
+"But the old walls will be stood on their head with it all," grumbled
+the castle keeper. "If you only knew how it looks there, Herr
+Oberforstmeister. The whole hunting hall is packed full of lion and
+tiger skins and all manner of mounted animals, and the live parrots and
+monkeys sit about in every room. There is such a noise and making of
+faces that one cannot hear a word at times; and now His Highness has
+announced to me, besides, that a whole herd of elephants and a large
+sea serpent are on their way here. I think apoplexy will overtake me."
+
+"What is on the way here?" demanded Schonan, who could not believe his
+ears.
+
+"A sea serpent and a dozen elephants. I have remonstrated with might
+and main. 'Your Highness,' I have said, 'we cannot house any more of
+the beasts, particularly not the sea serpent, for such a beast needs
+water, and we have no pond at Rodeck. As to the elephants--well, we
+will just have to tie them to the trees in the forest. If we cannot do
+that, I do not know what to do.' 'Good,' says His Highness, 'we will tie
+them to the trees, it will be a picturesque sight; and we will send the
+sea serpent to board at Furstenstein. That pond is large enough.' I beg
+of you, Herr Oberforstmeister, he will populate the whole neighborhood
+with those awful beasts."
+
+The Chief Forester laughed aloud and patted the shoulder of the old
+man, who seemed to enjoy his special favor.
+
+"But, Stadinger, did you really take that in earnest? Don't you know
+your Prince? It seems that he has not become more settled by his
+absence."
+
+"No, really not," sighed Stadinger, "and what His Highness does not
+know, Herr Rojanow will surely find out. He makes it ten times worse.
+Oh, dreadful that such a madcap should fall to our lot!"
+
+"Rojanow? Who is that?" asked Schonan, becoming attentive.
+
+"Yes, that is what nobody knows exactly, but he is everything with us
+since His Highness cannot live without him. He found this friend
+somewhere back there in the heathen lands. The friend himself may be
+half a heathen or a Turk; he looks just like it, with his dark hair and
+his fiery eyes, and he knows how to command from the very bottom. He
+sometimes drives all the servants helter-skelter with his orders and
+actions, as if he was lord and master of Rodeck. But he is handsome as
+a picture--almost more so than our Prince, who has given strict orders
+that his friend has to be obeyed like himself."
+
+"Probably some adventurer who takes advantage of the Prince. I can
+imagine that," muttered Schonan, continuing aloud: "Well, may God help
+you, Stadinger! I must go now to meet my brother-in-law. Do not let any
+gray hairs grow on account of the sea-serpent. If His Highness
+threatens you with it again, just tell him I would offer the
+Furstenstein pond with pleasure, but I must see it alive before me
+first."
+
+He nodded laughingly at the old man, who looked much comforted, and
+walked toward the entrance portal.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen and her niece had also appeared, and the carriage
+now came in sight upon the broad forest road of the castle mount,
+rolling, a few minutes later, into the castle court.
+
+Regine was the first to greet them. She shook her brother's hand so
+heartily that he drew back with a slight shudder. The Chief Forester
+remained in the background; he stood somewhat in awe of his diplomatic
+brother-in-law, whose sarcasm he secretly feared; while Toni allowed
+neither her uncle, His Excellency, nor his beautiful wife to rouse her
+from her composed deliberation.
+
+The years had not passed Herbert von Wallmoden by as lightly as
+they had his sister; he had aged considerably; his hair had turned
+quite gray, and the sarcastic lines around his mouth had become
+more pronounced; otherwise he was still the cool, aristocratic
+diplomat--perhaps a few degrees cooler and more reticent than formerly.
+The superiority which he had borne to his surroundings seemed to have
+grown with the high position which he filled at present.
+
+The young wife at his side would probably have been taken by every
+stranger for his daughter. He had truly shown good taste in his choice.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden was, indeed, beautiful, although of that
+composed, serious beauty which usually aroused only calm admiration,
+but she seemed equal in every respect to the high position in life
+brought her by this marriage.
+
+The young wife, scarcely nineteen years old, and who had been married
+but six months, showed perfect ease of manner--an unexceptional mastery
+of all forms, as if she had lived for years beside her elderly husband.
+
+To his wife Wallmoden was politeness and attention personified. He now
+offered his arm to lead her to her room, returning in a few minutes to
+join his sister, who awaited him on the terrace.
+
+The attitude of these two to each other was in many respects a strange
+one. The brother and sister were of the most pronounced opposites in
+appearance as well as character, and usually of opinion as well; but
+the blood relationship gave them, in spite of this difference, a
+feeling of closest union. This was evident as they sat together now
+after the long separation.
+
+Although Herbert was somewhat nervous during the conversation, for
+Regine did not find it necessary to subdue her peculiar manner, causing
+him embarrassment more than once with her inconsiderate questions and
+remarks, he had long ago learned to consider that as unavoidable, and
+surrendered himself to it now with a sigh.
+
+At first they spoke of the coming betrothal of Willibald and Toni,
+which had Wallmoden's full approval. He thought the match very
+suitable, and besides, every one in the family had been long acquainted
+with it.
+
+But now Frau von Eschenhagen began an entirely different subject.
+"Well, and how do you feel as a husband, Herbert?" she asked. "You have
+certainly taken your time for it, but better late than never, and to
+speak the truth, you have had extraordinarily good luck in spite of
+your gray hair."
+
+The Ambassador did not seem very well pleased at this allusion to his
+age. He pressed his thin lips together for a moment, and then replied
+with some sharpness: "You should really be a little more careful in
+your expressions, dear Regine. I know my age very well, but the
+position in life which I brought my wife as a wedding gift should
+counteract the difference of the years somewhat."
+
+"Well, I should think the dowry she brought you was not to be
+slighted," remarked Regine, quite unconcerned as to the rebuke. "Have
+you already presented her at court?"
+
+"Yes, two weeks ago, at the Summer Residenz. Mourning for my
+father-in-law prevented it before. We shall have open house in the
+winter as my position requires. I was most pleasantly surprised at
+Adelaide's manner at court. She moved upon the strange ground with an
+ease and composure which were truly admirable. I saw there again how
+happy my choice was in every respect. But I wish to inquire after
+several things at home. First of all, how is Falkenried?"
+
+"Surely you do not need to ask me that? Are you not in regular
+correspondence with him?"
+
+"Yes, but his letters grow shorter and more monosyllabic. I wrote him
+at length about my marriage, but received only a very laconic reply.
+But you must see him frequently, since he has been called to the
+position of Secretary of War. The city is near."
+
+"You are mistaken there. The Colonel shows himself very rarely at
+Burgsdorf, and he is becoming more and more reticent and
+unapproachable."
+
+"I am sorry to hear that; but he used always to make an exception of
+you, and I hoped much from your influence since he is back in your
+vicinity. Have you not tried, then, to renew the old intimacy?"
+
+"I did at first, but finally had to give it up, for I saw that it was
+painful to him. Nothing can be done there, Herbert. Since that
+unfortunate catastrophe which both of us lived through with him he has
+changed into stone. You have seen him several times since then and know
+the ruin that has worked there."
+
+Wallmoden's brow clouded and his voice was harsh as he returned: "Yes,
+that scoundrel--that Hartmut lies heavy upon his heart, but more than
+ten years have passed since then, and I hoped that Falkenried would
+return to sociable life in time."
+
+"I have never had that hope; that blow went to the root of life. I
+shall never forget that evening at Burgsdorf while I live. How we
+waited and waited--first with restlessness and anxiety, then with
+deadly fear. You guessed the truth directly, but I would not permit
+myself to believe it--and Falkenried! I can see him yet as he stood at
+the window, looking fixedly out into the night pale as a corpse, with
+teeth tightly clenched, having for every fear expressed the one reply,
+'He will come--he must come. I have his word for it.' And when, in
+spite of all, Hartmut did not come--when the night wore on and we
+finally learned upon inquiry at the railroad station that the two had
+arrived there in a carriage and taken the express train--God in heaven!
+How the man looked when he turned to leave, so mute and stiff! I made
+you promise not to leave his side, for I believed that he would blow
+his brains out."
+
+"You judged him wrongly," said Wallmoden decisively. "A man like
+Falkenried considers it cowardice to lay hands on his life, even if
+that life has become torture to him. He stands up even to a lost post.
+Although what would have happened if they had let him go that time--I
+do not dare to surmise."
+
+"Yes, I knew that he had asked for his dismissal, because to serve
+after his son had become a deserter did not accord with his ideas of
+honor. It was the step of despair."
+
+"Yes, truly; and it was fortunate that his chiefs would not dispense
+with his military genius and force. The chief of the general's staff
+took the affair in his own hands and brought it before the king. They
+concluded finally to treat the whole unfortunate occurrence--at least
+as far as it could concern the father--as the act of a heedless boy,
+for which a highly deserving officer could not be held accountable.
+Falkenried had to take back his request for resignation, was
+transferred into a far-away garrison, and the affair silenced as much
+as was possible. It is, indeed, buried and forgotten now after ten
+years by all the world."
+
+"It is not forgotten by one," finished Regine. "My heart burns
+sometimes when I think of what Falkenried was once, and what he is now.
+The bitter experience of his marriage had made him rather serious and
+unsocial, but occasionally the full charming amiability of his manner
+would break through, warm and hearty, from his inmost heart--all that
+is over. He knows now only the iron severity of duty--all else is dead.
+Even the old friendly relations have become painful to him. One has to
+let him go his own way."
+
+She broke off with a sigh, which betrayed how near to her heart was the
+friend of her youth, and laying her hand upon the arm of her brother,
+she continued: "Perhaps you are right, Herbert, in that one chooses
+best and most sensibly in late years. You do not need to fear the fate
+of Falkenried. Your wife comes from a good race. I knew Stahlberg well.
+He had worked up to the heights of life with firmness and ability, and
+even as a millionaire he remained the upright man of honor he had ever
+been. Adelaide is the daughter of her father in every respect. You have
+chosen well and you my heartfelt wishes for your happiness."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Rodeck, the hunting lodge belonging to the possessions of the Prince of
+Adelsberg, was about two hours' distance from Furstenstein, in the
+midst of deepest forest loneliness. The small building, erected
+without much taste, contained at the most about a dozen rooms, whose
+old-fashioned and shabby furniture had been put in as good order as the
+short notice of the coming of the Prince permitted.
+
+The little castle had not been inhabited for years and looked somewhat
+dilapidated, but when one emerged from the deep, dark forest into the
+opening, and beheld at the end of the wide green sward the old gray
+edifice with its tall, spiked roof and four steeples at the corners, it
+had truly something of the forest idyl about it.
+
+The Adelsbergs had once been a reigning family, but a family that had
+long since lost its sovereignty. They had retained, however, the
+princely title, an enormous fortune, and a very extensive property. The
+once numerous family counted at present but few representatives; the
+main branch only a single one--the Prince Egon, who, as lord of all the
+family estates, besides being closely related to the reigning house
+through his late mother, played an important role among the nobility of
+the land.
+
+The young Prince had always been considered a rover, who at times
+followed very eccentric notions and bothered himself very little about
+princely etiquette when he wished to follow some momentary whim. The
+old Prince had been very strict with his son, but his death made Egon
+von Adelsberg the sole master of his own will very early in life.
+
+He had now returned from a tour in the Orient which had kept him in
+foreign lands two years, but instead of occupying the princely palace
+in town, or one of his other castles which were furnished with every
+conceivable splendor for a summer or fall visit, he took a notion to go
+to the old forest nook--the little half-forgotten Rodeck--which was not
+prepared for the honor of receiving its master, and could offer but
+scant accommodation.
+
+Old Stadinger was right: one must never ask Prince Egon why. Everything
+depended entirely upon his momentary caprice.
+
+In the morning of a sunny autumn day, two gentlemen in hunting costume
+stood upon the lawn at Rodeck talking with the castle-keeper, while a
+light open carriage stood upon the gravel road, ready for departure. At
+a casual glance the two young men bore a certain resemblance to each
+other. They had tall, slender figures, deeply tanned faces, and eyes in
+which glowed the whole fiery gayety and courage of youth, but upon
+closer examination the wide difference between them was apparent.
+
+The Southern coloring of the younger one, who might, perhaps, be about
+twenty-four years old, was caused, apparently, by a prolonged stay
+under a hot sun, for the light, curly hair and blue eyes did not match
+it--they betrayed the German. A light beard, curly like the hair,
+framed a handsome, open face, which, however, did not follow any strict
+line of beauty. The forehead was rather too low, but there was
+something like bright sunshine in this face which charmed and won
+everybody.
+
+His companion, several years his senior, had nothing of this sunny
+quality, although his appearance was more imposing. Slender like the
+younger one, he towered above him in height, and his dark complexion
+was not caused by the sun alone. It was of that olive tint which allows
+a pale face to still look fresh, and the blue-black hair which fell in
+thick waves over the high brow made the apparent paleness more
+noticeable. The face was beautiful, with its noble, proud lines so
+firmly and energetically pronounced, but upon it appeared also deep
+shadows lying over brow and eyes; such shadows as one seldom finds on
+youthful features.
+
+The large, dark eyes, which had in their depths something gloomy, told
+of hot, unruled passions. In their flashing there was something uncanny
+but mysteriously attractive. One felt that they could charm with
+demoniac power; in fact, the whole personality of the man possessed
+this uncanny, entrancing charm.
+
+"But I cannot help you, Stadinger," said the younger of the two
+gentlemen. "The newly arrived lot has to be unpacked and a place found
+for them. Where? that is your affair."
+
+"But, Your Highness, if that is absolutely impossible?" argued the
+castle-keeper, in a tone indicating that he stood in rather familiar
+relations to his young master. "Not a nook is free any more in Rodeck.
+I have had trouble enough already to house the servants which Your
+Highness brought along, and now every day boxes large as houses arrive,
+and always it is 'Unpack, Stadinger,' 'Find room, Stadinger,' and in
+the meantime the rooms stand empty by the dozen in the other castles."
+
+"Do not grumble, old forest spirit, but find room," interrupted the
+Prince. "The arrivals have to be put up here at Rodeck, at least for
+the present, and if the worst comes you will have to give up your own
+lodgings."
+
+"Yes, certainly; Stadinger has room enough in his lodgings," joined in
+the second gentleman. "I shall arrange it myself and measure it all."
+
+"And Lena can help you with it," added the Prince, supporting the
+proposal of his friend. "She is at home, is she not?"
+
+Stadinger measured the gentlemen from head to foot, then answered
+drily:
+
+"No, Your Highness, Lena is away."
+
+"Where?" cried the Prince, starting up. "Where has she gone?"
+
+"To town," was the laconic reply.
+
+"What! I thought you intended keeping your grandchild at home all
+winter."
+
+"That has been changed," replied the castle-keeper with imperturbable
+composure. "My old sister Rosa only is at home now. If you wish to
+measure my dwelling with her help, Herr Rojanow, she would consider it
+a high honor."
+
+Rojanow glanced at the old man in no very friendly way, and the young
+prince said reproachfully:
+
+"Now listen, Stadinger, you treat us in quite an unaccountable manner.
+You even take Lena away from us, the only one who was worth looking at.
+All else here in the female line have the sixties behind them, and
+their heads positively shake from old age; and the kitchen women you
+got from Furstenstein to help actually offend our sense of beauty."
+
+"Your Highnesses do not need to look at them," suggested Stadinger. "I
+look out that the servants do not come into the castle, but if Your
+Highness goes into the kitchen like the day before yesterday----"
+
+"Well, must I not inspect my servants at times? But I shall not go into
+the kitchen a second time--you have taken care of that. I have my
+suspicions that you have gathered here all the very ugliest of the Wald
+to celebrate my arrival. You ought to be ashamed, Stadinger."
+
+The old man looked sharply and fixedly into his master's eyes, and his
+voice sounded very impressive as he answered:
+
+"I am not ashamed a bit, Your Highness. When the late Prince, Your
+Highness' father, gave me this post of rest he said to me, 'Keep order
+at Rodeck, Stadinger--I rely upon you.' Well, I have kept order for
+twelve years in the castle, and in my house particularly, and I shall
+do that in future. Has Your Highness any orders for me?"
+
+"No, you old, rude thing," cried the Prince, half laughing, half angry.
+"Make haste and get away. We do not need any curtain lectures."
+
+Stadinger obeyed. He saluted and marched off.
+
+Rojanow looked after him and shrugged his shoulders sarcastically.
+
+"I admire your patience, Egon. You allow your servants very
+far-reaching liberty."
+
+"Stadinger is an exception," replied Egon. "He allows himself
+everything; but he was not so much in the wrong when he sent Lena away.
+I believe I should have done the same in his place."
+
+"But it is not the first time that this old castle-keeper has taken it
+upon himself to call you and me to order. If I were his master he would
+have his dismissal in the next hour."
+
+"If I tried that it would turn out badly for me," laughed the Prince.
+"Such old family heirlooms, who have served for three generations, and
+have carried the children in their arms, will be treated with respect.
+I cannot gain anything there with orders and prohibitions. Peter
+Stadinger does what he will, and occasionally lectures me just as he
+sees fit."
+
+"If you suffer it--such a thing is incomprehensible to me."
+
+"Yes, it is a thing you do not comprehend, Hartmut," said Egon more
+seriously. "You know only the slavish submission of the servants in
+your country and the Orient. They kneel and bow at every opportunity,
+yet steal and betray their masters whenever they can and know how.
+Stadinger is of an enviable simplicity. My 'Highness' does not
+intimidate him in the least. He often tells me the hardest things to my
+face; but I could put hundreds of thousands in his hands--he would not
+defraud me of one iota of it. If Rodeck were in flames and I in the
+midst of it, the old man, with all his sixty years, would stand by me
+without a second thought. All this is different with us in Germany."
+
+"Yes; with you in Germany," repeated Hartmut slowly, and his glance was
+lost dreamily in the dusk of the forest.
+
+"Are you still so prejudiced against it?" asked Egon. "It cost me
+persuasion and prayers enough to get you to accompany me here--you
+fought so against entering German territory."
+
+"I wish I had not entered it," said Rojanow, gloomily. "You know----"
+
+"That all sorts of bitter remembrances have their origin here for
+you--yes, you have told me that; but you must have been a boy then.
+Have you not yet overcome the grudge against it? You have the most
+obstinate reticence, anyway, upon this point. I have not yet heard what
+it really was that----"
+
+"Egon, I beg of you, leave the subject," interrupted Hartmut, harshly.
+"I have told you once for all that I cannot and will not speak of it.
+If you mistrust me, let me go. I have not forced myself upon you, you
+know that; but I cannot bear these inquiries and questions."
+
+The proud, inconsiderate tone which he used toward his friend did not
+seem to be anything new to the Prince. He merely shrugged his shoulders
+and said pacifyingly:
+
+"How irritable you are again to-day! I believe you are right when you
+insist that German air makes you nervous. You are entirely changed
+since you put foot on this soil."
+
+"It is possible. I feel that I torture you and myself with these whims;
+therefore let me go, Egon."
+
+"I know better! Have I taken so much pains to catch you, just to let
+you fly off again now? No, no, Hartmut, I shall not let you go by any
+means."
+
+The words sounded playful, but Rojanow seemed to take them wrongly. His
+eyes lighted up almost threateningly as he returned:
+
+"And what if I _will_ leave?"
+
+"Then I shall hold you like this."
+
+With an indescribably charming expression, Egon threw his arm around
+his friend's shoulder. "And I shall ask if this bad, obstinate Hartmut
+can bring his conscience to desert me. We have lived together almost
+two years, and have shared danger and joy like two brothers, and now
+you would storm out into the world again without asking about me. Am I,
+then, so little to you?"
+
+Such warm, heartfelt beseeching was in the words that Rojanow's
+irritation could not live. His eyes lit up with an expression which
+showed that he returned just as intensely the passionate, enthusiastic
+affection which the young Prince bore him, even if he was, in their
+mutual relationship, the domineering one.
+
+"Do you believe that for the sake of any one else I would have come to
+Germany?" he asked in a low voice. "Forgive me, Egon. I am an unstable
+nature. I have never been able to stay long in any place since--since
+my boyhood."
+
+"Then learn it now here at my home," cried Egon. "I came to Rodeck
+especially to show you my country in its entire beauty. This old
+edifice, which nestles in the midst of the deep forest like a fairy
+castle, is a piece of forest poetry such as you could not find in any
+of my other possessions. I know your taste--but I must really leave you
+now. You will not drive with me over to Furstenstein?"
+
+"No; I will enjoy your much-praised forest poetry, which, it appears,
+is already tiresome to you, as you wish to make calls."
+
+"Yes; I am no poet like you, who can dream and be enthused all day,"
+said Egon, laughing. "We have led the life of hermits for a full week,
+and I cannot live on sunshine and forest perfume and the curtain
+lectures of Stadinger alone. I need people, and the Chief Forester is
+about the only person in the neighborhood. Besides, this Herr von
+Schonan is a splendid, jolly man. You will yet meet and know him, too."
+
+He motioned to the waiting carriage, gave his hand to his friend,
+sprang to his seat and rolled away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Rojanow looked after him until the vehicle had disappeared behind the
+trees, then he turned and took one of the paths which led into the
+forest. He carried his gun over his shoulder, but evidently did not
+think of hunting. Lost in thought, he walked further and further
+aimlessly, without noticing the road or direction, until deepest forest
+loneliness surrounded him.
+
+Prince Adelsberg was right; he knew his friend's taste. This forest
+poetry took full possession of him. He finally came to a standstill and
+drew a deep breath, but the cloud upon his brow would not dispel; it
+grew darker and darker as he leaned against the trunk of a tree and
+allowed his eyes to roam about. Something not of peace or joy was
+depicted in those beautiful features, which all the sunny beauty around
+could not erase.
+
+He saw this country for the first time; his former home was far removed
+in the northern part of Germany; nothing here reminded him directly of
+the past, and yet just here something awoke in him which seemed to have
+long been dead--something which had not made itself felt in all those
+years when he crossed oceans and countries, when intoxicating waves of
+life surrounded him and he drank with full thirsty draughts the freedom
+for which he had sacrificed so much--everything.
+
+The old German woods! They rustled here in the south as up there in the
+familiar north; the same breath floated through the firs and oaks here
+which whispered there in the crowns of the pines; the same voice which
+had once been so familiar to the boy when he lay upon the mossy forest
+soil. He had heard many other voices since, some coaxing and
+flattering, some intoxicating and enthusiastic, but this voice sounded
+so grave and yet so sweet in the rustling of the forest trees--the
+fatherland spoke to the lost son!
+
+Something moved yonder in the bushes. Hartmut looked up indifferently,
+thinking that some game was passing through, but instead of that he saw
+the glimmer of a light dress. A lady emerged from a narrow side path
+which wound through the forest, and stood still, apparently undecided
+as to the direction she ought to take.
+
+Rojanow had started at the unexpected sight. It awoke him suddenly from
+his dream and called him back to reality. The stranger had also noticed
+him. She, too, seemed surprised, but only for a moment; then she drew
+near and said with a slight bow: "May I ask you, sir, to show me the
+road to Furstenstein? I am a stranger here and have lost my way in my
+walk. I fear I have wandered considerably from my path."
+
+Hartmut had scanned the appearance of the young lady with a quick
+glance, and immediately decided to act as guide. Although he did not
+know the road about which she had asked--knew only the direction in
+which it lay--it troubled him but little. He made a deeply polite bow.
+
+"I place myself entirely at your service, gracious Fraulein.
+Furstenstein is, indeed, rather far from here, and you cannot possibly
+find the road by yourself, so I must beg you to accept my escort."
+
+The lady seemed to have expected the right direction to be pointed out,
+and the proffered escort was evidently not especially welcome, but she
+may have been afraid of losing her way a second time, and the perfect
+politeness with which the offer was made scarcely left her any choice.
+She bowed after a moment's hesitation and replied: "I shall be very
+much obliged to you. Please let us go."
+
+Rojanow pointed out a narrow, half-covered path which led in the
+direction of Furstenstein, and entered it without further ado. He
+decided to retain his role as guide, for the little adventure began to
+interest him.
+
+His protege was, indeed, beautiful enough to make the encounter
+interesting. The pure, delicate oval of her face; the high, clear brow
+surrounded by shining blonde hair; the lines of the features--all was
+perfect symmetry, but there was something chilling in the strong
+regularity of these lines, which was rather increased by a mark of
+energetic will power most plainly pronounced. The young lady could not
+be more than eighteen or nineteen years old at the utmost, but she had
+nothing of the charm of mirth and gayety belonging to that age. The
+large blue eyes looked as calm and grave as if a girlish dream had
+never brightened them, and the same cold, proud composure was visible
+in the carriage and whole appearance.
+
+This tall, slender figure affected one like a chilling breath. Her
+plain but elegant apparel showed that she belonged to the high classes.
+
+Rojanow had time enough to observe her as he walked now behind her and
+now before, bending back the low-hanging bows, or warning of the
+unevenness of the ground. This narrow forest path was truly not
+comfortable, and proved itself not very appropriate for the toilet of a
+lady. More than once her dress was caught by the bushes; the veil of
+her hat was entangled in the boughs at every opportunity, while the
+mossy soil proved at times very damp and foggy.
+
+All of this, however, was borne with perfect indifference, but Hartmut
+felt that he was not doing himself much credit with his post as guide.
+
+"I am sorry to have to lead you over such a rough path, Fraulein," he
+said courteously. "I am really afraid of fatiguing you, but we are in
+the densest forest and there is no choice whatever."
+
+"I am not easily fatigued," was the calm rejoinder. "I care little for
+the roughness of the road if it only leads to the desired end."
+
+The remark sounded somewhat unusual from the lips of a young girl.
+Rojanow seemed to think so, and smiled rather sarcastically as he
+repeated:
+
+"If it only leads to the desired end? Quite so--that is my opinion, but
+ladies are usually of a different mind; they wish to be borne softly
+over every inconvenience."
+
+"All of them? There are also women who prefer to go alone, without
+being led like a child."
+
+"Perhaps, as an exception. I prize the chance which gives me the good
+fortune of meeting such a charming exception----"
+
+Hartmut was about to utter a bold compliment, but suddenly grew silent,
+for the blue eyes looked at him with an expression that made the words
+die upon his lips.
+
+At this moment the lady's veil was caught again by a thorny bush, which
+held it fast relentlessly. She stood still, but hardly had her
+companion stretched forth his hand to disengage the delicate fabric,
+when she tore herself free with a quick motion of the head. The veil
+remained hanging in shreds on the bough, but his help had become
+totally superfluous.
+
+Rojanow bit his lip. This adventure was developing quite differently
+from what he had expected. He had thought to play the agreeable in that
+bold, vainglorious manner which had become his second nature toward
+ladies, to a timid young being who trusted herself entirely to his
+protection, but he was being shown back to his proper place by a mere
+glance at his first attempt. It was made very clear to him that he was
+to be guide here and nothing else.
+
+Who, then, in truth, was this girl who, with her eighteen or nineteen
+years, already showed the perfect ease of a great lady and who knew so
+well how to make herself unapproachable? He concluded to have light
+about it at any cost.
+
+The narrow path now ended; they emerged into an opening, the forest
+continuing on the other side.
+
+It was not easy to be a guide here, where one was as little acquainted
+with the country as Hartmut, but he would never confess his ignorance
+now.
+
+Apparently quite certain, he kept in the same direction, choosing one
+of the wood roads which crossed through the forest. There must surely
+be a spot somewhere which would offer a free outlook and make it
+possible to find the right road.
+
+The wider path now permitted them to walk side by side, and Hartmut
+took immediate advantage of it to start a conversation, which thus far
+had been impossible, since they had had to struggle with so many
+obstacles.
+
+"I have neglected so far to introduce myself, gracious Fraulein," he
+commenced. "My name is Rojanow. I am at present at Rodeck, a guest of
+Prince Adelsberg, who enjoys the privilege of being your neighbor,
+since you live at Furstenstein."
+
+"No; I am likewise only a guest there," replied the lady.
+
+The princely neighbor seemed to be as indifferent to her as the name of
+her companion; at all events, she did not seem to consider it necessary
+to give her name in return, but accepted the introduction with that
+proud, aristocratic movement of the head which seemed to be peculiar to
+her.
+
+"Ah, you live, then, at the Residenz, and have taken advantage of the
+beautiful fall weather for an excursion here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+It sounded as monosyllabic and rebuking as possible, but Rojanow was
+not the man to be rebuked. He was accustomed to have his personality
+felt everywhere--to meet with consideration and importance,
+particularly among the ladies, and he felt it almost an insult that
+this oft-tested success was denied him here. But it excited him to
+enforce a conversation which apparently was not desired.
+
+"Are you satisfied with your stay at Furstenstein?" he began anew. "I
+have not yet been there, and have only seen the castle from afar, but
+it seems to overlook the whole vicinity. A peculiar taste is needed,
+however, to find the country beautiful."
+
+"And this taste does not seem to be yours."
+
+"At any rate, I do not love the monotony, and here one has the same
+view everywhere. Forest and forest and nothing but forest! It is enough
+sometimes to create despair."
+
+It sounded like suppressed resentment. The poor German forests had to
+atone for torturing the returned prodigal to such an extent that he had
+been upon the point several times of fleeing from their whispering and
+rustling. He could not bear it--this grave, monotonous tune of old
+times which the leaves whispered to him.
+
+His companion heard, of course, only the sarcasm in the remark.
+
+"You are a foreigner, Herr Rojanow?" she asked calmly.
+
+A dark shadow passed again over Hartmut's brow. He hesitated for a
+moment, then replied coldly: "Yes, gracious Fraulein."
+
+"I thought so; your name, as well as appearance, betrays it, and
+therefore your opinion is conceivable."
+
+"It is certainly an unbiased opinion," said Hartmut, irritated by the
+reproach contained in the last words. "I have seen a great deal of the
+world, and have but now returned from the Orient. Whoever has known the
+ocean in its brilliant, transparent blue, or its majestic, stormy
+uproar; whoever has enjoyed the charm of the tropics, and been
+intoxicated with their splendor and coloring--to him these evergreen
+forest depths appear but cold and colorless, like all of these German
+landscapes, anyhow."
+
+The contemptuous shrug of the shoulders with which he concluded seemed
+to finally arouse his companion from her cool indifference. An
+expression of displeasure flitted across her features, and her voice
+betrayed a certain excitement as she answered: "That is probably solely
+and entirely a matter of taste. I know, if not the Orient, at least the
+south of Europe. Those sun-glaring, color-shining landscapes intoxicate
+for the moment, certainly, and then they weary one. They lack freshness
+and strength. One can dream and enjoy there, but not live and work. But
+why argue about it? You do not understand our German forests."
+
+Hartmut smiled with undeniable satisfaction. He had succeeded in
+breaking the icy reticence of his companion. All of his charming
+politeness had been without effect, but he saw now that there was
+something which could call life into those cold features, and he found
+it attractive to draw it out. If he offended by it, it did not matter;
+it gave him pleasure.
+
+"That sounds like a reproof which, alas! I have to accept," he said,
+with an undisguised sneer. "It is possible that this understanding is
+wanting in me. I am accustomed to measure nature differently from most
+people. Live and work! It depends greatly upon what one calls living
+and working. I have lived for years in Paris, that mighty centre of
+civilization, where life throbs and flows in a thousand streams.
+Whoever is used to being borne on those sparkling waves cannot bring
+himself again into narrow, _petit_ views--into all those prejudices and
+pedantries which in this good Germany are called 'life.'"
+
+The contemptuous stress which he put upon the last words had something
+of a challenge in it, and reached its aim.
+
+His companion came to a sudden standstill and measured him from head to
+foot, while from the formerly cold, blue eyes there flashed a spark of
+burning anger. She seemed to have an angry reply upon her lips, but
+suppressed it. She only straightened herself to her fullest height, and
+her words were few and of icy, haughty reprimand.
+
+"You forget, mein Herr, that you speak to a German. I remind you of
+it."
+
+Hartmut's brow glowed dark-red under this stern reproof, and yet it was
+directed only to the stranger--the foreigner--who forgot the
+consideration of a guest.
+
+If this girl had an idea who spoke so to her--if she knew! Hot, burning
+shame rose suddenly within him, but he was man of the world enough to
+control himself immediately.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said with a slight, half-sarcastic bow. "I was
+under the impression that we were exchanging only general views, which
+have the right of unbiased opinions. I am sorry to have offended you,
+gracious Fraulein."
+
+An inimitable, proud and disdainful motion of the head assured him that
+he did not even possess the power to offend her. She shrugged her
+shoulders in a barely perceptible manner.
+
+"I do not wish to bias your opinions in the least, but as our views are
+so widely different on this matter, we will do better to discontinue
+our conversation."
+
+Rojanow was not inclined to continue it. He knew now that those cold,
+blue eyes could flash. He had wished to see it--had caused it to
+happen, and yet the matter had ended differently from what he had
+anticipated. He glanced with a half hostile look at the slender figure
+at his side, and then his eyes roamed resentfully again in the bitterly
+abused green depths of the forest.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+This forest loneliness had, however, something fascinating in it. It
+was touched by the first slight breath of autumn; that touch which has
+not yet brought withering and death, but has only steeped the landscape
+in richer coloring. Here and there brilliant red and gold flashed
+through the bushes, but the forest itself still rested fresh and
+aromatic in its green dusk.
+
+Beneath the crowns of the century-old trees bending gracefully toward
+each other, deep, cool shadows glided, and in the openings golden
+sunshine lay glistening on the flowers which bloomed here in the light.
+Occasionally in the distance the bright mirror of a small pond
+glittered, resting lonely, as if lost in the midst of the deep forest.
+
+Through the profound quiet all around could be heard the low rustling
+of the mighty trees and the humming and singing of thousands of insects
+that seemed to float upon the rays of the sun: all of those mysterious
+voices which are heard only in solitude--the sweet, dreamy language of
+the forest. It lured and coaxed irresistibly with its green depths,
+which stretched endlessly, always further and further, as if it wished
+to keep forever within its charm the two now walking through it.
+
+But suddenly quite an unexpected obstacle appeared before them. Dashing
+and roaring from the thickly grown heights, a broad forest brook made a
+way for itself with merry haste through bushes and rocks.
+
+Rojanow paused in his walk and took in the situation with a quick
+glance, but as nowhere could a ford or bridge be discovered, he turned
+to his companion.
+
+"I fear we are in trouble; the brook seems to put an end to our path.
+It is usually easy to cross on the moss-covered stones at the bottom,
+with some care, but yesterday's rain has covered them completely."
+
+The young lady was looking anxiously for some crossing place. "Would it
+not be possible further down?" she asked, pointing down the stream.
+
+"No, for the water is deeper and more rapid there. We must cross here
+at this place. Of course, you cannot go through the water. You will
+permit me, Fraulein, to carry you over?"
+
+The offer was made with perfect courtesy and reserve, but Rojanow's
+eyes flashed triumphantly. Chance was avenging him now on the
+unapproachable one, who would not suffer his assistance even in the
+disengaging of her veil from a thorn bush. She had now to entrust
+herself unconditionally to his help, there was no choice but to allow
+herself to be carried in his arms to the other bank.
+
+He drew near as if the permission sought had been granted, but she
+recoiled.
+
+"I thank you, Herr Rojanow."
+
+Hartmut smiled with an irony which he took no pains to conceal. He was
+master of the situation now and intended to remain so.
+
+"Do you desire to turn back?" he asked. "More than an hour would be
+lost, whereas if we cross here the other side will be reached in a few
+moments. You can trust yourself to my arms without fear--the crossing
+will be quite without danger."
+
+"I think so, too," was the calm reply, "and therefore I shall try it
+alone."
+
+"Alone? That is impossible, Fraulein!"
+
+"Impossible to walk through a forest brook? I do not consider that a
+particularly heroic deed."
+
+"But the water is deeper than you think. You will get a thorough
+wetting, and besides--it is really impossible."
+
+"I am not effeminate in the least and do not catch cold easily. Be so
+kind as to go first. I will follow."
+
+That was plain enough, and sounded so commanding that remonstrance was
+not possible. Hartmut bowed a silent assent and waded through the
+water, which could do no damage to his high hunting boots.
+
+It was indeed, rather deep and violent, so that he had to be careful in
+getting a firm foothold upon the stones. A slight smile played around
+his lips as he stood on the other bank and awaited his companion, who
+had refused his protection so haughtily. Let her try coming alone; the
+water would frighten her; she would not be able to battle with it, and
+would be compelled to call him to help her in spite of her reluctance.
+
+She had followed him without hesitation. With her delicate, thin boots
+offering no resistance whatever, she already stood in the water, which
+was cold, but she seemed scarcely to feel it. Catching up her dress
+with both hands, she advanced carefully and slowly, but quite surely,
+to the middle of the brook.
+
+But here in the midst of the dashing, foaming flood, it required the
+firm step of a man to hold its own. The slender, soft foot of the lady
+searched in vain for a hold upon the slippery stones. The high heels of
+the dainty boots were as much of a detriment as the dress, the hem of
+which was caught by the waves.
+
+The courageous pedestrian apparently lost the confidence hitherto
+displayed. She slipped several times and finally stood still. A
+questioning glance flew over to the bank where Rojanow stood, firmly
+decided not to lift his hand to help her until she asked for it.
+
+She may have read this resolution in his eyes, and it seemed to give
+her back instantly her failing strength. She stood immovable a moment,
+but the determined expression in her features was in full play.
+Suddenly she slipped from the flooded stones into water a foot deep,
+where she now, indeed, gained terra firma directly on the bottom of the
+brook, and could walk unmolested to the other bank. She grasped a
+branch of a tree, instead of Hartmut's offered hand, and by its aid
+swung herself to dry land.
+
+Naturally she was very wet. The water ran from her dress, which she had
+released from her grasp without consideration, but with perfect
+unconcern she turned to her escort and said: "Shall we continue on our
+way? It cannot be very far to Furstenstein."
+
+Hartmut did not return a syllable, but something like hatred sprang up
+within him for this woman, who would rather slip into the cold flood
+than trust herself to his arms. The proud, spoiled man whose brilliant
+traits had heretofore won all hearts, felt so much more keenly the
+humiliation which was forced upon him here. He almost cursed the whole
+encounter.
+
+They walked on. From time to time Rojanow threw a glance upon the
+heavy, wet hem of the dress which trailed on the ground beside him, but
+otherwise he bestowed his whole attention upon the surroundings, which
+seemed to get lighter. This forest thickness must end some time!
+
+His supposition was correct. He had been successful in his leadership,
+for the path taken at random proved the right one. In about ten minutes
+they stood upon a slight elevation which offered a free outlook. Over
+yonder, above an ocean of treetops, rose the towers of Furstenstein,
+while a broad road, which could be plainly seen, wound to the foot of
+the castle mount.
+
+"There is Furstenstein," said Hartmut, turning for the first time to
+his companion, "although it will be about half an hour's walk from
+here."
+
+"That is of no consequence," she interrupted him quickly. "I am very
+grateful to you for your guidance, but I cannot now miss the road, and
+I should not like to trouble you further."
+
+"As you wish, gracious Fraulein," Rojanow said, coldly. "If you desire
+to dismiss your guide here he will not force himself upon you."
+
+The reproach was understood. The young lady herself might feel that a
+man who had guided her through the forest for hours might well deserve
+a different dismissal, even if she found it necessary to keep him at a
+distance.
+
+"I have already detained you too long," she said graciously, "and since
+you have introduced yourself, Herr Rojanow, let me give you my name
+also before we part--Adelaide von Wallmoden."
+
+Hartmut started slightly and a burning blush covered his face as he
+repeated slowly, "Wallmoden!"
+
+"Is the name familiar to you?"
+
+"I believe I have heard it before, but it was in--in North Germany."
+
+"Most probably, for that is my husband's home."
+
+Unmistakable surprise was depicted in Rojanow's face as the supposed
+young girl announced herself a married woman, but he bowed politely.
+
+"Then I beg your pardon, gracious lady, for the wrong address. I could
+not anticipate that you were married. In any case, I have not the honor
+of knowing your husband even by name, for the gentleman who was then
+known to me was already advanced in years. He belonged to the
+diplomatic corps, and his name was, if I am not mistaken, Herbert von
+Wallmoden."
+
+"Quite right; my husband is at present Ambassador at the court of this
+country. But he will be anxious about my long stay. I must not tarry
+longer. Once again, my thanks, Herr Rojanow."
+
+She bowed slightly and took the descending road. Hartmut stood
+motionless, looking after her, but an ashy paleness was on his face.
+
+So--he had hardly set foot upon German soil before there met him a name
+and connection with old times which was at least painfully disagreeable
+to him.
+
+Herbert von Wallmoden, brother of Frau von Eschenhagen, guardian of
+Willibald, and friend of----
+
+Rojanow suddenly broke off in his thoughts, for a sharp, painful stab
+sank into his breast.
+
+As if to throw something from him he straightened himself, and again
+the harsh, offensive sarcasm trembled around his lips, over which he
+had such masterly command.
+
+"Uncle Wallmoden has made a fine career at least," he murmured, "and
+seems to have had good luck besides. His hair must have been gray a
+long time, and yet with it he conquers a young, beautiful girl. Of
+course an ambassador is always a good match, hence the cool,
+aristocratic manner which does not consider it worth the while to bend
+to other mortals. Probably the diplomatic school of the husband has
+educated his chosen one especially for this position. Well, he has
+succeeded admirably."
+
+His eyes still followed the young wife, who had already reached the
+foot of the hill, but now a deep furrow appeared in his brow.
+
+"If I should meet Wallmoden here--and it can scarcely be avoided--he
+will recognize me beyond a doubt. If he then tells her the truth--if
+she learns what has happened--and looks at me again with that look of
+contempt----" In wild, out-breaking wrath he stamped his foot upon the
+ground, then laughed bitterly.
+
+"Pah! what do I care? What does this blond, blue-eyed race, with their
+indolent, cold blood, know of the longing for freedom--of the storm of
+passions--of life in general? Let them pass judgment upon me! I do not
+fear the meeting. I shall know how to hold my own."
+
+Throwing back his head in proud defiance, he turned his back upon the
+slender female figure yet visible, and walked back into the forest.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+At the home of the Chief of all the foresters, the talked-of family
+fete for which Wallmoden and his young wife had expressly come, had
+taken place according to programme, and the lord of Burgsdorf and
+Antonie von Schonan were formally betrothed.
+
+The young couple had long known that they were intended for each other,
+and were perfectly contented therewith.
+
+Willibald, like a good son, was still of the opinion that the selection
+of his future wife was solely the business of his mother, and he had
+quietly waited until she found it convenient to betroth him. Still it
+was agreeable to him that it was just Cousin Toni he was to marry.
+
+He had known her since their childhood; she suited him admirably, and
+what was of some importance, she made no demands for the romantic part
+of the engagement, which, with the best will in the world, he could not
+have complied with.
+
+Toni exhibited the good taste which Frau Regine credited her with.
+Willy pleased her very much, and the prospect of becoming mistress of
+stately Burgsdorf pleased her still better. So all was in perfect
+accord.
+
+The betrothed couple were at present in the reception room where the
+piano stood and Antonie was entertaining her betrothed with music at
+the request of her father. She herself considered music a very tiresome
+and superfluous affair; but the Chief Forester had insisted that his
+daughter should demonstrate not only her ability as a housekeeper, but
+that she had also been educated in the higher arts.
+
+He was walking up and down the terrace with his sister-in-law, with the
+original intention of listening to the music, but instead of that they
+were quarreling again, although they had started out with a peaceful
+conversation about the happiness of the children. This time the quarrel
+seemed to be of a very violent nature.
+
+"I really do not know what to think of you, Moritz," said Frau von
+Eschenhagen with a very red face. "You do not seem to have any sense of
+the impropriety of this acquaintance. When I ask you who this bosom
+friend of Toni's really is--the one who is expected at Waldhofen--you
+answer me in the calmest manner possible that she is a singer, and
+recently engaged at the Court Theatre. An actress! a theatre princess!
+one of those frivolous creatures----"
+
+"But, Regine, do not get so excited," interrupted von Schonan vexedly.
+"You act as though the poor thing was already lost body and soul,
+because she has appeared on the stage."
+
+"So she is," declared Regine; "whoever once enters this Sodom and
+Gomorrah is not to be saved--they go to their ruin there."
+
+"Very flattering to our Court Theatre," said Schonan drily. "Besides,
+all of us go there."
+
+"As audience--that is quite different. But I have always been against
+it. Willy has been allowed to attend the theatre but seldom, and then
+only in my company; but while I fulfil my maternal duty,
+conscientiously protecting my son from any touch with those circles,
+you give his future wife over freely to their poisonous influences. It
+is worthy of a cry to heaven!"
+
+Her voice had grown very loud, partly through indignation and partly
+that she might be heard, for the musical performance in the room, whose
+glass doors stood wide open, was of a rather loud nature.
+
+The young lady had a somewhat hard touch and her performance reminded
+one of the working of an ax in hard wood. Although her three listeners
+had strong nerves, a low conversation had become an impossibility.
+
+"Let me explain this matter to you," said the Chief Forester
+pacifyingly. "I have already told you that this case is an exception.
+Marietta Volkmar is the granddaughter of our good old physician at
+Waldhofen. He had the misfortune to lose his son in the prime of
+life--the young widow followed her husband in the next year, and their
+child, the little orphan, came to her grandfather. That happened when I
+was promoted here to Furstenstein, ten years ago. Dr. Volkmar became my
+house physician; his granddaughter the playmate of my children, and
+because the school in Waldhofen was very poor, I offered to let the
+little one participate in the lessons of my children. The friendship
+dates from then.
+
+"Later on, when Toni was sent to boarding school for two years, and
+Marietta went to the city for her musical education, this daily
+intercourse was, of course, broken, but Marietta visits us regularly
+when she comes to her grandfather during her vacations, and I do not
+see why I should prohibit it as long as the girl remains good and
+true."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen had listened to the explanation without abating
+her severity in the least, and now she laughed ironically.
+
+"Good and true at the theatre! One knows how things go there, but you
+seem to take it just as easy as this Dr. Volkmar, who looks so
+venerable with his white hair, and yet consents to his granddaughter--a
+young soul entrusted to his care--going on the path to destruction."
+
+Herr von Schonan made an impatient gesture.
+
+"Regine, you are usually such a sensible woman, but you have never
+wished to be reasonable on this point. The theatre and everything
+connected with it has always been under a ban to you. The decision has
+not been an easy one for the doctor. I know that; and if one like me
+can sit in the warm nest and support one's children, one should not
+break the staff over other parents who struggle with bitter cares.
+Volkmar still works night and day with all his seventy years, but the
+practice brings him but little, for our vicinity is poor, and Marietta
+will be quite without means after his death."
+
+"She ought to have become a governess or companion, then; that is a
+decent vocation."
+
+"But a miserable vocation. One knows well how the poor things are
+treated and overworked. If a child of mine, whom I loved, had to decide
+her lot in life, and it was told me that she had a fortune in her
+throat and that a splendid future was assured her--well, I should let
+her go on the stage, depend upon that."
+
+This confession knocked the bottom out of the barrel. Frau Regine stood
+for a moment quite still in affright; then she said solemnly: "Moritz,
+I shudder at you."
+
+"I don't care. If it gives you any pleasure to shudder, keep at it; but
+if Marietta comes to Furstenstein as usual, I shall not repulse her,
+and I also have nothing against Toni's going to see her in Waldhofen."
+
+Herr von Schonan had also to speak very loud, for his daughter was
+pounding the keys so that the windows rattled, and the strings of the
+piano were seriously endangered. The Chief Forester, while in the heat
+of the controversy, noticed this as little as did his sister-in-law,
+who now replied with much sharpness:
+
+"Well, then, it is at least a good thing that Toni is to marry soon.
+Then the friendship with this theatre princess will come to an end,
+depend upon that. Such guests are not suffered at our respectable
+Burgsdorf, and Willy will not allow his wife the correspondence which
+seems now to be going on at a lively rate."
+
+"That means that _you_ will not allow it," shouted von Schonan,
+mockingly. "Willy has nothing to forbid or allow; he is only the
+obedient servant of his gracious Frau Mamma. It is unjustifiable how
+you keep that boy under your thumb when he is of age, betrothed, and
+soon to be a husband."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen, offended, straightened herself.
+
+"I believe I am more conscientious with my responsibilities than you
+are. Do you wish to reproach me for raising my son with filial
+reverence and love?"
+
+"Oh, well; there is a point where conscientiousness ceases and
+maltreating commences. You have already made Willy quite silly
+with your eternal supervision. He did not dare to even propose on his
+own account; when the matter began to get too long for you, you
+interfered as usual. 'Why these preliminaries, children? You shall
+have each other--you wish it, your parents consent, you have my
+blessing--therefore kiss each other and bring the thing to an end.'
+That is your standpoint. I, too, had filial reverence and affection,
+but if my parents had come into my wooing like that they would have
+heard something very different. But Willy accepted it calmly. I truly
+believe he was glad that he did not have to make a formal proposal."
+
+The excitement of the twain had again risen to the boiling point, and
+it was now well that the noise inside had so increased that they could
+not hear each other further.
+
+Fraulein Antonie had strength at least in her hands, and as she seemed
+to consider that the most important thing, her performance sounded as
+if a regiment of soldiers were storming an attack.
+
+It was too much for her father. He suddenly broke off the conversation
+and entered the room.
+
+"But, Toni, you do not need to break the new piano," he said with
+vexation. "What piece are you playing?"
+
+Toni sat at the piano, laboring in the sweat of her brow; not far
+removed sat her betrothed upon a sofa, his head supported by his arm
+and eyes shaded by his hand, apparently quite entranced with the music.
+
+The young lady turned at her father's question and said in her usual
+slow voice, "I was playing the March of the Janissaries, papa. I
+thought it would please Willy, since he, too, has been a soldier."
+
+"So? But he served as a dragoon," muttered Schonan, approaching his
+future son-in-law, who did not seem to appreciate the delicate
+attention, for he gave no sign of approval.
+
+"Willy, what do you say to it? Willy, do you not hear? I actually
+believe he has fallen asleep."
+
+Alas! the supposition proved correct. While the March of the
+Janissaries thundered over the keys, Willy had softly and sweetly
+fallen asleep, slumbering so soundly that he did not even now awake.
+This seemed too much for his mother, who had also approached. She
+grasped his arm sharply.
+
+"But, Willy, whatever does this mean? Are you not ashamed of yourself?"
+
+The young lord, shaken and scolded on all sides, finally aroused
+himself and sleepily gazed around. "What--what shall I---- Yes, it was
+beautiful, dear Toni."
+
+"I believe it," cried the Chief with an angry laugh. "Do not trouble
+yourself to play any more, my child. Come, we will let your groom-elect
+have his nap out in peace. He has good nerves; one must confess that."
+
+Saying which he took his daughter's arm and left the room, where the
+fullest maternal wrath now broke over poor Willibald. Frau von
+Eschenhagen, already provoked by the preceding conversation, did not
+spare her son, but justified only too well the reproaches of her
+brother-in-law. She scolded the engaged and soon-to-be-a-husband young
+man like a schoolboy.
+
+"This surpasses everything conceivable," she concluded in highest
+indignation. "Your father was not very much at courting, but if he,
+after two days' betrothal, had fallen asleep while I was entertaining
+him with my music, I should have aroused him very unceremoniously. Now,
+do you go immediately to your fiancee and beg her pardon. She is quite
+right to feel offended."
+
+With which she grasped him by the shoulder and pushed him very
+emphatically toward the door.
+
+Willy accepted it all very humbly and remorsefully, for he was indeed
+shocked at his untimely slumber; but he could not help it--he had been
+so sleepy and the music was so wearying.
+
+Quite crushed, he entered the next room, where Toni stood, rather
+offended, at the window.
+
+"Dear Toni, do not think hard of me," he began hesitatingly; "it was so
+hot and your playing had something so pacifying."
+
+Toni turned. That this march, with her playing of it, should be
+pacifying was new to her; but when she saw the crushed mien of her
+betrothed, who stood like a prisoner before her, her good nature
+conquered, and she held out her hand.
+
+"No, I am not angry with you, Willy," she said cordially. "I do not
+care either for the stupid music. We will do something more sensible
+when we are at Burgsdorf."
+
+"Yes, that we will," exclaimed Willy, joyfully pressing the offered
+hand. He had not yet aspired to even a kiss upon the hand. "You are so
+good, Toni."
+
+When Frau von Eschenhagen entered soon afterward, she found the couple
+in perfect harmony, engaged in a highly interesting conversation about
+dairy affairs, which were somewhat different in the two localities of
+Burgsdorf and Furstenstein. This was a subject over which Willy did not
+fall asleep, and his mother congratulated herself secretly upon this
+splendid daughter-in-law, who showed no inconvenient sensitiveness.
+
+The young man found opportunity almost directly to prove himself
+grateful for the indulgence of his betrothed. Toni complained that a
+package which she had ordered and which was needed for the supper table
+had not yet come. It had arrived safely at the post office, but, it
+seemed, with a wrong address, and had not been delivered to the
+messenger, who in the meantime had been dispatched elsewhere. No other
+servant was at liberty to go, and the time of need for it was drawing
+near. Willibald hastened to offer his services, which were joyfully
+accepted by his fiancee.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Waldhofen was the most important village of the vicinity, but still
+only a small place. It was about half an hour's distance from
+Furstenstein and formed a kind of centre for all the scattered villages
+and hamlets of the Wald.
+
+It looked very desolate and forlorn during the afternoon hours, when
+nobody was on the streets; so thought Herr von Eschenhagen as he walked
+across the market place, where the post office was situated.
+
+He finished the errand which had brought him to Waldhofen, and found a
+man to carry the parcel to the castle. Then, since the streets of the
+quiet little place offered no diversion, he turned into a lane which
+led to the high road behind the gardens of the houses.
+
+The path was rather boggy; yesterday's rain had made it quite without a
+foothold in places. Yet Willibald was farmer enough not to care about
+such things, but marched on unconcernedly.
+
+He was in an exceedingly happy mood. It was surely a pleasant thing to
+be betrothed, and he did not doubt in the least that he would lead a
+very happy life in the future with his good Toni.
+
+At this moment a carriage came toward him, making its way laboriously
+through the boggy soil, and apparently bringing travellers, for a large
+trunk was strapped on behind, and the inside seemed to contain various
+travelling appurtenances.
+
+Willibald could not help wondering why they used this lane, which, in
+its present condition, was very tiresome; indeed the driver seemed
+dissatisfied. He turned in his seat to consult with the traveller, who
+so far had not been visible.
+
+"It really does not go any further, Fraulein. I told you so before. We
+cannot get through here, the wheels stick in the mud. We are in a fix
+now."
+
+"But it is not far now," said a fresh voice from the inside; "only a
+few hundred paces. Just try it again."
+
+"What is not possible is not possible," returned the driver with
+philosophical composure. "We cannot get through that mire before us; we
+must turn back."
+
+"But I do not wish to drive through town." The voice had a spice of
+defiance in it now. "If it is not possible to drive on, I shall
+dismount."
+
+The driver stopped, the door was opened, and a light, slender figure
+sprang from the carriage with such sure aim as to reach a higher spot
+across the mire. There she remained and glanced around searchingly: but
+as the lane made a bend nearby, only a little of it could be
+overlooked. The young lady seemed to observe this with dissatisfaction.
+Then her glance fell upon Herr von Eschenhagen, who, approaching from
+the other direction, now reached the bend.
+
+"Please, mein Herr, is the lane passable?" she called. He did not
+answer directly, being petrified with admiration of her daring and
+graceful jump. Why, she flew through the air like a feather and yet
+stood firm and safe upon her feet where she landed.
+
+"Do you not hear?" repeated the Fraulein impatiently; "I asked if the
+lane is passable."
+
+"Yes, I have walked over it," said Willibald, somewhat confused by the
+dictatorial questioning.
+
+"I see that, but I have no boots like yours and cannot wade through the
+mire. Is it possible to pass along the hedges? Great heavens! at least
+answer me."
+
+"I--I believe so. It is somewhat dry over yonder."
+
+"Well, I shall try, then. Turn back, driver, and deliver my baggage at
+the post office. I will send for it. Wait, I will take that satchel
+with me. Hand it across."
+
+"But the satchel is too heavy for you, Fraulein," remonstrated the
+driver, "and I cannot leave the horses alone."
+
+"Well, then, this gentleman will carry it for me. It is not far to our
+garden. Please, mein Herr, take the satchel, the small one upon the
+back seat with the black leather lining. But do make haste."
+
+The little foot stamped the ground impatiently, for the young lord
+stood there with open mouth. He could not comprehend how a total
+stranger could dispose of him so nonchalantly, nor how so young a girl
+could command in such a way.
+
+At the last very ungracious words, however, he made haste to approach
+and take the designated satchel, which seemed the proper thing to be
+done.
+
+"So," she said shortly. "You, driver, stop at the post office, and now
+forward into the bogs of Waldhofen!"
+
+She picked up her gray travelling dress and walked close to the hedge,
+where the road was somewhat higher and dryer.
+
+Willibald, of whom no notice was taken, trotted behind her with the
+satchel. He had never seen anything so graceful as this slender figure,
+which did not reach to his shoulder, and he occupied himself in
+observing this figure, because he had nothing else to do.
+
+The young girl had something exceedingly charming and graceful in her
+motions, as well as her whole appearance; but the small head, with the
+dark hair curling from under her hat, was carried with undeniable
+spirit. The face was rather irregular in outline, but lovely with its
+dark, roguish eyes, while the small, rosy mouth, around which lay a
+line of refractory defiance, and the two dimples in the chin, made it
+perfectly charming. The gray travelling dress, in spite of its
+plainness, was very tasteful and met the requirements of fashion. The
+young traveller apparently did not belong to the home-made villagers of
+Waldhofen.
+
+The road around the corner proved indeed somewhat dryer, but one had to
+keep to the little, raised path near the hedge and to jump at times
+over damp places. Conversation was, therefore, not possible, and Willy,
+in truth, never thought of commencing it. He carried the satchel
+patiently, accepting just as patiently the fact that his companion did
+not concern herself in the least about him, until, after ten minutes'
+walk, they stood at the low gate of a garden.
+
+The young girl bent over the pickets and pushed an inside bolt; then
+she turned.
+
+"Many thanks, mein Herr. Please give me my satchel now."
+
+In spite of its small dimensions, the bag was rather heavy, much too
+heavy for the little hands outstretched for it. Willibald was seized
+with a sudden attack of chivalry--not a usual fault with him--and
+declared that he would carry it to the house, which was accepted with a
+gracious nod.
+
+They passed through a small, but carefully kept, garden to an old,
+plain house, and entered through the back door into a cool, dusky hall,
+where their arrival was immediately perceived. An old servant rushed
+out of the kitchen.
+
+"Fraulein! Fraulein Marietta! Have you come already to-day? Ach, what
+joy----"
+
+She got no further, for Marietta flew to her and pressed her little
+hand upon her mouth.
+
+"Be still, Babette! Speak quietly; I want to surprise him. Is he at
+home?"
+
+"Yes, the Herr Doctor is in his study. Do you wish to go there,
+Fraulein?"
+
+"No; I will steal into the sitting room and sing his favorite song.
+Careful now, Babette; so that he does not hear us."
+
+Like a fairy she slipped lightly and noiselessly to the other side of
+the house and opened a door. Babette followed her, not noticing, in the
+joy and surprise of her Fraulein's return, that some one else stood in
+the dark hall. The door was left wide open, a chair was carefully
+moved, and directly a low prelude began in trembling notes, probably
+from a venerable old piano; but it sounded like the music of a harp,
+and then a voice arose, clear and sweet and joyous as a lark.
+
+It did not last many minutes, for a door opposite was hastily opened,
+and a white-haired old man appeared.
+
+"Marietta, my Marietta! is it really you?"
+
+"Grandpapa!" was cried back, joyfully. The song broke off and Marietta
+threw herself upon her grandfather's neck.
+
+"You naughty child, how you have frightened me!" he scolded, tenderly.
+"I did not expect you until the day after to-morrow, and intended to
+meet you at the station. Now I hear your voice, and do not dare to
+believe my ears."
+
+The young girl laughed merrily as a child. She was more than happy and
+content.
+
+"Yes, the surprise has been a complete success, grandpapa. I drove into
+the lane and actually stuck in the bog. I came in the back door. What
+do you want, Babette?"
+
+"Fraulein, the man who brought the bag is still there," said the old
+servant, who had but just observed the stranger. "Shall I pay him for
+you?"
+
+The young lord still stood there with the satchel in his hand. But now
+Dr. Volkmar turned and exclaimed in great embarrassment: "Gracious
+heavens! Herr von Eschenhagen!"
+
+"Do you know the gentleman?" Marietta asked without much surprise, for
+her grandfather was accustomed to meet all of Waldhofen in his office
+of physician.
+
+"Certainly. Babette, take the valise from the gentleman. I beg your
+pardon, mein Herr. I did not know that you were already acquainted with
+my granddaughter."
+
+"No, we are not acquainted in the least," declared the girl. "Will you
+not present the gentleman to me, grandpapa?"
+
+"Certainly, my child. Herr Willibald von Eschenhagen of Burgsdorf----"
+
+"Toni's betrothed!" interrupted Marietta, gaily. "Oh, how funny that we
+should meet in the middle of a bog! If I had only known, Herr von
+Eschenhagen, I would not have treated you so badly. I let you follow me
+like a regular porter. But why did you not say something?"
+
+Willibald did not say anything now, but looked mutely at the little
+hand which was cordially extended to him. Feeling that he had to either
+say or do something, he grasped the rosy little hand in his giant fist
+and squeezed and shook it heartily.
+
+"Oh!" cried the young lady, retreating horrified; "you have an awful
+handshake, Herr von Eschenhagen. I believe you have broken my fingers."
+
+Willibald turned red with confusion and stammered an excuse.
+Fortunately, Dr. Volkmar now invited him to enter, which invitation he
+accepted silently, and Marietta narrated in a very laughable way her
+meeting with him. She treated her friend's betrothed like an old
+acquaintance, for she had long known of their engagement. She asked him
+about Toni, about the Chief Forester and all the household, her small,
+red mouth rattling on like a mill wheel.
+
+Still the young lord was almost mute. The clear voice which sounded,
+even in talking, like the twittering of birds, utterly confused him.
+
+He had only met the doctor yesterday, when the latter had called
+at Furstenstein. There had been some casual mention of a certain
+Marietta--a friend of Toni's--but he did not know anything further, for
+his fiancee was not very communicative.
+
+"And this naughty child allows you to stand in the hall without
+ceremony, while she seats herself at the piano to notify me of her
+arrival," said Volkmar, shaking his head. "That was very naughty,
+Marietta."
+
+The young girl laughed and shook her curly head.
+
+"Oh, Herr von Eschenhagen will not be offended at that, and therefore
+he may listen while I sing you your favorite song again. You scarcely
+heard a note of it before. Shall I begin now?"
+
+Without waiting for an answer, she ran to the piano, and again that
+silvery, clear voice arose, entrancing the ear with its charm. She sang
+an old, simple carol, but it sounded as soft and sweet and coaxing as
+if spring and sunshine had suddenly entered the desolate rooms of the
+old house. It spread sunshine over the face of the old, white-haired
+man, where many a line of care and anxiety was visible. He listened
+with a smile, half sad, half happy, to the song which may have reminded
+him of his youth. But he was not the only attentive listener.
+
+The young lord of Burgsdorf, who two hours previously had fallen asleep
+amidst the thunders of "The Janissaries' March"--who, in perfect accord
+with his betrothed, had considered silly music a tiresome thing--now
+listened to those soft, floating sounds as intently as if they brought
+him a revelation.
+
+He sat there, bent over, his eyes fixed immovably upon the young girl,
+who apparently put all her soul into the song, moving her head to and
+fro with an infinitely graceful motion.
+
+When the song ended he breathed deeply and passed his hand across his
+brow.
+
+"My little singing bird," said Dr. Volkmar, tenderly bending over his
+granddaughter and kissing her brow.
+
+"Well, grandpapa, my voice has not exactly deteriorated in the last few
+months, has it?" she asked, teasingly, "but it does not seem to please
+Herr von Eschenhagen. He does not say a word about it."
+
+She glanced with a childish pout over at Willibald, who now also arose
+and approached the piano. A slight flush suffused his face, and his
+usually quiet eyes flashed as he said in a low tone: "Oh, it was
+beautiful, very beautiful!"
+
+The young singer may have been accustomed to other compliments, but she
+felt the deep, honest admiration in the laconic words, and knew very
+well the impression the song had made. She smiled, therefore, as she
+replied: "Yes, the song is beautiful. I have always had a regular
+triumph when I sang it as an addition to my role."
+
+"To your role!" replied Willibald, not understanding the expression.
+
+"Yes, in the play from which I have just returned. Oh, it has been a
+splendid success, grandpapa. The manager would gladly have prolonged
+it, but I had already given the greater part of my vacation to it, and
+I wished to be with you at least a few weeks."
+
+The young lord listened with increasing astonishment.
+
+Play! vacation! manager! What could all that mean? The doctor saw his
+surprise.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen does not know your vocation, my child," he said,
+quietly. "My granddaughter has been educated for the opera."
+
+"How dryly you say that, grandpapa!" cried Marietta, springing up.
+Straightening herself to the fullest height of her dainty figure, she
+added, with mock solemnity: "For five months a member of the highly
+respected Ducal Court Theatre, a person of official honors and renown!"
+
+Member of the Court Theatre! Willibald almost shuddered at those awful
+words. The obedient son of his mother shared her disdain of
+"actresses." Involuntarily he receded a step and glared horrified at
+the young lady who had imparted such awful news to him. She laughed
+merrily at this motion.
+
+"You are not compelled to show so exceeding much respect and awe, Herr
+von Eschenhagen. I will allow you to remain near the piano. Has not
+Toni told you that I am on the stage?"
+
+"Toni--no!" Willibald burst out, having lost his composure completely.
+"But she is waiting for me. I must return to Furstenstein. I have
+tarried here already too long."
+
+"You are very polite," laughed the girl, gayly. "That is not very
+flattering to us, but since you are engaged you must naturally return
+to your fiancee."
+
+"Yes, and to my mamma," said Willibald, who had a dark feeling that
+something awful threatened him, before which his mother appeared as a
+saving angel. "I beg your pardon, but I have stayed here already too
+long----"
+
+He stopped, for he remembered that he had already said that once, and
+searched for other words, but could not find any, and, unhappily,
+repeated the phrase for the third time.
+
+Marietta almost choked with laughter, but Dr. Volkmar declared politely
+that they did not wish to detain him any longer, and begged him to take
+his regards to the Chief Forester and Fraulein von Schonan.
+
+The young lord scarcely heard. He looked for his hat, made a bow,
+stammered a few words of adieu and ran off as if his head was burning.
+He had but one thought--that he must leave as quickly as possible; that
+gay, teasing laugh made him crazy.
+
+When Volkmar, who had escorted Willibald to the door, returned, his
+granddaughter was wiping the tears from her eyes, quite overcome with
+laughter.
+
+"I believe something is wrong with Toni's betrothed here," she cried,
+putting a delicate ringer to her forehead. "At first he ran behind me,
+mutely carrying the bag like a fish wife; then he seemed to thaw at my
+singing, and now he is seized with an attack of something and runs away
+to Furstenstein to his 'mamma,' so quickly that I could not even send a
+greeting to his betrothed."
+
+The doctor smiled a little plaintively. He had observed closely and
+guessed whence came this sudden change of manner in his guest.
+
+"The young man has probably not had much intercourse with ladies," he
+said, evasively; "and he seems to stand somewhat in awe of his mother,
+but he appears to please his fiancee very well, and that is surely the
+most important thing."
+
+"Yes, he is handsome," said Marietta, somewhat thoughtfully; "even very
+handsome. But I believe, grandpapa, he is also very stupid."
+
+In the meantime Willibald had run like a storm to the next corner,
+where he came to a standstill and tried to collect his thoughts, which
+were in great confusion. It was a long time before he succeeded, but he
+looked back once more to the doctor's house before he walked on.
+
+What would his mother say to it? She who had placed the whole world of
+actresses under a ban; and she was right. Willy plainly felt that
+something bewitching belonged to the tribe; one had to beware of them.
+
+But what if this Marietta Volkmar should take a notion to visit her
+friend at Furstenstein? The young lord ought to have been horrified at
+the thought, and was convinced that he was horrified; but with all that
+the strange flash returned to his eyes. He suddenly saw in the
+reception room, at the piano where Toni had been a little while ago, a
+small, delicate figure, whose dark, curly head moved to and fro like a
+bird, and the thunder of the march changed into the soft, rippling
+notes of the old carol, while between all again sounded the gay,
+silvery laugh which also was music.
+
+And all this loveliness must be ruined and lost because it belonged to
+the stage! Frau von Eschenhagen had often expressed such an opinion,
+and Willibald was too good a son not to consider her an oracle. But he
+heaved a deep sigh, and murmured: "Oh, what a pity; what a great pity!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+About half way between Furstenstein and Rodeck, where the forest
+mountains rose to their greatest height, lay the Hochberg, a popular
+resort for sight-seeing on account of its magnificent views. The old
+stone tower upon its summit, the last remnant of an otherwise totally
+demolished castle ruin, had been made an object of interest, and at its
+foot nestled a little inn, which entertained numerous guests from the
+neighborhood. Strangers did not often come into these almost unknown
+forest mountains and valleys. Visitors of any sort were somewhat rare
+now in the fall, but to-day's beautiful weather had enticed several
+people out on the trip. Half an hour ago two gentlemen had arrived on
+horseback, attended by a groom, and now a carriage, bringing more
+sight-seers, drove up to the inn.
+
+Upon the flat roof of the tower, near the stone breastwork, stood the
+two gentlemen, the younger one zealously occupied in pointing out and
+explaining the various points of interest.
+
+"Yes, our Hochberg is renowned for its views." he said. "I was obliged
+to show them to you, Hartmut. Is not the view over this wide, green
+forest ocean incomparable?"
+
+Hartmut did not answer; he seemed to be looking through the glass for
+some distant point.
+
+"Where is Furstenstein? Ah, there. It seems to be an enormous old
+structure."
+
+"Yes, the castle is worth seeing," assented Prince Adelsberg. "But,
+outside of that, you were wise to remain at home the other day; I was
+bored to death by the visit."
+
+"So? You seemed to think a great deal of the Chief Forester."
+
+"Certainly, I like to chat with him; but he had driven out and returned
+only just before I left. His son is not at Furstenstein. He is studying
+at the school for foresters, so I had to wait upon Fraulein von
+Schonan; but that pleasure was not exactly interesting. A word every
+five minutes and a minute to every word. Very many domestic virtues,
+but very little behind the forehead. I kept the conversation going by
+the sweat of my brow, and then had the honor of meeting the betrothed
+of the Baroness--a genuine, undiluted country squire, with a very
+energetic mamma, who has him and the future daughter-in-law under
+complete control. We had an exceedingly brilliant conversation, finally
+landing on turnip culture, in which I was thoroughly instructed. The
+visit was bearable only when the Chief Forester returned with his
+brother-in-law, the Baron Wallmoden."
+
+Rojanow still held the glass directed upon Furstenstein, listening,
+apparently, indifferently. Now he repeated questioningly: "Wallmoden?"
+
+"The new Prussian Ambassador to our court, a genuine diplomat in
+appearance; aristocratic, cool and buttoned up to the chin; also having
+very agreeable manners. Her Excellency, the Frau Baroness, was not
+visible, which I bore with composure, since the husband already has
+gray hair, and consequently the lady would probably be of an age which
+one approaches only with veneration."
+
+A peculiarly bitter expression played around Hartmut's lips as he now
+lowered the glass.
+
+He had kept his encounter with Frau von Wallmoden from his friend. Why
+mention the name? He wished to be reminded of it as little as possible.
+
+"But our romantic forest solitude will soon be ended," continued Egon.
+"I heard from the Chief Forester that the court will come to
+Furstenstein this year for the hunting season, and I can then expect a
+visit from the Duke. I am not very delighted at the prospect, for my
+highly honored uncle has a habit of holding forth to me just as
+frequent and just as impressive moral sermons as Stadinger, and I must
+naturally keep the peace then. But I shall present you at this visit,
+Hartmut. You consent?"
+
+"If you consider it necessary, and the etiquette of your court
+allows----"
+
+"Bah! the etiquette is not so strictly adhered to with us. Besides, the
+Rojanows belong to the nobility of your country, do they not?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, then, you are in every case entitled to the presentation. I
+consider it by all means desirable, for I have set my mind on seeing
+your 'Arivana' at our Court Theatre; and as soon as the Duke knows you
+and your work, that will be done beyond a doubt."
+
+The words betrayed the passionate admiration the young Prince felt for
+his friend; but the latter only shrugged his shoulders slightly.
+
+"Possibly, particularly if you plead for me; but I do not like to
+succeed under protection. I am no poet of renown. Indeed, I'm not sure
+whether I am a poet; and if my work cannot smooth a way for itself----"
+
+"You would be obstinate enough to keep it from publicity; that is like
+you. Have you no ambition at all?"
+
+"Perhaps only too much, and from that arises originally what you call
+my obstinacy. I never could bow down and subordinate myself in life. I
+could not; my whole nature rose against it, and I am not at all suited
+to the ways of your court."
+
+"Who told you that?" laughed Egon. "They will flatter and spoil you
+there, just like everywhere else. It is your nature to rise everywhere
+like a meteor, and one does not expect these stars to travel in old
+routes. Besides, you have from the start the exceptional position of
+guest and foreigner, and when you are once summoned by the halo of
+poesy, then----"
+
+"Then it is with that you intend to keep me here in your country?"
+
+"Well, then, yes. I do not think that I alone possess the power to keep
+you here permanently, you wild, restless guest; but a rising poet's
+name is a fetter which one does not slip off so easily, and I have
+sworn to myself since this morning not to let you go again at any
+price."
+
+Rojanow started and looked at him inquiringly.
+
+"Why just since this morning?"
+
+"That is my secret for the present," said Egon, jestingly.
+
+"Ah, more guests are coming here, it seems."
+
+A step was heard upon the narrow, winding stone stairs, and the bearded
+face of the tower watchman appeared at the opening which led to the
+platform.
+
+"Please take care, gracious lady," he said, warningly, looking back
+with concern; "the last steps are very steep and much worn. So, now we
+are at the top."
+
+He offered a helping hand to the lady who followed him, but she did not
+need it, ascending easily with effort.
+
+"What a beautiful girl!" whispered Prince Adelsberg to his friend, who,
+instead of replying, made a deep and formal bow before the lady. She
+could not conceal a certain surprise at the sight of him. "Ah, Herr
+Rojanow, you here?"
+
+"I am admiring the view from the Hochberg, which may also have
+attracted you, Your Excellency."
+
+The face of the Prince betrayed boundless astonishment when the
+"beautiful girl" was called "Excellency," and when he saw that she was
+not a stranger to his friend. He speedily drew near for an introduction
+to this acquaintance, and Hartmut could not avoid presenting the Prince
+Adelsberg to the Baroness Wallmoden.
+
+He touched upon the forest encounter very lightly, for the lady found
+it convenient to-day to enshroud herself in her haughty reserve. It was
+hardly necessary, for Rojanow observed the strictest reticence. Both
+seemed decided to treat the acquaintance as a very slight and formal
+one.
+
+Egon had thrown a glance of the liveliest reproach upon his friend. He
+could not understand how Hartmut could have kept such a meeting to
+himself; but, after that, he cast himself with ardor into the
+conversation. He announced himself a neighbor, mentioned his recent
+call at Furstenstein, and expressed his regret at having missed Frau
+von Wallmoden at that time. A conversation was commenced, in which the
+Prince exhibited his amiability and vivacity, while retaining the
+reserve of etiquette. He knew from the beginning that he stood before
+the wife of the Ambassador, whom one could not approach with a bold
+compliment, as Hartmut had ventured.
+
+Finally his happy, unaffected good humor succeeded in diminishing the
+icy atmosphere which surrounded the beautiful woman, and he had the
+good fortune of being permitted to show and explain to her the
+surrounding country.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Hartmut did not join in the conversation with his usual vivacity, and
+when he again drew out the glass from his pocket, at the Prince's
+request, he suddenly missed his letter-case.
+
+The watchman offered at once to look for it, but Rojanow declared he
+would do it himself. He remembered exactly the place where something
+had slipped to the floor when he came up the stairs, which he had not
+noticed at the time. It was the letter-case, no doubt, and he would
+find it with little trouble and return. Saying which, he bowed and
+departed.
+
+Under other circumstances Egon would doubtless have thought it strange
+that his friend should refuse the offer of the old man and take upon
+himself the trouble of searching the dark stairway, but he was at
+present so totally occupied with his office of explanatory exhibitor
+that he did not seem to regret being left alone.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden had accepted the glass which he offered her and
+followed with apparent attention his explanations as he pointed out all
+the various heights and villages.
+
+"And over yonder, behind those hills, lies Rodeck," he concluded; "the
+little hunting lodge where we live like two hermits, cut off from all
+the world, having only the company of monkeys and parrots, which we
+brought from the Orient, and which have already become quite
+melancholy."
+
+"You do not look at all like a hermit, Your Highness," said the young
+Baroness, with a fleeting smile.
+
+"In truth, I have not much taste for it; but at times Hartmut has
+perfect attacks of the ailment, and then I bury myself in solitude for
+weeks for his pleasure."
+
+"Hartmut! That is a thoroughly German name, and it is also surprising
+that Herr Rojanow speaks German with such fluency and without even a
+foreign intonation. Yet he introduced himself to me as a foreigner."
+
+"Certainly. He comes from Roumania, but was raised by relatives in
+Germany, from whom also he may have inherited the German name," said
+the Prince, simply.
+
+It was plainly to be seen that he knew nothing further of the origin of
+his friend. "I became acquainted with him at Paris, when I was about to
+begin my trip to the East, and he decided to accompany me. It was my
+good star of fortune that brought him to me."
+
+"You seem infatuated with your friend."
+
+There was something like disapprobation in the tone.
+
+"Yes, Your Excellency, I am indeed," affirmed Egon, warmly; "and not I
+alone. Hartmut is one of those genial natures who conquers and wins
+people by storm wherever he appears. You should see and hear him when
+he is heart and soul enthusiastic. Then his soul flames like fire into
+yours. He envelops everything with his warmth; one has to follow where
+his flight leads."
+
+The enthusiastic eulogy found a very cool listener. The young lady
+seemed to bend all her attention upon the landscape, as she replied:
+"You may be correct. Herr Rojanow's eyes betray something of it, but
+such fiery natures make upon me an impression more uncanny than
+sympathetic."
+
+"Perhaps because they bear the demoniac lines which are peculiar to
+genius. Hartmut has them. He startles me sometimes, and yet the dark
+depths of his nature draw me irresistibly to him. I have actually
+forgotten how to live without him and shall try everything to retain
+him in our country."
+
+"In Germany? You will hardly succeed in that, Your Highness. Herr
+Rojanow has a poor opinion of our fatherland. He betrayed that to me
+the day before yesterday in rather an offensive way."
+
+The Prince became attentive. The words at once explained the cold
+reserve, which was not usually Hartmut's manner toward a beautiful
+woman, and which had surprised him at the first moment. But he smiled.
+
+"Ah, that was the reason why he did not speak of the encounter. Your
+Excellency has probably shown him your displeasure. It serves him
+right. Why does he prevaricate with such persistency? He has irritated
+me often enough with this assumed depreciation, which I accepted then
+in good faith; but I know better now."
+
+"You do not believe in it?" Adelaide suddenly turned from the view to
+the speaker.
+
+"No, I have the proof of it in my hands. He is infatuated with our
+German land. You look at me incredulously, Your Excellency. May I
+impart a secret to you?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I was looking for Hartmut this morning in his room, but did not find
+him, I found, instead, a poem upon his desk, which he had probably
+forgotten to lock up, for it was surely not intended for my eyes. I
+stole it, without any compunction of conscience, and carry the spoils
+still with me. Will you permit me to read it?"
+
+"I do not understand the Roumanian language," said Frau von Wallmoden,
+with cool satire. "Herr Rojanow has scarcely condescended to compose a
+poem in German."
+
+Instead of answering, Egon drew out the paper and opened it. "You are
+prejudiced against my friend; I see it. But I do not like you to regard
+him in the wrong light in which he has placed himself. May I justify
+him with his own words?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+The words sounded indifferent, and yet Adelaide's gaze was riveted with
+a strange expectancy upon the paper, which seemed to contain only a few
+hastily written stanzas. Egon read.
+
+They were German verses, indeed; but of a perfection and harmony which
+could belong only to a master of the language. The pictures they
+conjured up before the listener were strangely familiar. Deep, dreamy
+forest solitude, touched by the first breath of approaching autumn;
+endless green depths which beckoned and charmed irresistibly with their
+twilight shadows; aromatic meadows flooded with sunlight; small, still
+waters, which gleamed in the distance, and the foaming forest brook
+roaring down from the heights.
+
+And this picture had taken on life and language. That which whispered
+in it was the old, old song of the forest itself; its murmuring and
+rustling--its mysterious working gathered into words which enchanted
+the ear of the listener like melody, while through it all floated and
+moaned a deep, unspeakable longing for this forest peace.
+
+The Prince read warmly at first, then with great enthusiasm. Now he
+dropped the sheet and asked triumphantly:
+
+"Well?"
+
+The young Baroness had listened spellbound. She did not look at the
+reader, but stared motionless into the blue distance. At the question
+she started slightly and hastily turned.
+
+"What did you say, Your Highness?"
+
+"Is this the language of a depredator of our fatherland? I believe
+not," said Egon in most decided tones, but greatly as he was engrossed
+with his friend's poetry, he could still notice how exceptionally
+beautiful Frau von Wallmoden looked at this moment.
+
+Of course, it must have been the setting sun which lent the rosy
+coloring to her face and the brilliancy to her eyes, for her bearing
+was as cold as her answer.
+
+"It is really surprising that a foreigner should command the German
+language so perfectly."
+
+Egon looked at her in amazement. Was this all? He had expected a
+different impression. "And what do you think of the poem itself?" he
+asked.
+
+"Quite excellent. Herr Rojanow seems indeed to possess much poetic
+talent. But here is your glass, Your Highness. I thank you. I must be
+thinking of the descent now, as I do not wish to keep my husband
+waiting too long."
+
+Egon folded up the paper slowly and deposited it in his breast pocket.
+He felt the icy breath now surround again the beautiful woman, which
+chilled him to the heart.
+
+"I already have the honor of an acquaintance with His Excellency," he
+said. "May I renew it today?"
+
+A slight bow gave the permission to accompany her. They left the
+platform, but the Prince had grown somewhat monosyllabic. He felt
+offended for his friend, and now regretted having given this poetry,
+the beauty of which carried him away, to a lady who had no
+understanding of, nor appreciation whatever for, poetry.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Hartmut descended the stairs slowly after his leave-taking, the lost
+letter-case resting safely in its usual place. It had served its
+purpose as a pretext to free its possessor a little while.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden had casually mentioned having come with her
+husband, who remained down at the inn because he disliked the
+troublesome climbing of the steep stairs.
+
+Hartmut could not therefore evade a meeting with him, but it should at
+least take place without witnesses. If Wallmoden should recognize the
+son of his friend, whom he had known only as a boy, he might not be
+able to master his surprise.
+
+Hartmut did not fear this meeting, even if it were inconvenient and
+uncomfortable to him. There was but one face in the whole world he
+feared--only one face to which he would not dare lift his eyes--and
+that face was far away; probably he would never see it again. Every one
+else he met with the proud defiance of a man who had only done right in
+withdrawing from a hated vocation.
+
+He was decided upon not permitting any expression of reproach, but, if
+he should be recognized, to request the Ambassador in the most decided
+manner to consider certain old connections, with which he had so
+totally broken, as no longer existing. With this conclusion he emerged
+into the open air.
+
+Herbert Wallmoden sat with his sister upon the little veranda of the
+inn. The Chief Forester had been too much occupied with the approaching
+arrival of the court, the hunting expeditions of which he had to
+arrange, to accompany the party. The betrothed couple had also remained
+at home; but the day for the little trip could not have been more
+pleasant.
+
+"This Hochberg is really worth seeing," said Frau von Eschenhagen, her
+eyes roaming over the country. "We have almost the same view here as
+upon the top of the tower. Why climb and overheat oneself and lose
+one's breath on those never-ending steps?"
+
+"Adelaide was of a different opinion," replied Wallmoden, with a casual
+glance at the tower. "She does not know fatigue nor how to get
+overheated."
+
+"And also how not to catch cold. She proved that the day before
+yesterday, when she came home drenched through. She did not catch the
+least cold."
+
+"Nevertheless, I have requested her to take an escort for her future
+walks," said the Ambassador, calmly. "To get lost in the forest, wade a
+creek, and be guided to the right path by the first hunter one comes
+across are things which must not occur again. Adelaide agreed with me
+and promised immediately to obey my wishes."
+
+"Yes, she is a sensible woman, a thoroughly healthy nature from which
+anything romantic or adventurous is far removed," complimented Regine.
+"But there seem to be more visitors upon the tower. I thought we should
+be the only guests to-day."
+
+Wallmoden looked indifferently at the tall, slender gentleman who now
+emerged from the small tower door and walked toward the inn. Frau von
+Eschenhagen also looked at him carelessly; but suddenly her glance grew
+keener, and she started.
+
+"Herbert--look!"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"That stranger there. What a strange resemblance!"
+
+"To whom?" asked Herbert, growing more attentive and looking sharply at
+the stranger.
+
+"To--impossible! That is not only a resemblance. It is he himself."
+
+She sprang up, pale with excitement, and her look fastened itself upon
+the features of the man just now putting his foot upon the first step
+of the veranda. She met his eyes, those dark, glowing eyes, which had
+so often shone upon her from the face of the boy, and the last doubt
+disappeared.
+
+"Hartmut--Hartmut Falkenried--you----"
+
+She was suddenly silenced by Wallmoden's laying his hand heavily upon
+her arm and saying slowly, but with emphasis: "You are mistaken,
+Regine. We do not know this gentleman."
+
+Hartmut stopped short when he caught sight of Frau von Eschenhagen, who
+had been hidden by the foliage. He was not prepared for her presence.
+At the moment he recognized her the words of the Ambassador reached his
+ear. He knew that icy tone only too well; it forced the blood to his
+brow.
+
+"Herbert!" Regine looked doubtingly at her brother, who still held her
+by the arm.
+
+"We do not know him," he repeated in the same tone.
+
+"Is it possible that I have to tell you that, Regine?"
+
+She understood now his meaning. With a half threatening, half painful
+glance, she turned her back upon the son of her friend and said, with
+deep bitterness:
+
+"You are right. I was mistaken."
+
+Hartmut started, and in rising anger he drew a step nearer.
+
+"Herr von Wallmoden!"
+
+"Did you speak to me?" The tone was as stinging and scornful as before.
+
+"You have anticipated my wishes, Your Excellency," said Hartmut,
+forcing himself to be calm. "I wished to ask you not to recognize me.
+We are strangers to each other."
+
+He turned and walked off defiantly, tall and erect, and entered the
+house by another door.
+
+Wallmoden looked after him with darkened brow. Then he turned to his
+sister.
+
+"Could you not control yourself better, Regine? Why have a scene at
+such a meeting? This Hartmut does not exist any longer for us."
+
+Regine's face betrayed only too well how much this encounter had
+shocked her. Her lips still quivered as she replied:
+
+"I am no practiced diplomat like you, Herbert. I have not learned to be
+still when one whom I thought dead or ruined suddenly appears before
+me."
+
+"Dead? that was hardly to be expected at his age. Ruined, corrupted?
+that might be nearer it. His life up to the present moment has lain in
+that direction."
+
+"Do you know about it?" Frau von Eschenhagen started with surprise. "Do
+you know of his life?"
+
+"Partly. Falkenried was too much my friend for me not to investigate
+what became of his son. Of course, I was silent to him as well as you
+concerning it; but as soon as I had returned to my office that time, I
+used our diplomatic relations, which reach everywhere, to inquire about
+it."
+
+"Well, what did you learn?"
+
+"Principally only that which was to be expected. Zalika had turned her
+steps directly homeward with her son. You know that her stepfather--our
+cousin Wallmoden--was already dead when she returned to her mother
+after the divorce. The connections on our side were thereby broken off,
+but I learned that shortly before Zalika's reappearance in Germany she
+had come into the possession of the Rojanow estates."
+
+"Zalika? Did she not have a brother?"
+
+"Yes, he had charge of the estates for ten years, but died, unmarried,
+from an accident while hunting, and, since his mother's second
+marriage had resulted in no descendant, Zalika entered now upon the
+inheritance--at least in name--for through the reckless management of
+the Bojar, the most of it belonged to the Jews. Nevertheless, she now
+felt herself master, and planned the _coup_ of getting possession of
+her son. The old, wild life was then continued upon the estates for a
+few years, with senseless management, until everything was gone. Then
+mother and son, like a couple of gypsies, went out into the wide
+world."
+
+Wallmoden narrated this with the same cold contempt which he had shown
+to Hartmut, and the same horror and aversion were pictured in the face
+of his sister--that strictly duteous and moral lady. Nevertheless, a
+certain degree of sympathy was in her voice as she asked: "And you have
+not heard anything of them since?"
+
+"Yes, several times. A casual mention of the name led me to the track.
+While I was at the embassy at Florence, they were in Rome; a few years
+later they appeared in Paris, and there I heard of the death of Frau
+Zalika Rojanow."
+
+"So she is dead," said Frau von Eschenhagen, in a low voice. "What do
+you think they have lived on all these years?"
+
+Wallmoden shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What do all adventurers who wander homeless over the world live on?
+They may perhaps have saved something from the wreck, perhaps not. At
+any rate, they visited all the salons in Paris and Rome. A woman like
+Zalika finds help and protection everywhere. She had the title of
+nobility as daughter of a Bojar, and the forced sale of the Roumania
+property was probably not known, so it played a prominent part in their
+success. Society opens its doors only too quickly to this element if it
+knows how to keep up appearances, which seems to have been the case
+here. By what means, that, of course, is another question."
+
+"But Hartmut, whom she forcibly carried into such a life--what of him?"
+
+"An adventurer--what else?" said the Ambassador, with intense
+harshness. "He always had an inclination that way; he will have
+developed finely in such a school. I have not heard anything of him
+since the death of his mother, three years ago."
+
+"And you kept it a secret from me?" said Regine, reproachfully.
+
+"I wished to spare you. You had taken this scoundrel--this Hartmut--too
+much into your heart. I was afraid you might be carried away in a hint
+to Falkenried."
+
+"You took unnecessary pains. I have ventured but once to speak of
+the past to Falkenried. He looked at me--I shall never forget that
+look--and said, with an awful expression: 'My son is dead--you know
+that, Regine. Let the dead rest!' I shall certainly not mention that
+name to him again."
+
+"Then I do not need to caution you when you return home," replied
+Wallmoden. "But you ought not to speak of it to Willibald, either. His
+good nature might play him a trick when he learns that his once great
+friend lives in the neighborhood. It is best for him to hear nothing of
+it. I shall certainly ignore this _gentleman_ at a possible second
+meeting, and Adelaide does not know him at all. She does not even know
+that Falkenried had a son."
+
+He broke off and arose, for his young wife now appeared in the door of
+the tower.
+
+Prince Adelsberg renewed the acquaintance of yesterday and inquired
+innocently if his friend, Rojanow, had passed by here. He could not
+explain his absence.
+
+A glance from Wallmoden warned his sister, who was proof this time
+against surprise. Wallmoden himself regretted not having seen the
+gentleman, and said that he was just about to leave with his wife and
+sister, having only awaited the former's return. The order for the
+carriage was given at once, to which Egon accompanied them, taking
+leave of them with a deep bow, but following the carriage with
+attentive eyes.
+
+Hartmut stood alone at a window of the inn, also observing the
+departure. The same ashy paleness again overspread his face, which had
+gleamed there at the first mention of the name of Wallmoden; but now it
+was the whiteness of a wild anger which almost shocked him.
+
+He had expected questions and reproaches, which, of course, he had
+intended to refute haughtily; but was met instead with a complete
+ignoring, which was a deadly insult to his pride. Wallmoden's harsh
+warning to his sister, "We do not know him--have I to remind you of
+that?" had wrought up his whole being. He felt the annihilation
+contained in it. And the woman, who had always shown him a mother's
+love--even Frau von Eschenhagen--had joined her brother in turning her
+back upon him, as upon a person one is ashamed to have once known. This
+was too much.
+
+"Well, here you are!" Egon's voice came from the door. "You disappeared
+as if the earth had swallowed you. Has the unlucky letter-case been
+found?"
+
+Rojanow turned. He was obliged to recall the pretext he had used.
+
+"Yes, indeed," he answered absently, "it lay upon the stairs."
+
+"Well, the guide would have found it just as well. Why did you not come
+back? Very polite of you to leave Frau von Wallmoden and me without
+ceremony. You have not even taken leave of the lady. His Excellency's
+highest displeasure is sure to fall upon you."
+
+"I shall know how to bear the misfortune," said Hartmut, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+The Prince drew near and laid his hand jestingly upon his friend's
+shoulder.
+
+"So? It is probably because you fell into disgrace yesterday. It is not
+your usual way to run off where the entertainment of a beautiful lady
+is concerned. Oh, I know all about it. Her Excellency has given you a
+lecture over your loving tirades against Germany, and the spoiled
+favorite has been offended. Why, one could afford to be told the truth
+by such lips."
+
+"You seem to be quite transported," sneered Hartmut. "Beware lest the
+husband be not jealous in spite of his years."
+
+"It is a strange couple," said Egon musingly, as if lost in thought;
+"that old diplomat, with his gray hair and immovable face, and his
+young wife with her brilliant beauty like----"
+
+"An aurora which rises from a sea of ice. It is only a question of
+which stood furthest below zero."
+
+The young Prince laughed heartily. "Very poetical and very malicious;
+but you are not far wrong. I have also felt something of this polar
+breath touching me chillingly several times; but that is my luck.
+Otherwise I would fall hopelessly in love with the beautiful
+Excellency. But I think it is time for us to leave, _nicht wahr?_"
+
+He went to the door to call the groom. Hartmut following, threw one
+more glance out to where, through an opening in the forest, the
+Ambassador's carriage was again visible, and his hands clinched
+involuntarily.
+
+"We shall speak yet, Herr Wallmoden," he muttered. "I shall remain now.
+He shall not think that I fly from his presence. I shall allow Egon to
+present me at court, and exert my utmost to make my work a success. We
+shall see then if he dares treat me like a first-class adventurer. He
+shall pay for that tone and look!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Everything at Furstenstein was in a state of preparation for the
+arrival of the Court. Their stay was to be of longer duration than for
+a short hunting expedition; they were to remain several weeks, for
+which time the Duchess also was expected. The upper stories of the
+castle, with their numerous suites of rooms, were being aired and put
+in order. A portion of the court officials and servants had already
+arrived. Extensive and festive preparations were also being made in
+Waldhofen, through which the Court was to pass on its way to the
+castle.
+
+Wallmoden's stay, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have been
+short, was prolonged. The Duke, who was pleased to distinguish the
+Ambassador in every way, had heard of his attending a family fete at
+Furstenstein, and had expressed a wish to find him and his wife still
+there. The invitation was equivalent to a command which had to be
+obeyed.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen and her son also wished to remain to look at the
+Court in close proximity; and the Chief Forester, who wished to
+distinguish himself in the probably extensive hunts, held daily
+conferences with the Head Forester and his subordinates, and put the
+whole forestry in motion.
+
+There was much bustle already about the castle. A sound of merry
+chattering and clear laughter came from Fraulein von Schonan's room.
+Marietta Volkmar had come to her friend for an hour, and as usual there
+was no end to the talking and laughing.
+
+Toni sat near the window, and Willibald, who was acting as guard at his
+mother's command, stood beside her.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen so far had not had her way about the intercourse
+of the two girls. Her brother-in-law had remained obstinate, and even
+her future daughter-in-law, usually so compliant, rendered unexpected
+resistance when the subject was broached.
+
+"I cannot, dear Aunt," Toni had answered. "Marietta is so sweet and
+good that I cannot offend her so bitterly."
+
+Sweet and good! Frau Regine shrugged her shoulders over the
+inexperience of the young girl, whose eyes she did not wish to open,
+but she felt bound to interfere, and concluded to act diplomatically
+this time.
+
+Willibald, accustomed to confess everything to his mother, had narrated
+to a fine point the encounter with the young singer. Frau von
+Eschenhagen had naturally been beside herself to think that the master
+of Burgsdorf should have carried a satchel behind the "theatre
+princess!" On the other hand, she heard the description of his horror
+upon learning who this lady really was, and his running away, with high
+pleasure, and thought it exceedingly praiseworthy that he objected to
+the role of guard over the girl. Of course he disliked every touch with
+such a person; but since his mother found it beneath her dignity to
+attend these meetings, he _must_ protect his bride-elect.
+
+He was given the curt command to never leave the young ladies alone,
+but to report explicitly how this Marietta actually behaved herself.
+After the first report, which would undoubtedly be atrocious, Frau
+Regine would impress upon her brother-in-law's conscience the frivolous
+association he had allowed his child; would call upon her son as
+witness, and request emphatically the breaking off of the friendship.
+
+Willibald had finally consented. He had been present when Fraulein
+Volkmar made her first visit to Furstenstein. He had accompanied his
+fiancee when she returned the call at Waldhofen, and now stood at his
+post to-day.
+
+Antonie and Marietta talked about the expected arrival of the Court,
+and the former, who had but little taste in dress, asked her friend's
+advice, which was gladly given.
+
+"What must you wear? Roses, of course," said Marietta; "white or
+delicate-colored ones. They will look lovely with the dainty blue."
+
+"But I do not like roses," declared Toni. "I intended to wear
+asters----"
+
+"Then why not sunflowers? Do you wish to appear autumnal in spite of
+everything, although you are a young girl and a bride-elect? And how
+can you help liking roses? I love them passionately and use them at
+every opportunity. I wanted so much to wear a rose in my hair at the
+Mayor's party to-night, and am quite unhappy because none are to be
+found anywhere in Waldhofen. Of course it is late in the season."
+
+"The gardener has roses in the hothouse," remarked Antonie in the
+sleepy manner which was such a sharp contrast to her vivacious friend.
+
+The latter shook her head laughingly.
+
+"They are doubtless for the Duchess' use, and we poor mortals dare not
+venture to ask for one. What's the use? I must deny myself that
+pleasure---- But to return to the dress question. You are quite
+superfluous in this, Herr von Eschenhagen. You do not understand a
+thing about it and must be bored to death, but in spite of it you do
+not waver nor move; besides, what is there so remarkable about me that
+you look at me so constantly?"
+
+The words sounded very ungracious. Willy started, for the last reproach
+was well founded. He had been meditating upon how a fresh, half-open
+rose would look in the dark, curly locks, and, of course, had to
+subject the curls and the head belonging to them to a minute
+observation, which his fiancee had passed unnoticed.
+
+"Yes, Willy, go," she now said good-naturedly. "You must really feel
+bored over our dress affairs, and I have much to talk over yet with
+Marietta."
+
+"Just as you wish, dear Toni," returned the young lord; "but may I not
+come back?"
+
+"Of course, as soon as you wish."
+
+Willibald left the room, not in the least remembering that he was
+deserting his post. He was thinking of something quite different as he
+stood for a few moments in the little ante-room. In consequence of this
+meditation he finally descended the stairs and turned his steps
+straight to the house of the castle gardener.
+
+He had scarcely left when Marietta sprang up and exclaimed with comic
+vehemence: "Gracious heavens! what a tiresome couple you are!"
+
+"But, Marietta----"
+
+"Yes, whether you are offended or not, I declare it is a sacrifice to
+friendship to stand it in your presence, and I had anticipated such a
+jolly time when I heard you were engaged. You were never particularly
+lively, but your betrothed seems to have lost his speech entirely. How
+did you manage to become engaged? Did he actually speak then, or did
+his mamma attend to that?"
+
+"Stop your foolishness," replied Antonie, displeased. "Willy is only so
+silent in your presence. He can be quite entertaining when we are
+alone."
+
+"Yes, over the new threshing machine he has bought. When I came I
+listened a moment before I entered. He was singing the praise of the
+before-mentioned threshing machine, and you were listening attentively.
+Oh, you will reign as a model couple, but--may heaven protect me in
+mercy from such a marriageable blessing!"
+
+"You are very naughty. Marietta," said the young Baroness, now really
+angry, but her mischievous little friend instantly clung to her neck.
+
+"Don't be mad, Toni. I do not mean any harm, and wish you happiness
+with all my heart, but you see my husband has to be of a different
+nature."
+
+"Ah, and how, pray?" asked Toni, half pouting, half reconciled by the
+coaxing plea.
+
+"First, he has to be under my command, and not under his mother's.
+Second, he must be a genuine man in whose protection I feel safe. He
+need not talk much--I do that--but he must love me so much--so much
+that he will not talk about papa or mamma, or his estates, or the new
+threshing machine, but let them all go if only he has--me."
+
+Toni shrugged her shoulders with compassionate superiority.
+
+"You have very childish views at times, Marietta--but now let us talk
+about the dresses."
+
+"Yes, we will, before your elect returns and posts himself at our side
+like a guard. He has a remarkable talent for mounting guard. Now, you
+wear with the blue silk----"
+
+The pending question was not destined to receive a solution this time,
+either, for the door opened and Frau von Eschenhagen entered, calling
+for Antonie, whose presence was desired elsewhere.
+
+Antonie arose obediently and left the room. Frau Regine made no effort
+to follow her, but took her vacant seat at the window instead.
+
+The reigning mistress of Burgsdorf was not diplomatically inclined like
+her brother; she had to interfere everywhere with force. She had become
+impatient, for Willy had as good as reported nothing. He grew red and
+stammered every time he should have repeated what the "theatre
+princess" had said and done, and his mother, who would not believe in a
+harmless girls' chat, concluded to take the affair in her own hands.
+
+Marietta had dutifully risen at the entrance of the older lady, whom
+she had scarcely seen at the first visit, and whose hostile bearing she
+had not observed in the joy of the first meeting. She only thought that
+Toni's future mother-in-law had little friendliness about her, but
+troubled herself no further about the severe lady who was now measuring
+her from head to foot, with the stern mien of a judge.
+
+In point of fact this Marietta looked just like other young girls, but
+she was pretty--very pretty, which was that much worse. She wore her
+hair in short curls--that was improper; other bad attributes would
+doubtless make their appearance in the conversation which was now
+begun.
+
+"You are a friend of the fiancee of my son?"
+
+"Yes, gracious lady," was the unembarrassed rejoinder.
+
+"A friendship which dates from childhood, as you were raised in the
+house of Dr. Volkmar?"
+
+"Certainly; I lost my parents very early."
+
+"Quite right; my brother-in-law told me so. And to what calling did
+your father belong?"
+
+"He was a physician like my grandpapa," replied Marietta, more amused
+than surprised at this examination, the object of which she did not
+guess. "My mother was also the daughter of a physician--a whole medical
+family, is it not? Only I have taken a different course."
+
+"Alas, yes," said Frau von Eschenhagen with emphasis.
+
+The young girl looked at her with surprise. Was that a jest? The mien
+of the lady was not at all mirthful, though, as she continued: "You
+will admit, my child, that if one has the good fortune to come from an
+honorable and respected family, one ought to show oneself worthy of it.
+You ought to have chosen your vocation accordingly."
+
+"Mon Dieu! but I could not study medicine like my father and
+grandfather," exclaimed Marietta, breaking into an amused laugh. The
+affair gave her endless fun, but the remark displeased her stern judge,
+who replied with considerable sharpness:
+
+"There are, God be thanked, plenty of proper vocations for a young
+girl. You are a singer?"
+
+"Yes, gracious lady, at the Court Theatre."
+
+"I know it. Are you disposed to accept a dismissal?"
+
+The question was put so suddenly, in such a domineering tone, that
+Marietta involuntarily retreated.
+
+She was still of the opinion that the lord of Burgsdorf, with his
+obstinate silence and stormy leave-taking, was not quite sane, and now
+she was struck by the thought that it might be a family failing which
+he had inherited from his mother, for it was very apparent that
+everything was not quite right with her.
+
+"A dismissal?" she repeated. "But why?"
+
+"For the sake of morality. I am willing to offer you a helping hand.
+Turn aside from this path of frivolity and I pledge myself to find a
+place as companion for you."
+
+Now at last the young singer comprehended the object of the
+conversation. Half angrily and half scornfully she tossed back the
+little, curly head.
+
+"I must thank you for it, but I love my work and cannot think of
+exchanging it for a dependent position. I am not fit, anyway, for an
+upper maid."
+
+"I have expected this answer," said Frau von Eschenhagen with a grim
+nod of the head, "but I consider it my duty to once more appeal to your
+conscience. You are still very young and are therefore not responsible
+to a great extent for it; the heaviest reproach falls on Doctor
+Volkmar, who allowed the daughter of his son to accept such a calling."
+
+"Gracious lady, I must beg you to leave my grandfather entirely out of
+the question," cried Marietta indignantly. "You are Toni's future
+mother-in-law--otherwise I should not have stood this examination--but
+I will not suffer an insult to my grandfather from anybody on the
+earth."
+
+In their excitement the two ladies had not noticed that the door
+leading to the ante-room had opened quietly, and that Willibald had
+appeared. He was much surprised when he saw his mother, and hastily
+thrust in his pocket something that he carried carefully wrapped in
+paper, but he remained standing in the door.
+
+"I do not intend to argue with you," said Frau von Eschenhagen in lofty
+tones, "but since I am Toni's future mother-in-law, I have the right to
+warn her of a friendship which does not seem proper to me. Pray do not
+misunderstand me. I am not haughty. The granddaughter of Dr. Volkmar
+would be quite welcome to a continuance of friendship, but a lady from
+a theatre probably has all of her connections in theatrical circles,
+and here at Furstenstein---- I hope you understand me?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I understand you, gracious lady," cried Marietta, whose face
+was suddenly suffused by a deep blush. "You do not need to say anything
+more. I ask but for one more word. Is Herr von Schonan--is Antonie--of
+the same opinion as yourself?"
+
+"Chiefly so as to the matter of it, but, of course, they do not
+wish--with explanations--to----" A very graphic shrug finished the
+sentence.
+
+The otherwise just and truth-loving woman did not even feel that she
+was plainly telling an untruth. So taken up with her idea was she that
+she was firmly convinced that the Chief Forester kept up the
+intercourse only through a spirit of spite, and Antonie through her
+good nature, although it must be uncomfortable to them, and she was
+firmly decided to bring this thing to an end.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+But something unexpected happened now. Willibald, who still stood upon
+the threshold, advanced into the room and exclaimed, half entreatingly,
+half reproachfully: "But, mamma!"
+
+"Is it you, Willy? What do you want here?" demanded Frau von
+Eschenhagen, noticing him for the first time, and to whom the
+interruption was very unwelcome.
+
+Willibald saw very well that his mother was very ungraciously inclined,
+and was accustomed always to retreat when he found her in that mood,
+but today, with unusual courage, he remained. He drew nearer and
+repeated, "But, mamma, I beg of you--Toni has never thought of Fraulein
+Volkmar's----"
+
+"How dare you! do you wish to accuse me of an untruth?" the angered
+mother flamed. "What is it to you that I speak with Fraulein Volkmar?
+Your fiancee is not here--you see that--therefore leave us!"
+
+The young lord grew darkly red at this tone, to which he was
+accustomed; he seemed to feel shame at the treatment because of the
+young girl, and looked as if he would offer some resistance, but at a
+threatening, "Well, did you not hear?" the old habit conquered. He
+turned hesitatingly and actually left the room, but the door remained
+slightly ajar.
+
+Marietta looked after him with scornfully curled lips, then turned to
+her opponent.
+
+"You may rest assured, gracious lady, that I have come to Furstenstein
+for the last time. As the Chief Forester received me with his usual
+cordiality, and Antonie with the old affection, I did not comprehend
+that I now bear a stain in their eyes. I certainly would not have made
+myself troublesome otherwise. It shall not happen again--no, never!"
+
+Her voice faltered; with effort she suppressed the tears, but they
+trembled bitterly and plaintively around the little mouth, and Frau von
+Eschenhagen felt that she had gone too far in her management of the
+case.
+
+"I did not wish to offend you," she said soothingly. "I only intended
+to make clear to you----"
+
+"You did not wish to offend me and yet tell me such things,"
+interrupted the young girl in an outburst of anger. "You treat me like
+an outcast, who should not dare to approach decent circles, because I
+earn my living, and give pleasure to mankind with a gift which God has
+given me. You abuse my good, dear old grandfather, who has made such
+painful sacrifices for my education, who has let me go into the world
+with such a heavy heart. Bitter tears stood in his eyes when he drew
+me once more into his arms at parting and said: 'Remain good, my
+Marietta--one can be good in every position. I can leave you nothing.
+If I should close my eyes in death to-day or to-morrow you would have
+to struggle for yourself.' And I have remained good, and I will remain
+good, even if it is not made easy for me as it is for Toni, who is the
+daughter of a rich father, and only leaves her paternal home to go to
+the home of her husband. But I do not envy her the good fortune of
+calling you mother."
+
+"Fraulein Volkmar, you forget yourself," cried Regine, highly offended,
+rising to her fullest height; but Marietta was not intimidated, she
+only grew more excited.
+
+"Oh, no; it is not I who forget myself. You are the one--you who
+insult me without cause, and I know that the Chief Forester and Antonie
+are under your influence if they turn from me. Nevertheless, I do not
+want any kindness nor friendship which cannot stand more firmly,
+and I am done with a friend who gives me up at the request of her
+mother-in-law--done with her once for all. Tell her so, Frau von
+Eschenhagen."
+
+She turned and left the room with a stormy gesture, but in the
+ante-room the carefully preserved composure gave way; pain overcame
+anger, and the bravely suppressed tears burst forth hotly. The young
+girl leaned her head against the wall in passionate, bitter sobbing
+over the insult.
+
+Hearing her name called in a low, timid voice, she looked up and saw
+Willibald von Eschenhagen standing before her, holding out the paper
+which he had dropped so hastily into his pocket. It was folded back
+now, and disclosed a rose branch, bearing a wonderfully beautiful and
+fragrant blossom with two half-open buds.
+
+"Fraulein Volkmar," he repeated, stammering, "you wished a rose--please
+accept----"
+
+Mute apology for his mother's rudeness could be plainly seen in his
+eyes and his whole bearing. Marietta suppressed her sobs, but the tears
+still glistened in the dark eyes, which looked at him with an
+inexpressibly contemptuous expression.
+
+"No, I thank you, Herr von Eschenhagen," she replied sharply. "You have
+probably heard what has been said in there and have also probably
+received a command to shun me. Why do you not obey?"
+
+"My mother has done you wrong," Willibald said half aloud, "and she
+also spoke without the knowledge of the others. Toni does not know
+anything about it, believe me----"
+
+"So you knew that and did not offer a word of contradiction!" the girl
+interrupted, scarlet with anger. "You listened to your mother insulting
+and offending a defenseless girl and did not have chivalry enough to
+oppose it! Oh, yes, you tried it, but were scolded and sent off like a
+schoolboy and--bore it meekly!"
+
+Willibald stood there as if thunderstruck. He had, indeed, felt the
+injustice of his mother deeply, and wished to make it good to the best
+of his ability, and now he was treated like this! He stared at Marietta
+in deep perplexity, while she only grew angrier at his silence.
+
+"And now you come and bring me flowers," she continued, with increasing
+passion, "secretly--behind your mother's back, and think that I will
+accept such an apology! You would better learn first how a _man_
+deports himself when he is witness to such injustice. But now--now I
+will show you what I think of your present and of you!"
+
+She tore the paper with its contents out of his hand, threw it on the
+ground, and in the next second her little foot stamped upon the
+fragrant blossoms.
+
+"My, Fraulein----" Willibald wavered between shame and indignation, but
+a stern glance from the hitherto saucy eyes silenced him, and the poor
+roses were finished by a push from the small foot.
+
+"So--now we are at the end. If Toni really knows nothing of this affair
+I shall be sorry, but in spite of it I must remain away in the future,
+for I will not expose myself to fresh insults. May she be happy. I
+could not be in her place. I am a poor girl, but I would not accept a
+man who is still afraid of his mother's switch--no, not if he were ten
+times lord of Burgsdorf!"
+
+With which she disappeared, and left the poor lord standing alone.
+
+"Willy, what does this mean?" demanded the voice of Frau von
+Eschenhagen, who appeared in the door. As no reply came, she approached
+her son with threatening mien.
+
+"It was certainly a strange scene which I had to look upon. Will you be
+so good as to explain what it really meant? That little thing actually
+glared with anger and said the most impertinent things to your face,
+and you stood there like a sheep, without defending yourself."
+
+"Because she was right," murmured Willibald, still looking at the
+roses.
+
+"She was what?" demanded the mother, who could not believe that she had
+heard aright.
+
+The young lord raised his head and looked at her. He had a peculiar
+expression on his face.
+
+"She was right, I say, mamma. It is true, you have treated me like a
+schoolboy. I ought not to have submitted to it."
+
+"Boy, I believe you are not in your senses," said Frau Regine, but
+Willibald started in irritation:
+
+"I am no boy. I am lord of Burgsdorf and twenty-seven years old. You
+forget that always, mamma, and I have forgotten it always--but now I
+recall it."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen looked with boundless astonishment at her hitherto
+obedient son, who was now suddenly making resistance.
+
+"I actually believe you would like to be rebellious, my boy. Do not
+try; you know I will not permit it. What possesses you suddenly to be
+so arbitrary? While I try to end a highly improper intercourse and put
+aside this Marietta, you go and, behind my back, actually offer an
+apology for it--even offer her the roses which you had intended for
+your betrothed. Although I do not know how you came to do it, it is the
+first time in your life--but Toni will not thank you for it. It served
+you right that the little witch crushed them. You will leave such
+foolishness alone in the future."
+
+She scolded him in the usual tone without taking any notice of his
+rebellion, but Willibald took it wrongly this time. He who had but ten
+minutes before hidden the flowers in his pocket with fear now had a
+touch of heroism. Instead of leaving his mother in her belief and
+hushing the dangerous storm, he positively challenged it.
+
+"The roses were not destined for Toni at all, but for Fraulein
+Volkmar," he explained defiantly.
+
+"For----" the word choked the terror-stricken woman.
+
+"For Marietta Volkmar! She wanted to wear a rose in her hair to-night,
+and since there were none to be had in Waldhofen, I went to the castle
+gardener and got those flowers. Now you know it all, mamma."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen stood there like a pillar of salt. She had turned
+ashy pale, for suddenly a light had dawned upon her, but it showed her
+something so awful that she lost both speech and motion for a while.
+
+But her old fire returned. She grasped her son's arm as if she meant to
+have him in any case and said curtly:
+
+"Willy--we leave to-morrow."
+
+"Leave!" he repeated. "For where?"
+
+"Home. We depart to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock, so that we can catch
+the fast train and arrive at Burgsdorf the day after to-morrow. Go
+immediately to your room and pack."
+
+But the commanding tone made no impression whatever on Willy this time.
+
+"I shall not pack," he declared sullenly.
+
+"You shall pack. I command you."
+
+"No," defied the young lord. "If you want to leave so badly, mamma, you
+can leave--I remain here."
+
+This was unheard of, but it dispelled the last doubt and the energetic
+woman, who still held her son in her grasp, now shook him fiercely.
+
+"Boy, wake up! Come to your senses! I believe you do not know what is
+the matter with you. I will tell you then. You are in love--in love
+with this Marietta Volkmar."
+
+She threw the last words at him with annihilating emphasis, but
+Willibald was not in the least annihilated. He stood quite still from
+surprise for a moment. He had not thought of that, but now it began to
+dawn upon him.
+
+"Oh," he said with a deep sigh, and something like a smile flitted over
+his features.
+
+"'Oh!' is that your whole answer?" burst forth the enraged mother, who
+had hoped for a denial. "You do not even deny it? And I have to live to
+see that in my own son whom I have raised--who has never been allowed
+to leave my side! While I put you there as a guard during those
+previous visits to your fiancee she bewitches you--that is plain--and
+even plays the virtuous, deeply offended one before you--this----"
+
+"Mamma, stop; I cannot allow it," interrupted Willibald, irritated
+beyond silence.
+
+"You cannot allow it? What does it mean----" Frau von Eschenhagen
+suddenly paused and looked toward the door, listening. "Toni is
+returning, there--your betrothed, to whom you have pledged your word,
+who wears your ring. How will you account to her?"
+
+She had finally struck the right chord. The young lord started at this
+thought and bowed his head mutely when Antonie entered, quite
+unconcerned.
+
+"You have returned already, Willy?" she asked. "I thought--but what is
+it? Has anything happened?"
+
+"Yes," answered Frau Regine, grasping the reins, as usual, decisively.
+"We have just received a communication from Burgsdorf which forces us
+to depart to-morrow morning. You need not be frightened, my child, it
+is nothing dangerous--only a foolishness"--she laid sharp emphasis on
+the word--"a foolishness which has been committed, but which will be
+removed just as speedily by quick interference. I will tell you all
+about it later, but for the present nothing can be done but by our
+departure."
+
+Curiosity was not one of Antonie's faults, and even this quite
+unexpected news was not able to ruffle her composure. The statement
+that nothing serious was concerned satisfied her entirely.
+
+"Must Willy leave also?" she asked without particular enthusiasm.
+"Cannot he at least remain?"
+
+"Answer your fiancee yourself, Willy," said Frau von Eschenhagen,
+fixing her sharp, gray eyes upon her son. "You know best what the
+circumstances are. Can you really consent to stay here?"
+
+A short pause. Willibald's glance met his mother's; then he turned away
+and said in a suppressed voice, "No, Toni, I must go home--nothing else
+is possible."
+
+Toni accepted the decision, which would have pained another girl
+deeply, with moderate regret, and began to inquire directly where the
+travelers would dine to-morrow, since the fast train had no stoppage
+anywhere. This seemed to grieve her as much as the separation, but she
+finally concluded that it would be best for them to take a lunch along
+to eat on the train.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen felt triumphant when she went to her
+brother-in-law to notify him of their departure, for which she had
+already found a pretext.
+
+Many a thing could happen on the large estates to afford an
+explanation.
+
+Naturally, the Chief Forester must not learn the truth any more than
+his daughter, although he had caused the whole trouble in his
+blindness.
+
+Regine did not doubt in the least that as soon as she removed her Willy
+from the fascinating circle of this "witch" he would return to reason.
+Had he not shown it just now?
+
+She would not see that honor toward his betrothed alone had conquered,
+and that it had been a terrible mistake to expose his feelings to
+another.
+
+"Wait, my boy," she muttered grimly. "I will teach you to commence such
+things, and to rebel against your mother. When once I have you at
+Burgsdorf, may God have mercy on you!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+On the appointed day the Duke, with the Duchess and a numerous suite,
+arrived at Furstenstein, and the life full of splendor which had been
+led in former times began again in the wide, beautiful hunting grounds
+of the Wald.
+
+The present sovereign was no ardent huntsman, and the hunting lodge of
+his ancestors had stood deserted for years, or was occupied only at
+long intervals for a brief visit. Now, when a prolonged stay was
+anticipated, the spacious castle scarce afforded room enough for the
+guests; a part of them were quartered in neighboring Waldhofen, which
+made the little town, as well as the entire vicinity, very festive in
+joyful excitement.
+
+The owners of the neighboring castles and villas, who, like Prince
+Adelsberg, belonged to the best families of the land, were induced by
+the arrival of the Court to take up their fall quarters there, too.
+Nearly everybody had brought numerous guests, and so an unusual life
+and bustle developed in the silent Wald, the centre of which activity
+being, of course, Furstenstein.
+
+The castle shone to-night in fullest splendor; every window of the
+upper floor was lighted, and in the court torches threw their red light
+upon the walls and towers gray with age.
+
+It was the occasion of the first large fete since the arrival of the
+princely family, to which were asked all the nobility of the
+neighborhood, the higher officials of the district, and, in short,
+everybody who had any claim upon their sovereign's notice.
+
+The castle, which was built in a grand style, contained a number of
+gorgeous rooms of state, which, with their old-fashioned but costly
+furnishings, and the brilliant company moving through them, afforded a
+decidedly splendid spectacle.
+
+The young wife of the Prussian Ambassador was a new star among the
+ladies present. Mourning for her father, who had died shortly after her
+marriage, had kept her from all festivities, and she entered to-day for
+the first time this brilliant circle, where the position of her husband
+assured her a prominent place, and where she was being treated by the
+Duke and Duchess with noticeable distinction.
+
+The rising of this new star was noticed by the ladies, of course, with
+some displeasure. They found Frau von Wallmoden very haughty in her
+cool composure, and that she had very little occasion for such bearing;
+for, of course, they all knew that she was a born burgher, who did not
+properly belong in this circle, even if her father's wealth and his
+prominent position with the industries of the country gave her a
+certain distinction. Nevertheless, she moved upon the foreign soil with
+a strange ease--the husband must have schooled her well for this first
+appearance.
+
+The gentlemen were of a different opinion. They found that His
+Excellency the Ambassador had proved his talent most strikingly in his
+own cause. He who already stood upon the border of old age had
+understood how to gain, with the hand of this young, beautiful wife, a
+fortune extensive enough in itself, but magnified by rumor into the
+immeasurable. For this he was envied on all sides.
+
+Wallmoden did not seem at all surprised at the impression which the
+beauty and stateliness of his wife too apparently caused, but accepted
+it as something natural. He had expected nothing else; the contrary
+would have surprised him in the highest degree.
+
+At present he was standing in a window recess with his brother-in-law,
+the Chief Forester, and after exchanging a few indifferent remarks
+about the fete and the guests, he asked casually: "What sort of person
+is that whom Prince Adelsberg has introduced? Do you know him?"
+
+"You mean the young Roumanian?" said Schonan. "No; I see him to-day for
+the first time, but have heard of him before. He is the bosom friend of
+the Prince, whom he accompanied upon his Eastern travels, and a young
+man handsome as a picture--his eyes positively sparkle with fire."
+
+"He impresses me as an adventurer," remarked Wallmoden coldly. "How
+does he happen to have an invitation? Has he been presented to the
+Duke?"
+
+"Yes, at Rodeck, if I am not mistaken; the Duke was there recently.
+Prince Adelsberg loves to throw etiquette aside as much as possible.
+But this invitation to-day signifies no acceptance, since everybody has
+been asked."
+
+The Ambassador shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Nevertheless, one should hesitate about bringing such elements near
+one before they come well recommended."
+
+"Everything must be certified to with letter and seal with you
+diplomats," laughed the Chief. "This Rojanow has certainly something
+aristocratic about him, and one is never so strict, anyway, with a
+foreigner. I can well understand that our sovereigns like to hear and
+see something different from the usual court circle, which presents the
+same old tiresome face from year to year. The Duke appears to be quite
+captivated already with the Roumanian."
+
+"Yes, it seems so," muttered Wallmoden, upon whose brow a cloud
+gathered.
+
+"But why should this concern us?" remarked Schonan. "I will go now and
+look for Toni, who has to appear now everywhere without her betrothed.
+That was another notion of Regine's. She departed from us with her son
+like a skyrocket. Your sister cannot be detained as soon as the beloved
+Burgsdorf is brought into question. If she had only left Willy with us!
+Everybody wonders that my future son-in-law should take his departure
+before the fete. I cannot understand it at all."
+
+"A stroke of good fortune that they are gone," thought Wallmoden, as
+his brother-in-law left him. "If Willibald had met his former friend
+and playmate here unexpectedly another scene similar to that upon the
+Hochberg might have occurred. But who would have thought that Hartmut
+would carry his defiance so far as to appear in a circle where he was
+sure to meet the Ambassador?"
+
+Prince Adelsberg, who held in this circle one of the highest positions
+through his name and relationship to the reigning house, had, indeed,
+succeeded with the presentation of his friend, and the Duke seemed to
+have had a very favorable opinion of him from the first meeting at
+Rodeck, for he now himself presented this young stranger to the
+Duchess.
+
+This Rojanow, with the captivating charm of his personality and the
+foreign air which surrounded him, was, indeed, an extraordinary person,
+who had only to appear to cause general observation.
+
+To-day he displayed lavishly all the brilliant attributes which were at
+his command. His conversation sparkled with life and spirit, his fiery
+temperament, which betrayed itself involuntarily, gave to everything he
+said and did a peculiar charm, while he proved himself in every respect
+master of society forms and customs. In short, the prophecy of the
+Prince was fulfilled.
+
+Hartmut knew how to conquer everybody here by storm, and had hardly put
+his foot upon the soil when he reigned there by the power of his
+magnetism.
+
+This could not pass unnoticed by the Ambassador, even if he did not
+come into direct contact with the Roumanian. It was not difficult to
+evade each other in the throng of guests, and a meeting was not desired
+on either side.
+
+Wallmoden walked through a side room, where the Duke's sister, the
+Princess Sophie, had gathered a large circle around her.
+
+The Princess, who had married the younger son of a princely house, had
+very early become a widow, and had lived since then at the court of her
+brother, where she was not in the least popular. While the Duchess
+charmed everybody who came into her presence by her grace and kindness,
+the older sister was considered haughty and _intriguante_. Everybody
+stood in fear of the lady's sharp tongue, which had a habit of saying
+something disagreeable to each and every one.
+
+Herr von Wallmoden did not escape this fate. He was graciously beckoned
+to and received flatteries on the beauty of his wife, which was not to
+be denied.
+
+"I offer you my congratulations, Your Excellency. I was quite surprised
+when your young wife was presented to me, for I had naturally expected
+to see an elderly lady."
+
+The "naturally" sounded very malicious, for Princess Sophie had known
+for months that the wife of the Prussian Ambassador was only nineteen
+years old, but he smiled in the most amiable way as he replied: "Your
+Highness is very gracious. I can only be grateful that my wife has had
+the good fortune to make a favorable impression upon you."
+
+"Oh, you cannot doubt it. The Duke and Duchess are quite of my opinion.
+Frau von Wallmoden is really a beauty--Prince Adelsberg seems to think
+so, too. Perhaps you have not observed as yet how very much he admires
+your wife?"
+
+"Yes, Your Highness, I have observed it."
+
+"Really? And what do you say to it?"
+
+"I?" inquired Wallmoden with perfect tranquillity. "It rests solely
+with my wife as to whether she will permit the admiration of the
+Prince. If she finds pleasure in it---- I do not give her any rules in
+this respect."
+
+"An enviable confidence which our young gentlemen ought to pattern
+after," said the Princess, vexed that the arrow had missed its aim. "It
+is surely very agreeable to a young wife if the husband is not jealous.
+Ah, there is Frau von Wallmoden herself, with her cavalier, of course,
+at her side. My dear Baroness, we were just speaking of you."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden, who had just entered in company with Prince
+Adelsberg, bowed her recognition of the Princess' notice.
+
+She made, indeed, a brilliant picture to-night, for the splendid court
+toilet enhanced her beauty triumphantly. The costly brocade of the
+white dress, which fell to her feet in heavy folds, suited the slender
+figure admirably. The pearls encircling her throat and the diamonds
+which sparkled in her blond hair were perhaps the most costly of any
+worn to-night; but more sharply than ever appeared the cold and serious
+expression of the young wife. She did not in the least resemble others
+of her age who were also married, but who claimed the right of youth to
+dress in dainty laces and flowers. She possessed nothing of their
+brightness--the urbane amiability which was so fully brought to view in
+them. The severe, serious expression which was an inheritance from her
+father, and so indelibly stamped in her nature, betrayed itself in her
+character.
+
+Egon kissed his exalted aunt's hand, and had been honored with a few
+gracious words, but from the first, the amiable attention of Her
+Highness was quite taken up by the young Baroness, who was immediately
+drawn into conversation.
+
+"I was just expressing my pleasure to His Excellency that you find
+yourself so quickly at home in our court circle, dear Baroness. You
+enter these circles to-day for the first time, if I understand aright,
+and have lived hitherto in entirely different surroundings. You were
+born a----"
+
+"Stahlberg, Your Highness," was the calm rejoinder.
+
+"Quite right. I remember the name, which has been spoken several times
+in my presence. It is honorably known in your native town, I presume."
+
+"Most gracious aunt, you must permit me to inform you better," joined
+in Prince Adelsberg, who seldom permitted an opportunity of vexing his
+most gracious aunt to pass by. "The factories of Stahlberg are
+world-renowned. They are as well known across the ocean as they are
+here. I had an opportunity to learn all about them when I was in
+Northern Germany several years ago, and I can assure you that those
+works those iron foundries and factories, with their colonies of
+officers and their army of workmen, can well vie with many a small
+principality, whose sovereign, though, is not such an absolute ruler as
+was the father of Her Excellency."
+
+The Princess cast anything but a friendly glance at her nephew; his
+interference was not desired.
+
+"Indeed! I had no idea of such magnificence," she said in her most
+caustic tone. "We may, perhaps, then greet His Excellency as such a
+ruler?"
+
+"Only as administrator, Your Highness," rejoined the Ambassador. "I am
+only the executor of my father-in-law's will, and guardian of my young
+brother-in-law, to whom the works will go when he attains his
+majority."
+
+"Ah, so? The son will probably know how to keep the inheritance. It is
+really astonishing what the energy of a single man can do in these
+days, and it is so much more praiseworthy if he, like the father of our
+dear Baroness, has come from humble circles. At least I believe I have
+heard so, or am I mistaken?"
+
+Princess Sophie knew very well that these remarks about the origin of
+his father-in-law were unpleasant to the Ambassador, a man of old
+Prussian nobility, and it caused her great satisfaction that the
+surrounding circle did not lose a word of the conversation, which was
+intended principally to humble the lady of burgher descent.
+
+But she was mistaken if she counted upon the Baroness falling into
+embarrassment or evasion. Instead of that she drew herself up in all
+her pride.
+
+"Your Highness is quite correctly informed. My father came to the
+Capital a poor boy without means. He had to struggle hard, and worked
+for years as a humble laborer, before he laid the foundation to his
+later enterprises."
+
+"How proudly Frau von Wallmoden says that!" cried the Princess,
+smiling. "Oh, I love this filial attachment above everything. So Herr
+Stahlberg--or perhaps _von_ Stahlberg?--the large manufacturers often
+bear a title----"
+
+"My father did not bear it, Your Highness," replied Adelaide, meeting
+the glance of the royal lady calmly and openly. "A title had indeed
+been offered him, but he refused it."
+
+The Ambassador pressed his thin lips together. He could but find the
+remark of his wife very undiplomatic. The features of the Princess
+assumed an angry expression, and she returned with biting sarcasm:
+"Well, then, it is a good thing that this aversion has not descended to
+the daughter. His Excellency will know how to value it. I beg your
+escort, Egon. I should like to look for my brother."
+
+She bowed to the circle and glided away on the arm of the Prince, whose
+bearing plainly said:
+
+"Now comes my turn."
+
+He was not mistaken. Her Highness had no thought of finding the Duke,
+but took a seat in the adjoining room with her young relative, whom she
+wished to have to herself.
+
+At first her anger burst forth at the unbearably haughty Frau von
+Wallmoden, who boasted of her father's burgher pride, while she had
+married a Baron from vanity, for she could not possibly feel any
+affection for a man old enough to be her father. Egon was silent as to
+that, for he had already put the same question to himself, How had this
+unequal match come to take place? without finding an answer to it; but
+his silence was now an offence.
+
+"Well, Egon, have you nothing to say? But you seem to have sworn
+allegiance to this lady; you have been constantly at her side."
+
+"I do homage to beauty wherever I meet it; you know that, most gracious
+aunt," expostulated the Prince. But alas! he only called forth another
+storm.
+
+"Yes, alas! I know that. In this respect you are of incomprehensible
+heedlessness. Perhaps you do not remember all my admonishings and
+warnings before your departure?"
+
+"Ah, only too well," sighed Egon, who even now felt quite stifled with
+the remembrance of the endless lecture which he had had to endure at
+that time.
+
+"Really? But you have not returned any more sensible or sedate. I have
+heard things---- Egon, there is only one salvation for you--you must
+marry."
+
+"For heaven's sake, anything but that!" Egon started up so terrified
+that Princess Sophie opened her fan indignantly.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" she asked in cutting tones.
+
+"Oh, only my un worthiness to enter into that state. Your Highness
+yourself have often assured me that I was particularly fitted to make a
+wife _unhappy_."
+
+"If the wife does not succeed in bettering you, of course. I do not
+despair yet of that. But this is not the place to speak of such things.
+The Duchess is planning a visit to Rodeck, and I intend to accompany
+her."
+
+"What a charming idea!" exclaimed Egon, who was almost as much
+terrified by the proposed visit as by the thought of marriage. "I am
+really proud that Rodeck, which is usually such a small, tiresome
+forest nook, can just now furnish you with some curiosities. I brought
+many things from my travels, among them a lion, two young tigers,
+several snakes----"
+
+"But not live ones?" interrupted the horrified lady.
+
+"Of course, Your Highness."
+
+"But, mon Dieu! one is not sure of one's life there."
+
+"Oh, it is not so dangerous, although some of the beasts have broken
+away from us already--the people are so careless at feeding time; but
+they have always been secured again, and have not done any harm as
+yet."
+
+"As yet? That is a charming prospect, indeed," said the Princess
+angrily. "You put the whole neighborhood in danger. The Duke ought to
+prohibit you such dangerous playthings."
+
+"I hope not, for I am just now seriously occupied in attempting to tame
+some of them. But besides these I can show you many domestic things
+that are worth looking at. There are several girls among my servants
+from this vicinity who look charming in their peasant costumes."
+
+Egon shuddered at the thought of his female servants "with wagging
+heads," whom he still employed under Stadinger's careful eye, but he
+had speculated correctly. His gracious aunt was indignant and measured
+him with an annihilating glance.
+
+"So? You have such as that at Rodeck!"
+
+"Certainly. There is Lena in particular, the granddaughter of my
+steward, a charming little thing, and when you give me the honor of
+your visit, most gracious aunt----"
+
+"I shall leave it alone," interrupted the incensed lady, using her fan
+violently. "It must be a peculiar household which you carry on at
+Rodeck with the young foreigner whom you have, perhaps, also brought as
+a curiosity from your travels. He has the face of a perfect brigand."
+
+"My friend Rojanow! He has been pining a long time to be presented to
+Your Highness. You permit it, I hope?"
+
+Without waiting for an answer he hastened away and took possession of
+Hartmut.
+
+"Now it is your turn," he whispered, dragging him along
+unceremoniously. "I have been the victim long enough, and my most
+precious aunt has to have some one whom she can roast slowly. She
+insists upon marrying me off-hand, and you have the face of a perfect
+brigand, but, thank God! she does not come to Rodeck. I have taken care
+of that!"
+
+In the next moment he stood before Her Highness, introducing his friend
+with his blandest smile.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Herr von Wallmoden had lingered in the circle a few moments after the
+departure of the Princess; then, with his wife on his arm, he walked
+slowly through the suite of rooms, greeting an acquaintance here,
+conversing briefly there, until they finally reached the last of the
+reception rooms, which was rather deserted.
+
+The tower room, opening directly from this, was not generally used in
+entertainments, but for tonight it had been transformed into a small,
+cosy apartment with curtains and carpets and a picturesque group of
+plants, and, with its dim lights, offered a pleasing contrast to the
+blinding flood of light and the commotion of the other rooms.
+
+It was quite vacant now, which the Ambassador seemed to have counted
+upon when he entered with his wife and offered her a seat upon a divan.
+
+"I must draw your attention to the fact, Adelaide, that you did an
+unwise thing just now," he began in a low tone. "Your remark to the
+Princess----"
+
+"Was self-defense," finished the young wife. "You must have felt, as
+well as I did, what the object of the conversation was."
+
+"Nevertheless, at your first appearance you have made for yourself an
+antagonist whose enmity can materially render your own and my position
+more difficult."
+
+"Yours?" Adelaide looked at him in surprise. "Are you, the Ambassador
+of a great power, to ask the grace of a malicious woman who happens to
+be related to a ducal family?"
+
+"My child, you do not understand," returned Wallmoden coldly. "An
+intriguing woman can be more dangerous than a political opponent, and
+Princess Sophie is well known in that line. Even the Duchess is known
+to be in fear of her malicious tongue."
+
+"That is the Duchess' affair. I am not in fear of it."
+
+"My dear Adelaide," said the Ambassador, with a superior smile, "that
+proud turn of your head is very becoming to you, and I approve entirely
+of your making yourself unapproachable with it in other circles, but
+you will have to leave it off at Court, as well as several other
+things. One does not give royalty a lesson before so many observers,
+and you did that when you spoke of the refusal of the title. In any
+case, it was not necessary for you to lay so much stress upon the
+descent of your father."
+
+"Should I perhaps have denied it?"
+
+"No, for it is a well-known fact."
+
+"Of which I am as proud as was my father."
+
+"But you are not Adelaide Stahlberg any longer, but the Baroness
+Wallmoden." The voice of the Ambassador had acquired a certain
+sharpness. "And you will admit that it is very contradictory to boast
+of your burgher pride when you have given your hand to a man of the old
+nobility."
+
+A slight bitterness quivered around the lips of the young wife, and
+although the conversation had been carried on in low tones, her voice
+sank even lower as she returned: "Perhaps you have forgotten, Herbert,
+why I gave you my hand."
+
+"Have you had cause to regret it?" he asked instead of replying.
+
+"No," said Adelaide, drawing a deep breath.
+
+"I should think you could be satisfied with the position you have at my
+side. Besides, you remember that I did not compel you. I left you
+perfectly free choice."
+
+The wife was silent, but the bitter expression did not leave her lips.
+
+Wallmoden arose and offered his arm.
+
+"You must permit me, my child, to come to your assistance sometimes in
+your inexperience," he said in his usual polite tone. "So far I have
+had every reason to be satisfied with your tact and manner. To-day is
+the first time I have had to give you a hint. May I ask if you are
+ready to return?"
+
+"I should like to remain here a few moments longer," said Adelaide in a
+smothered voice. "It is so insufferably hot in the salons."
+
+"Just as you desire, but I beg that you will not remain too long, as
+your absence would cause remark."
+
+He saw and felt that she was offended, but found it expedient not to
+notice it. Baron Wallmoden, in spite of all his politeness and
+attention, understood that in the training of his wife such kinds of
+sentiment must not be encouraged. He left the room, and Adelaide
+remained alone. She leaned her head upon her hand, and with unseeing
+eyes stared at the group of plants near her, whispering almost
+inaudibly: "Free choice--O, my God!"
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+In the meantime Prince Adelsberg and his friend were being most
+graciously dismissed. They bowed low before the Princess, who arose and
+left the salon with an unusually mild expression on her sharp features.
+
+"Hartmut, I believe you can magnetize," said Egon under his breath. "I
+have seen many examples of your irresistibility, but that my most
+gracious aunt has a regular attack of affability in your presence is
+something never heard of before. It puts all your other victories into
+the shade."
+
+"Well, the reception was cool enough," laughed Hartmut. "Her Highness
+really seemed to take me for a brigand at first."
+
+"But in ten minutes you stood in the full sunshine of her grace, and
+have been dismissed a prime favorite. Do tell me what you have in you
+that everybody, without exception, bows to your charm. One might well
+believe in the old fairy tale of the rat-catcher."
+
+Again the harsh, repulsive sarcasm which took for a moment every beauty
+from his face, passed over Hartmut's lips, giving him a satanic
+expression.
+
+"I understand how to play the thing they like best to hear. It has a
+different sound to every one, but if one knows how to strike the right
+chord, none can resist it."
+
+"None?" repeated Egon, while his glance passed searchingly through the
+room.
+
+"Not one, I tell you."
+
+"Yes, you are a pessimist in this respect. I at least recognize some
+exceptions. If I only knew where Frau von Wallmoden was. I cannot see
+her anywhere."
+
+"His Excellency is probably reading her a lecture upon the undiplomatic
+remark of a short time since."
+
+"Did you also hear it?" asked Egon quickly.
+
+"Yes; I stood in the door."
+
+"Well, I do not in the least begrudge our most gracious one the lesson.
+Naturally she was beside herself about it, but do you really believe
+that the Ambassador---- Hush! there he is himself."
+
+It was, indeed, the Ambassador before them, just returning from the
+tower room. An encounter now could not be avoided, and the young
+Prince, who had no idea of the existing connection, hastened to
+introduce his friend.
+
+"Allow me, Your Excellency, to make good a neglect which was forced
+upon me that day upon the Hochberg by the disappearance of my friend. I
+only found him after your departure. Herr Hartmut Rojanow, Baron von
+Wallmoden."
+
+The eyes of the two men met. The sharp, penetrating eyes of the one met
+the expression of challenging defiance in the other, but Wallmoden
+would not have been the finished diplomat he was if he were not equal
+to the present moment.
+
+His greeting was cool but polite, only he turned to the Prince alone
+with his answer, regretting not being able to chat with the gentlemen,
+since he was called to the Duke.
+
+The whole meeting had lasted but two minutes, but it had taken place.
+
+"His Excellency is more taciturn to-day than usual," remarked Egon,
+walking on. "Whenever I see this cold, diplomatic face before me I have
+a chill, and feel a pressing desire to seek warmer zones."
+
+"Therefore we follow so persistently the track of the beautiful, cold
+aurora," said Hartmut, teasingly. "Whom do we really seek in this walk
+through the rooms which you continue so untiringly?"
+
+"The Chief Forester," said the Prince, vexed at seeing himself
+betrayed. "I wish to make you acquainted with him, but you are in one
+of your railing moods to-day. Perhaps I may find Schonan over yonder in
+the armory. I shall look there."
+
+He took a speedy departure, and actually turned his steps to the
+armory, where the ducal couple was at present, and where he also
+believed Adelaide von Wallmoden to be. But, unfortunately, at the
+entrance he again crossed the path of his most gracious aunt, who took
+possession of him. She wished for more particulars of the interesting
+young Roumanian who stood, indeed, in the sunlight of her favor, and
+her impatient nephew had to answer all her questions willingly or
+otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The fete progressed; the assembly glided to and fro as Hartmut walked
+slowly and apparently purposelessly through the long suite of reception
+rooms. He, too, looked for some one, and was more successful than Egon.
+A hasty glance into the tower room, the entrance of which was partly
+concealed by heavy portieres, showed him the hem of a white train which
+floated over the floor, and the next moment he had crossed the
+threshold.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden was still sitting in the same position, and
+slowly turned her head toward the intruder. Suddenly she started, but
+only for an instant, then with her habitual composure she returned the
+deep bow of the young man who remained standing at the door.
+
+"I hope I have not disturbed Your Excellency," he said. "I fear you
+came here for solitude into which I have broken suddenly, but it
+happens quite unintentionally."
+
+"I only took refuge here from the smothering heat of the salons."
+
+"The same cause brought me here, and since I did not have the honor
+to-day to greet you, permit me to do so now."
+
+The words sounded very formal. Rojanow had drawn nearer, but remained
+standing at a respectable distance. Nevertheless, the start at his
+entrance had not been passed by unobserved by him. A peculiar smile
+hovered around his lips as he directed his eyes upon the young
+Baroness.
+
+She had made a gesture as if to rise and leave the room, but seemed to
+remember in time that so sudden a move would look like flight. She
+remained seated and leaned over the plants. Absently she picked one of
+the large crimson japonicas as she replied to the question about her
+health, but that line of severe will-power appeared again, sharply and
+distinctly, just as in that moment when she stood in the middle of the
+brook. That day she had stepped without hesitation into ankle-deep
+water rather than accept the help which was offered her; but that had
+occurred in the forest loneliness. No such obstacle had to be overcome
+here in the ducal castle, filled with the pomp of a fete; but the man
+with the dark, consuming glance was here, and he did not remove his
+eyes from her face.
+
+"Shall you remain at Rodeck any length of time?" asked Adelaide in the
+indifferent tone with which remarks are exchanged in society.
+
+"Probably a few weeks longer. Prince Adelsberg will hardly leave his
+castle as long as the Duke is at Furstenstein. I intend to accompany
+him to the Residenz later on."
+
+"And we shall then learn to know you as a poet?"
+
+"Me, Your Excellency?"
+
+"I learned so from the Prince."
+
+"Oh, that is only Egon's idea," said Hartmut, lightly. "He has settled
+it in his mind that he must see my Arivana upon the stage."
+
+"Arivana! A strange title."
+
+"It is an Oriental name for an Indian legend, whose poetical charm had
+prepossessed me so strangely that I could not resist the temptation to
+form it into a drama."
+
+"And the heroine of the drama is Arivana?"
+
+"No; that is only the name of an ancient, sacred spot, around which
+this legend clings. The name of the heroine is--Ada."
+
+Rojanow uttered the name softly, hesitatingly; but his eyes flamed up
+triumphantly, as he saw again the same slight quiver he had seen at his
+entrance. Slowly he approached a few steps, continuing: "I heard the
+name for the first time upon India's soil, and it had a sweet foreign
+sound for me, which I retained for my heroine, and now I learn here
+that the abbreviation of a German name is just like it."
+
+"Of the name Adelaide--yes. I was always called so at home; but it is
+nothing peculiar that the same sounds return in different languages."
+
+The words sounded repellent, but the young wife did not lift her eyes;
+she gazed fixedly upon the flower with which her fingers toyed.
+
+"Certainly not," assented Hartmut; "I only noticed it. It was no
+surprise, since all legends are repeated in all nations. They have a
+greater or less difference in appearance, but that which lives in
+them--the passion, the happiness and joy of the people--that is the
+same everywhere."
+
+Adelaide shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I cannot argue about that with a poet, but I do believe that our
+German legends possess other features than the Indian dreams of myths."
+
+"Perhaps so, but if you look deeper you will find these features
+familiar. This Arivana myth, at least, has similar lines. The hero, a
+young priest who has consecrated body and soul to his deity--the
+sacred, burning fire--is overwhelmed by earthly love, with all its
+fervor and passion, until his priestly vow perishes in its intensity."
+
+He stood quietly and respectfully before her, but his voice had a
+strangely suppressed sound, as if, hidden behind this narrative, there
+was another and secret meaning.
+
+Suddenly the Baroness raised her eyes and directed them fully and
+seriously upon the face of the speaker. "And--the end?"
+
+"The end is death, as in most mystic legends. The breaking of the vow
+is discovered, and the guilty ones are sacrificed to the offended
+deity; the priest dies in the flames with the woman he loves."
+
+A short pause followed. Adelaide arose with a rapid movement. She
+apparently wished to break off the conversation.
+
+"You are right; this legend has something familiar, if it were only the
+old doctrine of guilt and atonement."
+
+"Do you call that guilt, gracious lady?" Hartmut suddenly dropped the
+formal title. "Well, yes, by man it is called guilt, and they too
+punish it with death, without thinking that such punishment can be
+ecstasy. To perish in the flames after having tasted of the highest
+earthly happiness, and to embrace this happiness even in death--that is
+a glorious, divine death, worthy a long life of dull monotony. The
+eternal, undying right of love glows there like signs of flame in the
+sky, in spite of all laws of mankind. Do you not think such an end
+enviable?"
+
+A slight paleness covered the face of the Baroness, but her voice was
+firm as she answered:
+
+"No; enviable only is death for an exalted, holy duty--the sacrifice of
+a pure life. One can forgive sin, but one does not admire it."
+
+Hartmut bit his lips, and a threatening glance rested on the white
+figure which stood so solemn and unapproachable before him. Then he
+smiled.
+
+"A hard judgment, which strikes my work also, for I have put my whole
+power into the glorification of this love and death. If the world judge
+like you---- Ah, permit me, gracious lady."
+
+He quickly approached the divan where she had been sitting, where, with
+her fan, the japonica also had been left.
+
+"Thank you," said Adelaide, stretching out her hand; but he gave her
+only the fan.
+
+"Your pardon. While I was composing my Arivana on the veranda of a
+small house in India, this flower bloomed and glowed from its dark
+green foliage everywhere, and now it greets me here in the cold North.
+May I keep this flower?"
+
+Adelaide made a half reluctant gesture.
+
+"No, why should you?"
+
+"Why should I? For a remembrance of the severe opinion from the lips of
+a lady who bears the lovely name of my mystic heroine. You see,
+gracious lady, that the white japonica blooms here also, delicate,
+snowy flower; but unconsciously you broke the glowing red one, and
+poets are superstitious. Leave me the flower as a token that my work,
+in spite of all, may find favor in your eyes after you learn to know
+it. You have no idea how much it means to me."
+
+"Herr Rojanow--I----" She was about to utter a refusal, but he
+interrupted her, and continued in low, but passionate, tones:
+
+"What is a single flower to you, broken carelessly, and which you will
+allow to fade as carelessly? But to me leave me this token, gracious
+lady; I--I beg for it."
+
+He stood close beside her. The charm which he, as a boy, had
+unconsciously exerted when he made people "defenseless" with his
+coaxing, he, as a man, recognized as a power which never failed, and
+which he knew how to use. His voice bore again that soft, suppressed
+tone which charmed the ear like music; and his eyes--those dark,
+mysterious eyes--were fixed upon the girl before him with a half
+gloomy, half beseeching expression.
+
+The paleness of her face had deepened, but she did not answer.
+
+"I beg of you," he repeated, more lowly, more beseechingly, as he
+pressed the glowing flower to his lips; but the very gesture broke the
+spell. Adelaide suddenly drew herself up.
+
+"I must ask you, Herr Rojanow, to return the flower to me. I intended
+it for my husband."
+
+"Ah, so? I beg your pardon, Your Excellency."
+
+He handed her the flower with a deep bow, which she accepted with a
+barely noticeable inclination of the head. Then the heavy white train
+glided past him, and he was alone.
+
+In vain! Everything glided off this icy nature.
+
+Hartmut stamped his foot angrily. Only ten minutes ago he had passed
+such harsh judgment on all women, without an exception, to the Prince.
+Now he had sung again that charming tune which he had tried so often
+successfully, and had found one who resisted it. But the proud, spoiled
+man would not believe that he could lose the game which he had won so
+often, when just here he was so anxious to win it.
+
+And would it really remain only a game? He had not as yet accounted to
+himself for it, but he felt that the passion which drew him to the
+beautiful woman was mingled at times with hatred.
+
+They were conflicting emotions which had been deeply stirred when he
+walked by her side through the forest--half admiring, half repellent.
+But it was just that which made the chase so interesting to the
+practised huntsman.
+
+Love! The high, pure meaning of the word had remained foreign to the
+son of Zalika. When he learned to feel, he was living at his mother's
+side, she who had made such shameful play of her husband's love; and
+the women with whom she associated were no better. The later life which
+she led with her son, unsettled and adventurous, with no firm ground
+under their feet, had finally crushed out the last remnant of idealism
+in the young man. He learned to despise before he learned to love, and
+now he felt the merited humiliation given him to be an insult.
+
+"Struggle on," he muttered; "you battle against yourself. I have seen
+and felt it; and the one who does that, does not conquer in such a
+struggle."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+A slight noise at the entrance caused Hartmut to look up. It was the
+Ambassador who appeared on the threshold, casting a searching glance
+into the room. He came for his wife, whom he thought still there.
+
+He started at sight of Hartmut, and for a moment seemed undecided. Then
+he said, half audibly: "Herr Rojanow."
+
+"Your Excellency."
+
+"I should like to speak to you privately."
+
+"I am at your service."
+
+Wallmoden entered, but took up his position so as to keep the entrance
+in view. It was hardly necessary, for the doors of the dining room had
+just been thrown open, and the whole assembly floated there. The salon
+adjoining the tower room was already empty.
+
+"I am surprised to see you here," the Ambassador began in suppressed
+tones, but with the same insulting coldness which he had shown at the
+first meeting, and which brought the blood to the young man's brow. He
+drew himself up threateningly.
+
+"Why, Your Excellency?"
+
+"The question is superfluous. At any rate, I request you not to again
+force me into the position I was brought into a short while ago, when
+Prince Adelsberg introduced you to me."
+
+"The forced position was mine," returned Hartmut, just as sharply. "I
+will not assert that you consider me an intruder here, for you, best of
+all, know that I have a right to this intercourse."
+
+"_Hartmut von Falkenried_ would have had a right, of course; but that
+has changed."
+
+"Herr von Wallmoden!"
+
+"Not so loud, if you please," interrupted the Ambassador. "We might be
+overheard, and it would surely not be desirable to you that the name I
+just now uttered should be heard by outsiders."
+
+"It is true that at present I carry my mother's name, to which I surely
+have a right. If I laid aside the other, it happened out of
+consideration----"
+
+"For your father," finished Wallmoden, with heavy emphasis.
+
+Hartmut started. This was an allusion which he could not bear yet.
+
+"Yes," he replied, curtly. "I confess that it would be painful to me if
+I were forced to break this consideration."
+
+"And why? Your role here would be played out, anyway."
+
+Rojanow stepped close to the Ambassador with a passionate gesture.
+
+"You are the friend of my father, Herr von Wallmoden, and I have called
+you uncle in my boyhood; but you forget that I am no longer the boy
+whom you could lecture and master at that time. The grown man looks at
+it as an insult."
+
+"I intend neither to offend you nor to renew old connections, which
+neither of us consider as existing," said Wallmoden, coldly. "If I
+desired this conversation, it was to declare to you that it will not be
+possible to me, in my official position, to see you in intercourse with
+the Court, and be silent when it would be my duty to enlighten the
+Duke."
+
+"Enlighten the Duke! About what?"
+
+"About several things which are not known here and which have probably
+remained unknown to Prince Adelsberg. Please do not fly into a passion,
+Herr Rojanow. I would do this only in an extreme case, for I have to
+spare a friend. I know how a certain incident hurt him ten years ago,
+which is now forgotten and buried in our country, and, if all this
+should come up again and be brought into publicity, Colonel Falkenried
+would die of it."
+
+Hartmut blanched. The defiant reply did not cross his lips. "He would
+die of it." The awful word, the truth of which he felt only too well,
+forced aside for the moment even the insult of the remark.
+
+"I owe my father alone an account of that occasion," he replied in a
+painfully suppressed voice; "only him and nobody else."
+
+"He will hardly ask for it. His son is dead to him; but let that rest.
+I speak especially now of later years; of your stay at Rome and Paris,
+where you lived with your mother in lavish style, although the estates
+in Roumania had had to be sacrificed at a forced sale."
+
+"You seem to be all-knowing, Your Excellency!" hissed Rojanow in great
+anger. "We had no idea that we were under such conscientious
+surveillance. We lived upon the balance of our fortune which had been
+rescued from the wreck."
+
+"Nothing was rescued; the money was entirely lost--to the last penny."
+
+"That is not true," interrupted Hartmut, stormily.
+
+"It is true. Am I really better informed about it than you?" The voice
+of the Ambassador sounded cuttingly sharp. "It is possible that Frau
+Rojanow did not want her son informed of the source from which she
+derived her means, and left him in error about it intentionally. I know
+the circumstances. If they have remained unknown to you--so much the
+better for you."
+
+"Take care not to insult my mother," the young man burst forth; "or I
+shall forget that your hair is gray, and demand satisfaction."
+
+"For what? For a statement for which I can produce the proofs? Lay
+aside such foolishness, of which I shall take no notice. She was your
+mother, and is dead now; therefore we will go no deeper into this
+point. I should only like to put this question to you: Do you intend,
+even after this conversation, to remain here and appear in the circle
+into which Prince Adelsberg has introduced you?"
+
+Hartmut had turned deathly pale at the hint of the muddy origin of his
+mother's means, and the numb terror with which he looked at the speaker
+betrayed that he indeed knew nothing about it. But at this last
+question he regained his composure.
+
+His flashing eyes met those of his opponent, and a wild decision
+sounded in his voice as he replied: "Yes, Herr von Wallmoden, I
+remain."
+
+The Ambassador did not seem to have expected this defiance; he probably
+thought to have accomplished the matter more easily, but he retained
+his composure.
+
+"Really? Well, you are accustomed to playing a high hand, and you seem
+to wish here also--but hush! Some one is coming. Reconsider the matter,
+perhaps you will change your mind."
+
+He quickly entered the adjoining room, in which the Chief Forester now
+appeared.
+
+"Where have you hidden yourself, Herbert?" he asked, when he beheld the
+Ambassador. "I have looked everywhere for you."
+
+"I wished to find my wife."
+
+"She is already in the dining room, like everybody else, and where you
+are being missed. Come, it is high time that we get something to eat."
+
+Herr von Schonan took possession of his brother-in-law in his ever
+jovial manner and went off with him.
+
+Hartmut stood still in his place. He struggled for breath; the
+excitement threatened to choke him. Shame, hatred, anger, all floated
+wildly through his heart. That hint of Wallmoden's had hurt him
+terribly, although he but half understood it. It tore asunder the veil
+with which he had half unconsciously, half intentionally shrouded the
+truth. He had, indeed, believed that a remnant of their wealth, rescued
+from the wreck, had given him and his mother their income. But it was
+not the first time that he had shut his eyes to what he did not wish to
+see.
+
+He had enjoyed life in deep draughts without calling himself to account
+for it when the hand of his mother had so suddenly torn him from the
+enforced paternal education into unlimited freedom; when he exchanged
+the routine of the strictest duties for a life full of intoxicating
+enjoyments. He had then been too young to judge, and later on--it was
+then too late; habit and example had woven too unyielding a net around
+him. Now, for the first time, it was being shown him clearly and
+unmistakably what the life was that he had led so long--the life of an
+adventurer; and as an adventurer he had been pointed out the exit from
+society.
+
+But hotter than the shame of that burned the affront which had been
+given him, and hatred for the man who had forced this indisputable
+truth upon him. The unfortunate inheritance from his mother, the hot,
+wild blood which had once been fatal to the boy, welled up like a
+stream of fire, and every other thought went down in a sensation, wild
+and limitless, of thirst for revenge.
+
+His handsome features were distorted beyond recognition when he finally
+left the room, with tightly closed teeth. He knew and felt but one
+thing--that he must have revenge--revenge at any price!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+It was very late when the fete came to an end. After the withdrawal of
+the ducal couple, a general move for departure took place. Carriage
+after carriage rolled down the Schlossberg; the bright lights were
+extinguished, and Furstenstein began to shroud itself in darkness and
+silence.
+
+In the apartments devoted to the Ambassador and his wife, however, the
+lights still burned.
+
+Adelaide stood at the window in her rich robe of the fete and looked
+out into the night like one lost in thought, but it was with a
+peculiar, weary gesture that she leaned her head against the window
+panes.
+
+Wallmoden sat at the writing table, glancing through some letters and
+dispatches which had arrived in the last hour. They seemed to contain
+important news, for he did not lay them aside with other papers to
+receive attention to-morrow morning, but grasped a pen and hastily
+wrote a few lines, then arose and quickly approached his wife.
+
+"This comes unexpectedly," he said. "I shall have to go to Berlin."
+
+Adelaide turned in surprise. "So suddenly?"
+
+"Yes; I thought to accomplish this very serious affair by letter, but
+the Minister expressly desires a personal interview. Therefore I shall
+take leave of the Duke to-morrow morning for a period of about a week,
+and depart immediately."
+
+The young bride's features could not be distinguished in the
+semi-darkness, but her breast heaved with a deep sigh, which betrayed a
+perhaps unconscious relief.
+
+"At what hour do we leave?" she asked quickly; "I should like to notify
+my maid."
+
+"We? This is entirely a business trip, and, naturally, I go alone."
+
+"But I could accompany you."
+
+"What for? You understand that it means an absence of only a week or
+two."
+
+"No matter. I--I should like to see Berlin again."
+
+"What a whim!" said Wallmoden, shrugging his shoulders. "I shall be so
+occupied this time that I could not accompany you anywhere."
+
+The young wife had approached the table and now stood in the full light
+of the lamp. She was much paler than usual, and her voice had a
+suppressed sound as she returned: "Well, then, I shall go home. I
+should really not like to remain here alone at Furstenstein without
+you."
+
+"Alone?" The Ambassador looked at her in astonishment. "You will be
+with our relatives, whose guests we are. How long have you been so
+desirous of protection? It is a thing I have not observed in you so
+far. I do not understand you, Adelaide. What is this strange caprice of
+wishing to accompany me at all hazards?"
+
+"Accept it as a caprice, then, but let me go with you, Herbert; I beg
+of you."
+
+She laid her hand entreatingly upon his arm, and her eyes were directed
+with almost an expression of fear upon her husband's face, whose thin
+lips parted in a sarcastic smile. It was that superior smile, which
+could be so insulting at times.
+
+"Ah, so? Now I understand. That scene with the Princess has been
+disagreeable to you. You fear renewed annoyances, which will probably
+not fail to come. You must lose this sensitiveness, my child. On the
+contrary, you ought to be aware of the fact that this encounter alone
+puts you to the necessity of remaining here. Every word, every look is
+interpreted at Court, and a sudden departure on your part would give
+rise to all sorts of speculations. You have to hold your own now, if
+you do not wish to make your connections with the Court forever
+difficult."
+
+The young wife's hand slipped slowly from his arm, and her look sank to
+the floor at this cool rejoinder to her almost beseeching entreaty--the
+first she had uttered in her short marriage.
+
+"Hold my own," she repeated, in a low voice. "I do that, but I hoped
+you would remain at my side."
+
+"That is not possible just now, as you see; besides, you understand in
+a masterly manner how to defend yourself. You have shown that to me as
+well as to the whole Court to-day, but I am sure the hint I gave you
+will be considered, and that you will be more cautious with your
+answers in the future. At any rate, you will remain at Furstenstein
+until I return for you."
+
+Adelaide was silent. She saw that nothing was to be gained here.
+
+Wallmoden stepped back to the writing table and looked at the document
+just received; then he grasped the sheet on which he had written the
+answer and folded it.
+
+"One thing more, Adelaide," he said, carelessly; "the young Prince
+Adelsberg was constantly at your side to-night. He pays homage to you
+in rather a conspicuous manner."
+
+"Do you wish me to decline these attentions?" she asked, indifferently.
+
+"No; I only ask you to draw the necessary limit, so that no idle talk
+may ensue. I do not intend to cut short your social victories. We do
+not live in burgher circumstances, and it would be ridiculous in my
+position to play the jealous husband who views every attention paid his
+wife with suspicion. I leave this entirely to your own tact, in which I
+have unlimited confidence."
+
+All of this sounded so tranquil, so sensible, so boundlessly
+indifferent, Herr von Wallmoden might, indeed, be exonerated from any
+thought of jealousy. The openly offered admiration of the young,
+charming Prince caused him no anxiety; he quietly left his wife to her
+"tact."
+
+"I shall attend to this dispatch myself," he continued; "as we have a
+telegraph station in the castle since the Duke's arrival. You should
+ring for your mail, my child; you look somewhat fatigued and probably
+feel so. Good night."
+
+He left the room, but Adelaide did not follow the advice. She had drawn
+near the window again, and a half bitter, half pained expression
+trembled on her lips. She had never felt so painfully as at this moment
+that she was nothing more to her husband than a shining jewel which one
+exhibits, a wife whom one treats with perfect politeness and attention
+because she brought in her hand a princely fortune, and to whom a
+request could be denied with equal politeness; a request which might
+have been so easily granted.
+
+Night rested over the forest; the sky was cloudy and dark, with here
+and there a solitary star glimmering through the flying clouds. A pale
+face looked up to the gloomy sky; not with the cold, proud composure
+the world was accustomed to see, but with an expression of beseeching
+entreaty.
+
+The young wife pressed both hands to her bosom, as if the pain and
+unrest were there. She had wished to flee from the dark power
+whose approach she had felt, and which was drawing the circles nearer
+and closer around her. She had wished to flee to her husband's
+protection. In vain! He would go away and leave her alone, and another
+remained--another, who, with dark, glowing eyes and thrilling voice,
+wielded such a mysterious, irresistible power. "Ada," the name with its
+sweet, foreign sound, floated near her like a spirit's breath. It was
+her name which the legend of the Arivana bore!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+October had come, and autumn began to show its reign in a marked
+manner. The foliage of the trees bore gay tints; the country was
+wrapped, morning and night, in mist. The nights sometimes brought
+frost, while the days were unusually fine and sunny.
+
+With the exception of that large fete which had collected the whole
+community, and the hunts, which were naturally prominent at this time
+of the year, no particular festivities took place.
+
+The Duke, as well as his wife, loved to entertain small circles, and
+did not wish to disturb the quiet and freedom of their autumn visit
+with brilliant entertainments. On that account excursions were more
+often taken. The forest hills were being explored on horseback and in
+carriages, and the ducal table daily held a large number of guests.
+Adelaide von Wallmoden belonged to this small circle. The Duchess, who
+had learned in what manner her sister-in-law tried to make the position
+of the young Baroness more difficult, counterbalanced it with greater
+affability, drawing Adelaide into her presence at every opportunity;
+and the Duke, who wished to distinguish the Ambassador and his wife,
+was well satisfied with it.
+
+Wallmoden was still in Berlin. The two weeks he had appointed for his
+trip had passed away, and yet nothing was said of his return.
+
+One of the most frequent visitors at Furstenstein was Egon von
+Adelsberg, the pronounced favorite of his princely relatives; and his
+friend, Rojanow, was always honored with an invitation. The young
+Prince had prophesied correctly. Hartmut was like a shining meteor,
+whom all eyes followed with admiration, and of whom it was not expected
+that he should follow in the old beaten track of Court life.
+
+He had read his Arivana to them at the request of the Duchess, and with
+it had gained a perfect triumph. The Duke had immediately promised him
+a performance of the drama in the Court Theatre, and Princess Sophie
+turned her special favor upon the young poet.
+
+The surrounding Court circle, of course, followed the example of the
+princely people in this case only too gladly, for the charm he
+exercised was universal.
+
+The hunting carriage of Prince Adelsberg stood before the castle of
+Rodeck. It was still early, and the misty October morning seemed to
+promise a clear, beautiful day. Egon had just appeared upon the terrace
+in full hunting costume and was speaking with the castle steward, who
+followed him.
+
+"And so you wish to look at the hunt also?" he asked. "Of course, Peter
+Stadinger has to be wherever anything is to be seen. My valet has also
+asked leave of absence, and I believe the whole population of the Wald
+will turn out to-day to be at the hunting grounds."
+
+"Yes, Your Highness, such things are not often to be seen," said
+Stadinger. "The great Court and gala hunts have become rare in our
+Wald. Hunting goes on everywhere, but then the gentlemen are mostly by
+themselves, like here at Rodeck, and if the ladies are not there----"
+
+"Then it is unbearably tiresome," completed the Prince. "Quite my
+opinion; but you are otherwise prejudiced against womankind, and cry
+out if any one who has not reached a good old age comes within the
+borders of Rodeck. Have you changed your opinion in your old days?"
+
+"I meant the high princely ladies, Your Highness," declared the old
+servant, with particular emphasis.
+
+"The high princely ladies could only honor me with a visit upon the
+occasion of a drive. I cannot invite them, as I am a bachelor."
+
+"And why is Your Highness still a bachelor?" asked Stadinger in
+reproachful tones.
+
+"Man, I believe you also have matrimonial plans for me as well as the
+world has," laughed Egon. "Spare your pains; I shall not marry."
+
+"That is not right, Your Highness," persisted Stadinger, who gave his
+master his title at least once in every sentence because it was
+"respectable" so to do, while at the same time he took the liberty of
+lecturing him upon every occasion; "and it is also unchristianlike, for
+matrimony is a holy state, in which one feels well off. Your sainted
+father was married--and so was I."
+
+"Oh, of course, you too. You are even grandfather of a most charming
+granddaughter, whom you have most cruelly sent off. When does she come
+back, anyhow?"
+
+The steward thought best to lose the last question, but he remained
+obstinately at his subject.
+
+"Your Highness, the Duchess and the Princess Sophie are of the same
+opinion. Your Highness should consider the subject seriously."
+
+"Well, since you exhort so paternally, I will consider it. But,
+concerning the Princess Sophie, she intends to drive to Bucheneck,
+which is the meeting place of to-day's hunt; it may be possible she
+will notice you there and may speak to you."
+
+"Very probable, Your Highness," confirmed the old man, complacently.
+"Her Highness always honors me by speaking to me, because she knows me
+as the oldest servant of the ducal house."
+
+"Very well. If the Princess should ask casually after the snakes and
+animals which I have brought back from my travels, you say that they
+have already been sent to one of my other castles."
+
+"It is not necessary at all, Your Highness," Stadinger assured him,
+benevolently; "the most illustrious aunt already knows all about it."
+
+"Knows all about what? Have you told her anything?"
+
+"At your service. The day before yesterday, when I was at Furstenstein,
+Her Highness had just returned from a drive and graciously beckoned me
+to approach and asked me--Her Highness likes to do that----"
+
+"Yes, Heaven knows!" groaned the young Prince, who already scented
+mischief. "And what did you answer?"
+
+"'Your Highness may rest easy,' I said; 'we have only monkeys and
+parrots of the live animals in the castle. Serpents have never been
+there. A large sea serpent, though, was to have arrived, but he died on
+the voyage, and the elephants tore themselves lose at the embarking and
+ran back to the palm forests--at least, so His Highness says. To be
+sure, we have two tigers, but they are stuffed; and of the lions, there
+is only the skin, which lies in the armory. Therefore Your Highness may
+see that the beasts cannot break loose and do harm.'"
+
+"Oh, but you have fixed things now with your chattering!" cried Egon,
+exasperated. "And the Princess, what did she say?"
+
+"Her Highness only smiled and inquired what kind of female servants we
+had at Rodeck, and if the girls of this vicinity were among them; but I
+said then"--here Stadinger drew himself up consciously--"'The servants
+in service at the castle I have hired. They are all industrious and
+reliable; I have looked out for that. But His Highness runs when he
+puts eyes on them, and Herr Rojanow runs still more; and the gentlemen
+have never gone back into the kitchen since the first time they went
+there.' After that Her Highness was most gracious and condescended to
+praise me and dismissed me in the very highest satisfaction."
+
+"And I should like to run you to perdition in the very highest
+dissatisfaction," the Prince burst forth, wrathfully. "You unlucky old
+Waldgeist, what _have_ you been doing again?"
+
+The old man, who apparently thought that he had done his part extremely
+well, looked at his master in perplexity.
+
+"But I have only said the truth, Your Highness."
+
+"There are cases where one must not say the truth."
+
+"So? I did not know that till now."
+
+"Stadinger, you have quite an abominable way of answering. Have you
+told the Princess also that Lena has been in town for the past four
+weeks?"
+
+"At your service, Your Highness."
+
+"What is the matter with Stadinger again?" inquired Hartmut, who
+emerged from the castle, also dressed for the hunt, and who had heard
+the last of the conversation.
+
+"He has committed a first-class foolishness," grumbled Egon, but he was
+met with bad success by the "oldest servant of the ducal house," who
+drew himself up, deeply offended.
+
+"With your permission, Your Highness, I have not committed the
+foolishness."
+
+"Do you mean perhaps that I have done it?"
+
+Stadinger looked at his master keenly from the corner of his eye, after
+which he said deliberately: "That I do not know, Your Highness; but it
+may be so."
+
+"You are a churl!" cried the Prince, hotly.
+
+"Known for that through all the Wald, Your Highness."
+
+"Come, Hartmut; nothing can be done with the old, grumbling bear
+to-day," said Egon, half laughing, half vexed. "At first he gets me
+into scrapes, and then he lectures me on top of it. May graciousness
+help you, Stadinger, if you give any more such reports!"
+
+With which he entered the carriage with Rojanow. Stadinger remained
+standing in military position and saluted as was demanded by his idea
+of the respectful, for respect was the main thing, although he did not
+in the least think of giving in by so doing. His Highness, Prince Egon,
+had to do that; he could not come up with his Peter Stadinger.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+Egon was evidently of the same opinion as he narrated the proceeding to
+his friend, and concluded with comic despair: "Now you can imagine what
+a reception will be mine from the most illustrious aunt. She has
+guessed that I wished to keep her away from Rodeck. My morals are
+rescued in her eyes, but at the expense of my veracity. Hartmut, do me
+the favor of showering your sweetest affability upon my revered aunt.
+If necessary, compose a poem for her as a lightning rod; otherwise the
+flash of her most high anger will annihilate me."
+
+"Well, I should think you were weather-proof in this respect," quoth
+Hartmut. "You have had to have forgiveness for many similar escapades.
+The Duchess and the younger ladies will be at the chase on horseback,
+will they not?"
+
+"Yes, they could not see much from a carriage. Do you know that Frau
+von Wallmoden sits her horse perfectly. I met her the day before
+yesterday as she returned from a ride with her brother-in-law, the
+Chief Forester."
+
+"Ah, so? Well, one knows, then, where Prince Adelsberg will be to-day
+exclusively."
+
+Egon, who had been reclining comfortably, straightened himself and
+looked at his friend inquiringly.
+
+"Not so much sarcasm, if you please. Although you are not to be found
+so frequently in the presence of the afore-mentioned lady, and even
+pretend a certain coldness toward her, I know you too well not to see
+that we are only too much of the same opinion."
+
+"And if it were so, would you consider it a break in our friendship?"
+
+"Not in this case, where the object is unobtainable to both."
+
+"Unobtainable!" That unpleasant smile again passed over his lips.
+
+"Yes, Hartmut," said the Prince, seriously, "the beautiful, cold
+Aurora, as you have christened her, remains true to her nature. She
+stands far removed and unapproachable on the horizon, and the ice sea
+from which she rises is not to be penetrated. The lady has no heart;
+she is incapable of a passionate feeling, and this gives her this
+enviable security. Come, confess that here your power is wrecked. The
+icy breath has chilled you, and therefore you flee from it."
+
+Hartmut was silent. He thought of those moments in the tower room, when
+he asked for the brilliant flower. It had been refused him, but it had
+not been an icy breath which came from the Baroness when she had
+trembled under the gaze of the beseecher.
+
+He had since seen her almost daily, but had rarely approached her,
+although he knew that he held her under his spell now as before.
+
+"Nevertheless, I cannot get free from this foolish infatuation,"
+continued Egon, with a half dreamy expression. "It seems to me that
+life and warmth could grow up in that nature, and change the snow
+region into a blooming world. If Adelaide von Wallmoden were still
+free, I believe I should make the attempt."
+
+Rojanow, who had been gazing into the misty forest, lost in thought,
+turned quickly and sharply:
+
+"What attempt? Does that perhaps mean that you would offer her your
+hand?"
+
+"You seem really horror-stricken at the idea." The Prince laughed
+aloud. "I meant that, indeed. I have no prejudice against the
+manufacturing world, like my most gracious aunt, whom such a
+possibility would indeed throw into convulsions. Strange to say, you
+seem to think so, too. Well, both of you may rest easy. His Excellency,
+the husband, has seized the prize; but he truly does not make a life of
+roses for her with his tiresome diplomatic face. Ah! but the man has
+had enviable good luck."
+
+"Call no man happy before his death," muttered Hartmut under his
+breath.
+
+"A very wise remark, and one not quite new to me. But you sometimes
+have something in your eyes which frightens me. Do not be offended,
+Hartmut; but you look like a demon at this moment."
+
+Rojanow made no answer.
+
+The road now left the forest, and yonder Furstenstein rose into view,
+where the ducal colors floated in the morning breeze. Half an hour
+later the carriage rolled into the castle court, where an animated
+scene reigned.
+
+The entire force of servants was at hand; saddle horses and carriages
+were ready, and the greater number of invited guests had already
+arrived.
+
+The start took place at the appointed hour, and the bright light of the
+sun, breaking through the mist, shone resplendent on the imposing
+cavalcade as it moved down the Schlossberg.
+
+The Duke and Duchess led the party; then followed the numerous suite
+and the whole assembly of guests, and the grooms in full livery who
+were permitted to go.
+
+Out through the sunny autumn morning into the forests and heights of
+the hunting preserves, where it soon became lively. Firing resounded on
+all sides; the flying game broke through the thickets or sped across
+the openings, now alone and now in droves, only to be reached finally
+by a ball; and the usually quiet forest gave back the echo of the
+chase.
+
+The Chief Forester had ordered out the entire forester staff of the
+Wald, and had made all arrangements so excellently that it brought him
+great honor to lead the chase, which was not marred by any accident.
+
+Toward noon a rendezvous was held at Bucheneck, a small ducal forest
+lodge situated in the midst of the Wald, and which could afford shelter
+in case of unfavorable weather. This was not necessary to-day, for the
+weather had turned out to be fine, only a little too warm for an
+October day. The sun burned so hotly as to render it unpleasant at
+luncheon, which was partaken of out of doors; but otherwise all passed
+off happily and unceremoniously, and a gay scene developed upon the
+large green meadow, at the border of which Bucheneck was situated.
+
+The entire hunting cortege was assembled here. The Duke, who had been
+especially fortunate in the chase to-day, was in the very best of
+spirits. The Duchess chatted with animation to her surrounding ladies,
+and the Chief Forester beamed with pleasure, for the Duke had expressed
+his satisfaction in the most flattering manner.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden, who was near the Duchess, was the subject of
+general admiration to-day. She was, without doubt, the most beautiful
+of all the assembled ladies, nearly all of whom needed rich dressing
+and candle-light to bring out their beauty. Here, in the bright, midday
+sun, in plain, dark riding habits, which permitted no colors or jewels,
+many an otherwise admired appearance faded. The young Baroness alone
+remained victorious in this simplicity. Her tall, slender figure looked
+as if formed for her habit, while the transparent clearness and
+freshness of her skin, and the shining blondness of her hair were even
+more to be admired in daylight than at the night fete. Besides, she had
+really proved herself an able horsewoman, who sat in the saddle with as
+much ease as security; in short, the "beautiful Aurora," as Frau von
+Wallmoden was now called in the court circle since Prince Adelsberg had
+given her that name, was admired on all sides, and received the more
+attention as it was known that she was to disappear for several weeks.
+
+The Ambassador had notified his wife yesterday that his diplomatic work
+was now finished, but that he would utilize his presence in North
+Germany in looking after the Stahlberg works.
+
+Important changes had been planned there, and new improvements spoken
+of, for which a final decision had to be made, and Wallmoden, as
+executor and guardian of the heir, had the deciding voice in it. His
+presence at the conference was indispensable; he had asked leave of
+absence from his office, and had notified the Duke of a return later.
+
+At the same time he left it to his wife to decide whether she would
+remain at Furstenstein or take the trip to her old home with him, if
+she wished to see her brother. Now, after fully two weeks, no one could
+misconstrue her departure. The young wife had immediately chosen to go
+with her husband, and had notified the Duchess that she should leave on
+the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Princess Sophie had arrived at Bucheneck with her lady of honor and the
+elder ladies in carriages, and now attempted, above everything, to lay
+hands on her illustrious nephew; but he developed an incredible aptness
+at keeping out of her reach. He was everywhere except in the near
+presence of his most gracious aunt, until finally she lost patience and
+ordered a gentleman to call Prince Adelsberg into her presence.
+
+Egon had to obey this command, but he used the precaution of taking the
+"lightning rod" with him. Rojanow was at his side when he stood before
+the Princess.
+
+"Well, Egon, do I really get a glimpse of you?" was the not very
+gracious reception. "You seem to have been taken possession of on all
+sides to-day."
+
+"I am always ready for the service of my most gracious aunt," declared
+Egon in honeyed accents; but the sweetness did him no good. The
+Princess measured him with an annihilating glance.
+
+"As far as your knightly service to Frau von Wallmoden leaves you time.
+She will give this chivalry a glowing mention to her husband. You may
+know him, perhaps?"
+
+"Certainly. I revere him highly as a man, as a diplomat and as His
+Excellency. Your Highness may believe that."
+
+"I believe you unconditionally, Egon. Your love for veracity is far
+above any doubts with me," said the lady, with stinging sarcasm. "I
+just happen to remember speaking the day before yesterday with the
+steward of Rodeck--the old Stadinger--who is still very active for his
+years."
+
+"But he suffers seriously from failing memory," the Prince hastened to
+assure her. "I am sorry to say that Stadinger forgets everything. Is it
+not so, Hartmut? He positively does not know to-day what he saw
+yesterday."
+
+"On the contrary, I found that his memory was exceptionally fresh.
+Besides, he is the oldest and truest servant of your house,
+reliable--careful----"
+
+"And a churl," interrupted Egon, sighing. "Your Highness, you have no
+idea of the unlimited gruffness which dwells in this Peter Stadinger.
+He tyrannizes over Herr Rojanow and me shamefully. I have actually
+thought of retiring him."
+
+Of course, he did not dream of that. His Highness knew better than to
+make Peter Stadinger such a proposition, and would have fared badly if
+he had. But Princess Sophie, who had the reputation of being very
+haughty and relentless toward her servants, now favored a very mild
+course.
+
+"You should not do that," she remonstrated. "A man who is now serving
+the third generation of the ducal family may be pardoned such a thing,
+particularly considering the somewhat loose housekeeping which the
+young gentlemen lead at Rodeck. It seems that they do not like to see
+visitors there, preferring the solitude."
+
+"Ah, yes, the solitude!" sighed Egon, sentimentally. "It does one so
+much good after the stormy life of travel, and we enjoy it in full
+draughts. I occupy myself mostly----"
+
+"With the taming of your wild animals," finished the Princess
+maliciously.
+
+"No, with--with my travelling memoirs, which I intend to publish; and
+Hartmut composes melancholy songs. He has just now the material for a
+ballad under his pen, to which Your Highness drew his attention."
+
+"Why, Herr Rojanow, have you really utilized the theme?" asked the
+lady, whose face now suddenly beamed with sunshine, as she turned to
+the young poet.
+
+"Certainly, Your Highness. I am very grateful to you for the
+suggestion," said Hartmut, who had not the slightest idea what the
+subject was, but felt that he had to go into action now.
+
+"I am glad of that. I love poetry and seek it at every opportunity."
+
+"And with what understanding and appreciation!" cried Egon,
+enthusiastically. But he quickly embraced the opportunity of slipping
+away, leaving his friend behind as the victim. He hastened to the
+presence of the Duchess, which meant the presence of Frau von
+Wallmoden, where he seemed to feel decidedly better than with his most
+gracious aunt.
+
+The chase was resumed after luncheon was over. It was now a hunt for
+large game, which was commenced with renewed zeal.
+
+But the hitherto sunny weather changed in the afternoon. The sky grew
+cloudy and dark, but it remained warm, almost stifling, and a heavy
+bank of cloud arose in the west. It looked as if one of those late
+thunderstorms was preparing, which passed at times over the Wald at
+this season.
+
+The Duchess, with a portion of her attendants, had taken her stand upon
+a hill which seemed to afford the best view, but soon the chase took
+another quite unexpected direction, and the onlookers made ready to
+follow.
+
+Frau von Wallmoden met here with a slight accident. The girth of her
+saddle suddenly broke and she sprang lightly from the stirrup, thus
+saving herself from a fall. It was not possible to continue her ride,
+for although the accompanying groom could have given her a horse, there
+was no lady's saddle at hand; consequently she had to give up further
+participation, and decided to walk back to Bucheneck, to where one of
+the grooms would lead her horse.
+
+Adelaide had requested the servant to precede her, and she lingered on
+the hill which had become quiet and lonely. It almost seemed that the
+accident had been welcome to her, since it relieved her from attending
+the chase to the end.
+
+It is always a relief when one can drop a mask which has deceived the
+world and can breathe in solitude, if it only brings conviction of the
+heavy load one had to bear under that mask.
+
+Where had the cold, proud calm vanished with which the young wife had
+entered her new home upon the arm of her husband? Now, when she knew
+herself alone and unobserved, it could be plainly seen that she had
+changed much.
+
+That strong will-line which had made her resemble her father so much
+had become more pronounced, but besides that there was another line--a
+painful one--as of a person who has to struggle with secret torture and
+anxiety. The blue eyes had lost the cold, dispassionate expression. A
+deep shadow rested within them which also told of struggle and pain,
+and the blonde head drooped as if under an invisible but heavy load.
+
+And yet Adelaide drew a breath of relief at the thought that this would
+be the last day she should spend at Furstenstein. By to-morrow she
+would be far from here. Perhaps there would be rest in the far removal
+of the dark power against which she had struggled now for weeks so
+painfully, and yet so vainly.
+
+Perhaps she would get better if she did not see those eyes day after
+day, nor hear that voice.
+
+When she should have fled from the enchanted circle the charm would
+have to break, and now at last she could flee--oh, the happiness of it!
+
+The noise of the chase sounded in ever-increasing distance, and was
+finally lost, but steps now sounded in the forest which encircled the
+hill closely, and warned the young Baroness that she was no longer
+alone. She started to leave, but at the moment she turned the one
+approaching emerged from under the trees.
+
+Hartmut Rojanow stood before her.
+
+The meeting was so sudden and unexpected that Adelaide's composure was
+not proof against it. She retreated to the trunk of the tree, under the
+boughs of which she had been standing, as if seeking there a protection
+from this man, upon whom she gazed with fixed, fearful eyes--with the
+gaze of a wounded animal which sees the huntsman approach.
+
+Rojanow did not seem to notice it. He saluted her and asked hastily:
+"You are alone, Your Excellency? The accident did not have any serious
+consequences?"
+
+"What accident?"
+
+"It was said you had a fall from your horse."
+
+"What exaggeration! The girth broke, but I knew it in time to spring
+from the stirrup, while the horse stood perfectly still--that was the
+accident."
+
+"God be praised! I heard something of a fall--an injury--and as you did
+not reappear at the chase I feared----"
+
+He paused, for Adelaide's glance showed him plainly that she did not
+believe this pretense; probably he knew the whole occurrence and had
+learned why and where Frau von Wallmoden had been left behind. She now
+regained her composure.
+
+"I thank you, Herr Rojanow, but your being at all concerned was not
+necessary," she said coldly. "You could have told yourself that had
+there been a real accident the Duchess and the other ladies would not
+have left me helpless in the forest. I am on my way to Bucheneck."
+
+She attempted to pass him. He bowed and stepped aside as if to let her
+pass, but said in a low voice:
+
+"Gracious lady, I have yet to ask your pardon."
+
+"My pardon! For what?"
+
+"For a request which I uttered thoughtlessly and for which I have had
+to suffer seriously. I only asked for a flower. Is that, then, so
+severe a transgression that one should be angry over it for weeks?"
+
+Adelaide had paused almost without knowing it.
+
+Again she was under the charm of these eyes--this voice, which held her
+fast as with magnetism.
+
+"You are mistaken, Herr Rojanow. I am not angry with you."
+
+"Not? And yet it is this icy tone I have always to hear since I dared
+approach you in that hour. You have learned, too, to know my work, for
+which I begged a recognition. You were present when I read it at
+Furstenstein. My Arivana was praised overwhelmingly on all sides, but
+from your mouth alone I heard no word--not one. Will you refuse it even
+now?"
+
+"I thought we were hunting to-day," said Adelaide with an attempt to
+pass the subject by, "where it is surely not admissible to speak of
+poetical works."
+
+"We have both left the chase; it is running now toward the Rodeck
+forest. There is only forest solitude here. Look at this autumn-tinted
+foliage which warns so mournfully of fleeting existence--the silent
+water down there, those thunder clouds in the distance. I believe there
+is a more endless amount of poetry in all this than in the halls of
+Furstenstein."
+
+He pointed to the landscape which spread out before them, but no longer
+in the bright sunlight that had favored the chase at the beginning. Now
+it lay in the dim light of an overcast sky, which made even the gay
+foliage appear withered and dull.
+
+They could see far out into the mountains, which, retreating on both
+sides, left the distance free. The endless ocean of forest crowns which
+only a few weeks ago waved green and airily in the breeze, now bore the
+color of the fall. They shone from the darkest brown to brilliant
+golden yellow in every shade all around, and shining red gleamed from
+the bushes and shrubs.
+
+The dying forest adorned itself once more with deceptive splendor, but
+it was only the coloring of the passing away and dying. All life and
+bloom were at an end.
+
+Deep in the ravine lay a little forest lake, which, dark and
+motionless, seemed to dream in the wreath of reeds and rushes which
+surrounded it. It resembled strangely another pond that, far away
+in North Germany, lay in the midst of a pine forest--the Burgsdorf
+pond--which, like this one, ended in a meadow where rich green
+beckoned, nourished by the swamp and bog, hiding itself deceitfully
+beneath it, and drawing the ignorant one into its depth without hope of
+rescue.
+
+Even now in daylight it seemed to breathe fog and twilight, and when
+night should descend the will-o'-the-wisp probably commenced here also
+its ghostly play.
+
+At the horizon, where in clear weather the summits of the mountains
+were visible, towered now a dark bank of clouds. As yet in the
+distance, its stifling breath rested already over the Wald, and at
+times a dull light flashed from it.
+
+Adelaide had not answered Hartmut's question. She gazed out over the
+country to avoid looking into the face of the man who stood before her,
+but she felt the dark, passionate look which rested upon her face, as
+she had always felt it in the last weeks, as soon as Rojanow was in her
+presence.
+
+"You are going away to-morrow, gracious lady," he commenced again. "Who
+knows when you will return and when I shall see you again? May not I
+beg for your opinion? May I not ask if my work has found grace in the
+eyes of--Ada?"
+
+Her name again upon his lips; again that soft, veiled, yet passionate,
+tone which she feared, and yet to which she listened as to enchanting
+music!
+
+Adelaide felt that here she was a prisoner; there was no chance for
+flight. She had to look the danger full in the face.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden turned slowly toward her questioner, and her
+features betrayed that she was determined to end the hard struggle the
+struggle with her own self.
+
+"You play strangely with this name, Herr Rojanow," she said
+emphatically and proudly. "It stood over the poem which was put into my
+possession in a mysterious manner last week, written in a strange hand,
+without signature----"
+
+"And which you read, nevertheless," he interrupted triumphantly.
+
+"Yes, and burned."
+
+"Burned!"
+
+From Hartmut's eyes flashed again the uncanny look which had startled
+even Egon and made him exclaim, "You look like a demon!"
+
+The demon of hate and revenge had risen wildly against the man who had
+insulted him unto death and whom he therefore wished to hurt unto
+death, and yet he loved that man's wife as the son of Zalika alone
+could love--with wild, consuming passion; but that which he felt at
+this moment resembled hatred more than love.
+
+"The poor leaf," he said with ill-concealed bitterness. "And so it had
+to suffer death in the flames--perhaps it deserved a better fate."
+
+"You ought not to have sent it to me, then. I dare not and will not
+accept such poetry."
+
+"You dare not, gracious lady? It is the homage of a poet which he
+lays at the feet of the woman who has been his from the beginning of
+time--and you will concede that to him also."
+
+The words came but half-aloud from his lips, but so hot and passionate
+that Adelaide shuddered.
+
+"You may pay homage like that to the women of your country, and in such
+words," she said. "A German woman does not understand it."
+
+"But you have understood it, nevertheless," Hartmut burst forth, "and
+you also understood the doctrine of the intense ardor of my Arivana,
+which bears off the victory over all human laws. I saw it that evening
+when you turned your back apparently so coldly upon me, while all the
+others overwhelmed me with admiration. Do not deceive yourself, Ada.
+When the divine spark falls into two souls it flames up, in the cold
+north as well as the fervent south, and it already burns within us. In
+this breath of fire, will and will-power die the death; it smothers
+everything that has existed, and nothing remains but the holy, blazing
+flame which shines and makes happy, even if it destroys. You love me,
+Ada--I know it--do not attempt to deny it, and I--I love you
+boundlessly."
+
+He stood before her in the stormy triumph of the victor, and his dark,
+demoniacal beauty had, perhaps, never been as captivating as at this
+moment, when the fire which breathed in his words burst also from his
+eyes--his whole being.
+
+And he did speak the truth!
+
+The woman who leaned there against the trunk of the tree so deathly
+white, loved him as only a pure, proud nature can love; that nature
+which so far had lived in the delusion that her emotions would forever
+lie in slumber, called by the world coldness of heart.
+
+Now she saw herself awaking before a passion which found a
+thousand-fold echo in her own breast; now that breath of flame floated
+around her also with its scorching glow; now came the test!
+
+"Leave me, Herr Rojanow, instantly!" cried Adelaide.
+
+Her voice sounded half smothered, almost inaudible, and she addressed a
+man who was not wont to yield when he felt himself victorious.
+
+He started to approach her hastily--he suddenly stood still. There was
+something in the eyes--in the bearing of the young Baroness which kept
+him within bounds, but again he breathed her name in that tone, the
+power of which perhaps he knew best--"Ada."
+
+She shuddered and made a repellent gesture.
+
+"Not that name. For you I am Adelaide von Wallmoden. I am married--you
+know that."
+
+"Married to a man who stands on the border of old age, whom you do not
+love, and who could not give you any love if he were young. That cold,
+calculating nature knows no emotion of passion. The Court, his
+position, his promotion, are everything to him--his wife, nothing. He
+perhaps boasts of the possession of a jewel which he does not know how
+to value, and for which another would give his soul's eternal bliss."
+
+Adelaide's lips quivered. She knew only too well that he was right, but
+she did not answer.
+
+"And what binds you to this man?" continued Rojanow, still more
+impressively. "A word--a single 'Yes' uttered by you without knowing
+its full meaning--without knowing yourself. Shall it bind you for your
+life? Shall it make us both miserable? No, Ada, love the eternal,
+undying right of the human heart does not bow before that. People may
+call it guilt, they may call it doom. We stand now under this doom, and
+must follow it; a single word shall not part us."
+
+Far off at the horizon the flame burst up with such glaring light that
+it shone also over the opening on the hill.
+
+Hartmut stood for a moment in this light. He was now so fully the son
+of his mother; resembling so closely her beautiful but pernicious
+features; but it was that flash of lightning that brought Adelaide back
+to consciousness; or had it shown her the unholy fire which burned in
+his eyes? She retreated with an expression of unveiled horror.
+
+"A solemnly given and accepted word is a vow," she said slowly, "and he
+who breaks it breaks his honor."
+
+Hartmut started. Sudden and glaring like that flash of lightning flamed
+up a remembrance in his mind--the resemblance of that hour when he had
+given a solemn word--a word of honor, and--had broken it!
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden straightened her slender figure; her features
+still showed the deathly pallor as she continued in a low but steady
+tone to Rojanow:
+
+"Abandon this persecution which I have felt for weeks. I shudder before
+you--at your eyes, your words. I feel that it is destruction that goes
+out from you, and one does not love that."
+
+"Ada!"
+
+Passionate entreaty sounded in the word, but the low voice of Adelaide
+gained firmness quickly as she continued:
+
+"And you do not love me. It has often seemed to me as if it were your
+hatred that pursued me. You and your kind cannot love."
+
+Rojanow kept silence in bewilderment. Who taught this young woman,
+still so inexperienced in life, to look so deeply into his inmost
+heart? He had not made clear to himself yet how inseparably hate and
+love were combined in his passion.
+
+"And you tell this to the writer of Arivana!" he burst out in
+bitterness. "They have called my work the high song of love----"
+
+"Then they have let themselves be deceived by the veil of the Oriental
+legend in which you shrouded your characters. They saw then only the
+East Indian priest sink with his beloved one under an iron, inhuman
+law. You are perhaps a great poet, and perhaps the world overwhelms you
+with praise, but it tells me something different--this fervent, ardent
+doctrine of your Arivana. It has taught me to know its creator--a man
+who does not believe in anything, and to whom nothing in the world is
+sacred; no duty and no vow; no man's honor and no woman's virtue--who
+would not hesitate to drag the highest into the dust as play for his
+passion. I still believe in duty and honor; I still believe in myself,
+and with this faith I offer defiance to the doom you hold so
+triumphantly before me. I could force myself to death, but never to
+your arms!"
+
+She stood before him, not as just now in trembling fear--in the
+tortured wrestling with a secret struggle, It seemed as if, with each
+of the annihilating words, one ring of the chain which held possession
+of her so mysteriously was broken. Her eyes met fully and freely the
+dark look which had kept her a prisoner so long; the charm was broken
+now and she felt it, and breathed like one rescued.
+
+Again that flash in the distance--noiseless, without the rumbling of
+thunder--but it was as if heaven had opened in all its vastness.
+Fantastic formation of clouds was in this flaring light--forms which
+seemed to wrestle and struggle with each other, born of the storm, and
+yet that bank of cloud stood motionless at the horizon--and just as
+motionless stood the man, whose dark features showed now an ashy
+paleness in the glare of the lightning.
+
+His eyes were fixed upon the young woman, but the wild fire in
+them had died out, and his voice had a strange sound as he said: "And
+this is the opinion I asked for? I am nothing more in your eyes than
+an--outcast?"
+
+"A lost man, perhaps. You have forced me to this confession."
+
+Hartmut slowly retreated a few steps.
+
+"Lost!" he repeated hoarsely. "In your meaning, perhaps, yes. You may
+rest assured, gracious lady, I shall not approach you any more. One
+does not desire to hear such words a second time--you stand so high and
+proud upon your virtue and, judge so severely. Of course you have no
+idea what a hot, wild life can make of a person who wanders restlessly,
+without home and family, through the world. You are right--I have not
+believed in anything, either upon high or here upon the earth--until
+this hour."
+
+There was something in his tone, in his whole bearing, that disarmed
+Adelaide. She felt that she would not have to fear another burst of his
+passion, and her voice softened involuntarily at her answer.
+
+"I do not judge anybody; but with my whole mind and being I belong to
+another world, with other laws than yours. I am the daughter of an
+idolized father, who, all of his life, knew but one road that of
+earnest, severe duty. On that he worked himself up from poverty and
+want to wealth and honor. He led his children along this road, and his
+memory is the shield which covers me in every hard hour. I could not
+bear it if I had to cast down my eyes before the picture of my memory.
+You probably have no father?"----
+
+A long, heavy pause ensued. Hartmut did not answer, but his head sank
+under those words, the crushing weight of which the Baroness had no
+idea, and his eyes were upon the ground.
+
+"No," he at last replied, hoarsely.
+
+"But you have the memory of him and your mother."
+
+"My mother!" Rojanow started up suddenly and violently. "Do not speak
+of her in this hour--do not speak to me of my mother."
+
+It was an outburst of mingled bitterness, of accusation and despair.
+The mother was being judged by her son in this exclamation. He rejected
+her memory as a desecration of this hour.
+
+Adelaide did not understand him; she saw only that she had touched a
+topic which did not admit of explanation, and she also saw that the
+man who stood before her now with this dark look--with this tone of
+despair--was a different being from that one who had approached her a
+quarter of an hour ago. It was a dark, mysterious depth into which she
+gazed, but it no longer caused her fear.
+
+"Let us end this conversation," she said earnestly. "You will not seek
+a second one--I trust you. But one more word before we part. You are a
+poet. I felt it in spite of all when I heard your work, and poets are
+teachers of mankind. They can lead to happiness or destruction. The
+wild flames of your Arivana seem to burst forth from the depths of a
+life which you yourself seem to hate. Look there!" She pointed into the
+distance, which was now lighted up again in a flaming glow. "Those are
+also signs of flame, but they come from on high, and they point to
+another road---- Farewell!"
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+She had disappeared long ago, but Hartmut still stood as if rooted to
+the ground. He had not replied with one word--had made no motion; he
+only looked with hot, fixed eyes to where now one flash of lightning
+after another tore the clouds asunder, shrouding the whole country with
+a fiery cloak, and then he looked at the little forest lake which
+resembled so closely that one at Burgsdorf, with its waving reed and
+the deceiving, foggy meadow, which here also pressed so close to the
+water.
+
+The boy had once dreamed among such whispering rushes of soaring
+up like the falcon of which his race bore the name, in boundless
+freedom--ever higher toward the sun--and at the same place the decision
+over his fate had been made on that dark autumn night, when the
+will-o'-the-wisp led its ghostly dance.
+
+But the deserter had not risen to the sun--the earth had held him fast;
+the rich, green meadow had drawn him down deeper and deeper. He had
+felt at times that the intoxicating cup of freedom and life which the
+hand of his mother gave him was poisoned, but no precious memory
+shielded him; he did not dare to think of his father.
+
+Over there in the distance the forms of cloud struggled and wrestled
+wilder and wilder; closer and closer together they drew, and in the
+midst of this struggle and this darkness the flames again burst
+victoriously--the powerful flames from on high.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+The winter social life had commenced at the Residenz, where the
+professional element played a conspicuous role. The Duke, who loved and
+encouraged art, took great pride in gathering renowned members of it
+into his presence, seeking to retain them in his capitol, and, of
+course, society followed largely in the same direction.
+
+The young poet who was being so highly favored by the Court, and whose
+first large work was to appear on the court stage, was from the first
+an interesting person to everybody, and the tales which were told about
+him served to increase this interest.
+
+It was very unusual for a Roumanian to compose his work in the German
+language, even when it was whispered that he had received his education
+in Germany. Besides that, he was the bosom friend, and the guest here
+in town also, of Prince Adelsberg, and all sorts of touching and
+wonderful stories were narrated about this friendship.
+
+Above all, Hartmut's personality gave him a favored position wherever
+he went. The young, handsome, highly-gifted stranger, whom a
+half-romantic, half-mysterious air surrounded, had only to make his
+appearance even here to draw all eyes upon him.
+
+The rehearsal of Arivana had commenced immediately after the return of
+the ducal party to the Residenz, under the personal supervision of the
+poet; while Prince Adelsberg, who in his enthusiasm for the work of his
+friend, had changed into a kind of manager, made life hard to the
+performers by all sorts of requests in regard to the filling of
+characters and the setting of the play.
+
+He knew how to get his way, and the scenery and setting were brilliant;
+the roles were all filled by the first talent of the Court Theatre, and
+even the opera singers were called into service, since one of the roles
+required a rather extensive part of song. One could not expect this
+from an actress, therefore a young singer--Marietta Volkmar--was
+entrusted with it.
+
+The performance of the play, which was to have taken place at a later
+date, was being hastened as much as possible, as guests were expected
+at Court, and the new drama, which toyed so poetically and airily with
+the Indian legend as a background, was to be performed before the
+illustrious guests. An unusual success was anticipated.
+
+This was the state of affairs at the return of Herbert von Wallmoden,
+who was naturally painfully surprised. Although he had learned from a
+casual question to his wife that Rojanow still kept up his intercourse
+at Furstenstein, and although he had not counted upon a sudden
+disappearance on Rojanow's part which would necessarily have caused
+comment, still he had been of the firm opinion that in spite of his
+haughty decision to remain, Hartmut would consider it again and make
+his retreat as soon as Prince Adelsberg left Rodeck. Surely he would
+not dare to appear at the Prince's side at the Residenz, where his stay
+might be made impossible through those threatened "explanations."
+
+But the Ambassador had not counted upon the unyielding defiance of the
+man who ventured and dared a high game here. Now, after a few weeks, he
+found him in a favored position in every respect and in closest
+intercourse with the court society.
+
+If now, just before the performance of the drama which the Duke favored
+so decidedly, and of which the whole town was already talking, one
+should publish the disclosures of the former life of the poet, it would
+touch all circles unpleasantly and appear malicious.
+
+The experienced diplomat did not deceive himself about the fact that
+the deep displeasure which would doubtless take possession of the Duke
+would then fall back upon himself, because he had not spoken before at
+the first appearance of Rojanow. Nothing was left for him to do but to
+keep silence and await developments.
+
+Wallmoden was far from having an idea that a heavy danger had
+threatened himself from that quarter. He supposed that his wife knew
+Hartmut only as a companion of Prince Adelsberg. She had never
+mentioned the name since, after her arrival in Berlin, she answered a
+seemingly careless question just as carelessly, and he had also kept
+silence. She must not and should not learn anything of those old
+connections which he had kept from her from the beginning.
+
+But he dared not be silent toward his nephew, Willibald, if he did not
+wish to live to see another scene of recognition like that upon the
+Hochberg.
+
+The young lord had accompanied his relatives to South Germany; was to
+remain but a few days at the Residenz, and go from there to
+Furstenstein to his betrothed, for the Chief Forester had specially
+requested that the visit, which was so suddenly broken off in
+September, should be finished now.
+
+"You were here barely a week," he wrote to his sister-in-law, "and now
+I beg for my son-in-law a little longer. Everything has been put in
+order now at your much-loved Burgsdorf, and there is not much to do in
+November. Therefore at least send us Willy if you cannot get off. A
+refusal will not be accepted. Toni expects her betrothed."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen saw that he was right and was willing to send
+Willy--for she, of course, decided the matter. He had made no new
+attempt to rebel against the maternal ruling, and seemed, anyway, to
+have come to his senses completely again. He was, perhaps, more quiet
+than before, and threw himself with quite unusual zeal into his
+agricultural work after his return, but otherwise bore himself
+especially well.
+
+He remained obstinate only upon one point: he would not speak with his
+mother about that "silliness" which had caused the sudden departure,
+and avoided every explanation concerning it. Apparently he was ashamed
+of that quickly-flaming affection, which probably had never been
+serious, and did not wish to be reminded of it.
+
+He wrote frequently to his fiancee, and received just as punctual
+replies. The correspondence, however, was more of a practical than a
+tender nature, and mostly concerned plans for their future lives and
+farm arrangements; but one saw from this that the young lord considered
+his marriage, for which the day had been set, as quite decided, and
+Frau Regine, who deemed it her indisputable right to read all of the
+letters of the engaged couple, declared herself satisfied with them.
+
+So Willibald received a gracious permission to visit his betrothed,
+which was now so much less hazardous since the dangerous little
+person--Marietta Volkmar--was at present at the Residenz, where her
+position kept her. But to be quite sure, Frau von Eschenhagen put her
+son under the protection of her brother, who, with his wife, had paid a
+brief visit to Burgsdorf upon his return from the Stahlberg works.
+
+If Willibald, during the two or three days of his visit at the
+Residenz, remained at Wallmoden's house and went with them exclusively,
+no danger was to be feared.
+
+The Ambassador saw soon after his arrival that he would be forced to
+enlighten his nephew regarding Hartmut Rojanow, for the name was
+mentioned on all sides already the first day. Willy, who at that former
+time had been the confidant of the secret rendezvous of Hartmut and his
+mother, and knew her name, started upon hearing it, coupled with a
+remark that a young Roumanian was the gifted poet, which made him still
+more suspicious.
+
+He glanced in perplexity at his uncle, who managed to signal to him
+just in time not to question any further, and who then embraced the
+first opportunity to tell him the truth.
+
+He did this, of course, in the most inconsiderate manner, and presented
+Hartmut as an adventurer of the worst kind, whom he would in a very
+short time force to give up the role which he was playing here, without
+being in the least entitled to it.
+
+Poor Willibald's head swam at the news. His bosom friend--to whom he
+had always been attached with the fondest affection, and to whom he
+still clung in spite of the harsh sentence which was being pronounced
+upon him--was here in his immediate vicinity, and he was not to go to
+see him--was not even to recognize him if chance should bring about a
+meeting. Wallmoden especially impressed the latter upon his nephew,
+who, quite stunned, promised obedience and silence, as well toward
+Adelaide as to his fiancee and the Chief Forester; but he could not
+understand the thing by a long shot yet. He needed time for that as for
+everything.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+The day upon which Arivana was to be presented had arrived. It was the
+first work of a young author and quite unknown poet, but the
+circumstances made it a professional event, which was viewed by
+everybody with intensest interest.
+
+From the earliest hour the Court Theatre was filled to its utmost
+capacity, and now the ducal couple also appeared with their guests to
+occupy the large court box. Although not formally announced, the
+performance had the character of a benefit, to which the brilliantly
+lighted house and the rich costumes and uniforms bore witness.
+
+Prince Adelsberg, who appeared in the court box, was as excited as if
+he had written the drama himself. Besides, he found himself in as rare
+as joyful accord with his most gracious aunt, who had called him to
+her, and was speaking about the work of the poet.
+
+"Our young friend seems to have caprices like all poets," she remarked.
+"What a notion to change the name of the heroine at the last moment!"
+
+"It did not happen at exactly the last moment," replied Egon. "The
+change was made at Rodeck. Hartmut suddenly took a notion that the name
+'Ada' was too cold and pure for his fiery heroine, and so her name was
+changed forthwith."
+
+"But the name Ada stands on the programme," said the Princess.
+
+"Yes, but it has been turned over to an entirely different character of
+the drama, who appears only in one scene."
+
+"So Rojanow has made changes since his reading at Furstenstein?"
+
+"Only a few; the piece itself has remained quite the same, except the
+changing of names and that short appearance of Ada; but I assure Your
+Highness this scene which Hartmut has added to the play is the most
+beautiful thing he has ever written."
+
+"Yes, of course, you find everything beautiful which comes from the pen
+of your friend," said the Princess, but the indulgent smile with which
+she dismissed the Prince showed that she was of the same opinion.
+
+In one of the proscenium boxes were seen the Prussian Ambassador and
+his wife--returned only a day or two from his vacation. His presence at
+the theatre to-day was indeed not of his free will, for he would gladly
+have remained away from this performance, but dared not out of
+consideration for his position. The Duke himself had disposed of the
+boxes, and had invited the foreign diplomats and their ladies; there
+was no possibility of remaining away, particularly as Herr and Frau von
+Wallmoden had, only a few hours previously, participated in a large
+dinner at the ducal palace.
+
+Willibald, who had won permission from his uncle to at least get
+acquainted with the work of his friend, sat in the parquette. Wallmoden
+was not pleased with his presence here, but could not well forbid him
+what he was going to do himself. Willy, who with difficulty had found a
+seat, had not thought that a member of the opera could be employed in
+the theatre, but when he opened the programme and came suddenly upon
+the name of "Marietta Volkmar," whom he was to see to-night, he folded
+the paper with a quick gesture and hid it in his pocket, regretting now
+sorely having come to the theatre.
+
+The performance now commenced. The curtain rose and the first scene
+passed quickly. It was a kind of preface, to acquaint the audience with
+the strange, fantastic world into which they were to be introduced.
+
+Arivana, the ancient, sacred place of sacrifice, appeared in a
+magnificent and appropriate setting. The most prominent character of
+the piece, the young priest, who, in the fanaticism of his belief,
+renounces utterly everything worldly and unholy, enters, and the vow
+which removes him for time and eternity from the world, and binds him
+body and soul to his deity, resounds in powerful, soulful verse.
+
+The vow was offered--the sacred fire flamed high, and the curtain fell.
+
+Applause, for which the Duke gave the signal, came from all sides.
+Although it was assured that a work which was encouraged and favored so
+by all should have a certain success, at least upon its opening night,
+there was something else mingled in the applause. The audience already
+felt that a poet spoke to them; his creation had perhaps needed the
+approval of the Court, but now, since it was before them, it sustained
+itself. One was attracted and held by the language--the characters--by
+the theme of the drama, which already betrayed itself in its principal
+features, and when the curtain rose afresh, intense, expectant silence
+rested over the vast audience hall.
+
+And now the drama developed upon a background as rich and glowing in
+color as were its language and its characters. The magnificent verdure,
+the fairy-like splendor of its temples and palaces, the people with
+their wild hatred and wilder love, and the severe, iron laws of their
+belief--all, all, was fantastic and strange; but the feeling and acting
+of these people were familiar to every one, for they stood under the
+power which was the same centuries ago, as to-day, and which takes root
+the same under the glowing sky of the tropics as in the cold North--the
+passion and power of the human heart.
+
+This was indeed a "glowing doctrine," and it preached without restraint
+the right of the passions to storm over law and institutions--over
+oaths and vows--to reach their aims; a right such as Hartmut Rojanow
+had understood and practised with his unreined will, who recognized no
+law or duty, but who was all in all unto himself.
+
+The awakening of the passion--its powerful growth, its final
+triumph--were all depicted in transporting language, in words and acts
+which seemed to originate, now from the pure heights of the ideal, and
+now from the depths of an abyss.
+
+Not in vain had the poet shrouded his characters in the veil of
+Oriental legend, but under this veil he dared to speak and indorse that
+which would hardly have been permitted him, and he did it with a
+boldness which threw igniting sparks into the hearts of the listeners,
+enchaining them demoniacally.
+
+Arivana's success was assured already at the second act. The work was
+done by artists who belonged to the best on the stage, and they were
+doing the best playing ever witnessed. Those taking the principal roles
+especially acted with the perfection of abandon which only real
+enthusiasm can give.
+
+The heroine's name was no longer Ada. Another form now bore this
+name--one who was strangely foreign to this excited picture of
+passions; one of those tender, half-fairy-like beings with whom the
+Indian legends inhabit the snow dwellings upon the icy heights of the
+Himalayas--cold and pure as the eternal snow which shines upon them.
+
+Only in one single instance, in the parting scene, she floated on
+spirit's wings through the stormy, excited gathering, remonstrating,
+entreating, warning; and Egon was right. The words which the poet had
+put into her lips were, perhaps, the most beautiful of the entire
+drama. It burst suddenly like pure, heavenly light into the flaming
+glow of a crater; but the scene was as short as beautiful. Quick as a
+breath the apparition disappeared again into her snow dwelling, and
+down yonder at the moonlit bank of the river floated the entrancing
+song of the Hindoo girl--Marietta Volkmar's soft, swelling voice--under
+the coaxing charm of which the cry of warning from the heights was
+dispelled and unheeded.
+
+The last act brought the tragic end; the breaking of the doom over the
+guilty pair; the death in the flames. This death was no atonement, but
+a triumph--"a shining, divine death," and with the flames there also
+flared up to heaven the demoniacal doctrine of the unconditional right
+of the passions.
+
+The curtain sank for the last time, and the applause, which had
+increased after every act, now grew to a storm. Usually the applause at
+the court performances was kept within measured bounds, but to-day it
+broke over the barriers. The flames of Arivana had kindled the
+enthusiasm with which the whole house demanded the appearance of the
+author.
+
+Hartmut finally appeared--without embarrassment or timidity--glowing
+with pride and joy; he bowed acknowledgment to the audience, which
+today offered him a drink he had never yet tasted in his wildly tossed
+life. They were intoxicating, these first sips from the cup of fame,
+and with this intoxicating knowledge, the celebrated poet now looked up
+to the proscenium box, whose occupants he had long ago recognized. He
+did not find, however, what he sought. Adelaide was leaning back in her
+chair, and her face was hidden by her open fan. He saw only the cold,
+unmoved face of the man who had insulted him so deeply, and who was now
+a witness of his triumph.
+
+Wallmoden understood only too well what the flash of those dark eyes
+told him: "Do you dare yet to despise me?"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The following morning at an early hour Willibald von Eschenhagen walked
+through the park, which he wanted to see--at least so he had told his
+uncle.
+
+The large, forest-like park which was situated directly before the
+city, was indeed worth seeing, but Willibald paid no attention to the
+landscape, which did not look very inviting this bleak November day.
+
+Without a glance to right or left he walked quickly forward, taking
+aimlessly now this and now that path, without noticing that he
+repeatedly returned to the same spot. It seemed as if he wished with
+this stormy walk to calm an inner unrest; he had really gone out to be
+alone in the free, open air.
+
+The young lord tried to persuade himself that it was only the meeting
+again with the friend of his youth that had taken him so completely out
+of his composure. He had not heard anything of Hartmut for fully ten
+years--did not even dare to mention him at home, and now he suddenly
+saw the lost one again, with the halo of a growing poetical glory
+around his head. Deeply and wonderfully changed in appearance and
+manner, in spite of all he was still the Hartmut with whom he had
+played his boyish games so often. He should have recognized him at the
+first glance without having been prepared for the meeting.
+
+Wallmoden, on the contrary, seemed to be disagreeably surprised at
+yesterday's success. He had hardly spoken during the drive home; his
+wife as little. She had stated in the carriage that the hot air of the
+theatre had given her an intolerable headache, and retired immediately
+upon their arrival home. The Ambassador followed her example, and when
+he gave his hand to his nephew, who wished him good-night, he said
+curtly: "Our understanding remains the same, Willibald. You are to keep
+silence toward everybody, whoever it be. Look out that you do not
+betray yourself, for the name Rojanow will be in everybody's mouth
+during the next few days. He has had luck again this time--like all
+adventurers."
+
+Willibald had accepted the remark silently, but he still felt that it
+was something else which gave the author of Arivana this success.
+
+Under other circumstances he would have considered this work as
+something unheard of--incomprehensible--without understanding it, but,
+strange to say, the understanding for it had dawned upon him yesterday.
+
+One could fall in love without the solemn approval of the respected
+parents, guardians and relations; it happened not only in India, but it
+happened here sometimes, too. One could also incautiously and hastily
+burden oneself with a vow and break it--but what then?
+
+Yes, then came the doom which Hartmut had pictured so horribly and yet
+so fascinatingly. Willy was transporting in earnest the highly romantic
+teachings of Arivana into Burgsdorf affairs, and the doom suddenly
+assumed the features of Frau von Eschenhagen, who, in her wrath, was
+surely worse than an angry caste of priests.
+
+The young lord heaved a deep sigh. He thought of the second act of the
+play, when, from the circle of Hindoo girls who marched to the place of
+sacrifice, a delicate figure had stepped forth, inexpressibly charming
+in the white, flowing garments, and the wreath of flowers in her curls.
+His eyes had hung riveted upon her, who appeared but twice or thrice
+upon the stage, but after that her song had sounded from the banks of
+the moonlit river. It was the same clear, sweet voice which had
+enchanted the listener at Waldhofen, and now the old mischief, which he
+had struggled down and thought forgotten, was back again. It stood
+before him with giant size, and the worst of it was that he did not
+even consider it longer as a mischief.
+
+The tireless walker now came for the third time to a small temple, open
+in front, and in which stood a statue, while a bench in the background
+invited one to rest.
+
+Willibald entered this time and sat down, less from a desire to rest
+than to be able to follow his thoughts undisturbed.
+
+It was, perhaps, ten o'clock in the morning, and the paths were at this
+hour almost deserted. Only a solitary pedestrian--a young man elegantly
+dressed--walked leisurely and with apparent aimlessness along the
+paths. He seemed to be expecting some one, for he glanced impatiently
+now toward town, and now toward the Parkstrasse which bordered the park
+for some distance.
+
+Suddenly he came toward the temple and took his stand behind it, where
+he could keep the path in view without being seen.
+
+In about five minutes a young lady came from the city--a delicate,
+graceful figure, in dark cloak and fur cape, with her fur cap pressed
+closely down upon her curly head, and a muff in her hand, from which
+peeped a roll of music. She was passing the temple quickly, when
+suddenly she uttered an ejaculation of displeased surprise:
+
+"Ah--Count Westerburg!"
+
+The young man had approached and bowed.
+
+"What a happy coincidence! How could I hope that Fraulein Marietta
+Volkmar would take so early a walk in the park!"
+
+Marietta stood still and measured the speaker from head to foot. Her
+voice had a half-angry, half-contemptuous sound as she answered:
+
+"I do not believe in this coincidence, Herr Count. You cross my path
+too often and persistently for that, although I have shown you
+sufficiently how annoying your attentions are to me."
+
+"Yes, you are endlessly cruel to me," said the Count, reproachfully,
+but with undeniable impertinence. "You do not accept my calls, refuse
+my flowers and offerings, and do not even return my greetings when I
+pass you by. What have I done to you? I have ventured to lay homage at
+your feet in the form of jewels, which you returned to me----"
+
+"With the request that you discontinue such impertinences once for
+all," interrupted the young girl vehemently. "I protest, besides,
+against your continued advances. You have actually lain in wait for me
+here."
+
+"Mon Dieu! I only wished to beg your pardon for that boldness," assured
+Count Westerburg, apparently submissive, but at the same time he
+stepped into the middle of the narrow path, so that it was impossible
+to pass. "I might have known that you are unapproachable, for everybody
+protests that none protects her name so jealously as you, beautiful
+Marietta."
+
+"My name is Fraulein Volkmar!" cried Marietta, angrily. "Keep your
+flattering speeches for those who allow such things to be told them. I
+shall not do it, and if your advances do not cease I shall have to call
+in protection."
+
+"Whose protection?" sneered the Count. "Perhaps that of the old lady
+with whom you live and who is always and everywhere at your side,
+except in your walk to Professor Marani. The singing studies at the old
+gentleman's are not dangerous, and that is the only walk you take
+alone."
+
+"Then you knew that I went to the Parkstrasse at this hour! Then it is
+actually an attack! Please let me pass. I wish to go."
+
+She tried to pass by him, but the young man stretched out his arms so
+that he filled the path.
+
+"You will assuredly permit me to accompany you, mein Fraulein. Only
+look, the path is quite lonely and deserted; there is not a soul
+around. I really must offer you my escort."
+
+The path seemed, indeed, quite deserted, and another girl might have
+been intimidated by this reference to her defencelessness, but the
+little Marietta only drew herself up undauntedly.
+
+"Do not dare to attempt to follow me by even a step." she cried in
+deepest anger. "Your escort is just as unbearable to me as your
+presence. How often must I tell you that?"
+
+"Ah, so angry!" cried the Count with a malicious smile. "Well, I shall
+not have ventured this attack for nothing. I shall at least repay
+myself with a kiss from those charming, angry lips."
+
+He actually prepared to fulfil his threat, approaching the quickly
+retreating girl, but at that moment, propelled by an awful blow, he
+flew to one side and fell full length upon the damp ground, where he
+remained lying in a very pitiable plight.
+
+Startled at this unexpected and stormy succor, Marietta turned around,
+and her face, flushed from insult and anger, bore expression of great
+amazement as she recognized her deliverer, who now stood at her side,
+looking wrathfully at the form upon the ground, as if it were his
+highest desire to quite finish him.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen--you!"
+
+In the meantime Count Westerburg had struggled painfully to his feet
+and now drew near his aggressor threateningly.
+
+"How dare you! Who gives you the right----"
+
+"I advise you to remain ten feet away from this young lady,"
+interrupted Willibald, placing himself in front of Marietta, "or you
+will fly off again, and the second blow might not prove as soft as the
+first."
+
+The Count, a slender, far from powerful man, measured the giant before
+him, whose fist he had already felt, but one look was enough to
+convince him that he would come out second best in an encounter.
+
+"You will give me satisfaction--if you are worth it," he hissed in a
+half-choked voice. "Probably you do not know whom you have before
+you----"
+
+"An impudent fellow whom one chastises with pleasure," said Willy
+stolidly. "Please remain standing where you are, or I will do it now.
+My name is Willibald von Eschenhagen. I am lord of Burgsdorf, and can
+be found at the mansion of the Prussian Ambassador if you should have
+more to tell me---- If you please, mein Fraulein, you may trust
+yourself unhesitatingly to my protection. I pledge myself that you will
+not be molested further."
+
+And now something unprecedented, unheard of, happened. Herr von
+Eschenhagen, without stammering, without showing embarrassment of any
+kind, offered his arm with a genuinely chivalrous movement to the young
+lady, and carried her off without concerning himself further about the
+Count.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII.
+Marietta had accepted the proffered arm without speaking a word until,
+having reached a considerable distance, she commenced, with a timidity
+otherwise foreign to her manner: "Herr von Eschenhagen----"
+
+"Mein Fraulein."
+
+"I--I am very grateful for your protection, but the Count--you have
+insulted him--even with a blow. He will challenge you and you will have
+to accept it."
+
+"Of course, with the greatest pleasure," said Willy, and his face was
+beaming as if the prospect gave him unmixed delight.
+
+His awkward, embarrassed manner had suddenly disappeared; he felt
+himself a hero and deliverer, and enjoyed the new position immensely.
+
+Marietta looked at him in speechless amazement.
+
+"But it is awful that this should happen for my sake!" she commenced
+again, "and that it should be just you."
+
+"Perhaps that is not agreeable to you," said the young lord, who in his
+present elated mood took offence at the last remark. "But Fraulein, in
+such a case one has no choice. Forced by necessity, you had to accept
+me as protector, even if I did not stand very high in your esteem."
+
+A burning blush spread over Marietta's face at the remembrance of that
+hour when she had poured out her supreme contempt on the man who now
+took her part so gallantly.
+
+"I thought only of Toni and her father," she returned in a low voice.
+"I am blameless in this matter, but if I should be the cause of your
+being torn from your fiancee----"
+
+"Toni must accept it then as providential," said Willy, upon whom
+the mention of his betrothed made little impression. "One can
+lose his life anywhere, and one must not always expect the worst
+consequences----Where shall I carry you, Fraulein? To the Parkstrasse?
+I believe I heard that you wished to go there."
+
+She shook her head quickly.
+
+"No, no! I intended going to Professor Marani, who is teaching me a new
+role, but I cannot sing now--it is impossible. Let us look for a
+carriage; we may find one over there. I would like to go home."
+
+Willibald turned his steps at once in the appointed direction, and they
+walked on silently to the edge of the park, where several cabs were
+standing.
+
+The young girl stopped here and looked anxiously and entreatingly at
+her companion.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen must it really be? Cannot the matter be smoothed
+over?"
+
+"Hardly: I have given the Count a heavy blow and called him an impudent
+fellow, and shall stand to that, of course, if it should come to any
+explanation; but do not worry about that. The affair will probably be
+settled with a few scratches by tomorrow or the day after."
+
+"And must I remain two or three days in this anxious uncertainty? Will
+you not at least send me word about it?"
+
+Willibald looked into the dark, tearful eyes, and with that look there
+came into his eyes that strange sudden glow as on that day when he
+heard the voice of the "_singvoegelchen_" for the first time.
+
+"If everything passes off happily I shall come myself and bring you
+word," he replied. "May I?"
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly. But if an accident occurs--if you should
+fall?"
+
+"Then keep me in better remembrance than heretofore, mein Fraulein,"
+said Willibald, earnestly and cordially. "You must have considered me a
+great coward--oh, do not say anything! You were right. I felt it myself
+bitterly enough--but it was my mother whom I was accustomed to obey,
+and who loves me very much. But you shall see now that I know how a man
+must act when a defenceless girl is being insulted in his presence. I
+will now erase, if need be, with my blood, that bad hour."
+
+Without giving her time to reply he called one of the waiting cabs,
+opened the door, and gave the driver the street and number which
+Marietta had given him. She entered the carriage and stretched out her
+little hand to him once more. He held it for a moment, then the young
+girl threw herself back upon the cushion with a stifled sob, and the
+carriage rolled away.
+
+Willy followed it with his eyes until nothing more could be seen of it,
+then he drew himself up and said with a kind of grim satisfaction: "Now
+take care, Herr Count! It will be a real pleasure to me now to fire
+until sight and hearing leave me."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+Twilight came on early this bleak November day, and the Adelsberg
+palace was already lighted when the Prince, returning from a short
+drive, reached the portal.
+
+"Is Herr Rojanow in his rooms?" he inquired of the servant who hastened
+up.
+
+"At your service, Your Highness," the man replied, bowing low.
+
+"Order the carriage at nine o'clock. We drive to the ducal palace."
+
+Egon mounted the stairs and entered the apartments of his friend, which
+adjoined his own on the first floor, and which, like all the rest of
+the princely house, were furnished with antique splendor.
+
+A lamp burned upon the table of the sitting-room. Hartmut lay stretched
+upon a lounge in a position indicative of utter weariness and
+exhaustion.
+
+"Are you resting upon your laurels?" asked the Prince, laughing and
+drawing near. "I cannot blame you, for you have not had a moment's
+peace to-day. It is really a rather trying business to be a new rising
+star in the poetical firmament; nerve is required for it. The people
+actually fight each other for the honor of being allowed to tell you
+flatteries. You have held a grand reception today."
+
+"Yes, and now we have to go to the Court besides," said Hartmut in a
+weary voice. The prospect seemed to have no charm for him.
+
+"We must, indeed. The illustrious ladies and gentlemen wish also to
+bring their homage to the poet--my most gracious aunt at their head.
+You know she is a kind of _bel-esprit_, and believes to have found a
+kindred soul in you. Thank God, she does not order me to her side so
+continually, and perhaps through this she will forget those unfortunate
+schemes for my marriage. But you seem to be very unappreciative of the
+ducal favors which rained upon you yesterday. What is the matter? You
+hardly answer. Are you not well?"
+
+"I am tired. I wish I could escape all this noise and flee to the quiet
+of Rodeck."
+
+"Rodeck! Ah, it must be charming there at present, with the November
+fogs, and the wet, leafless forests! Brrr! a real spook's haunt!"
+
+"Nevertheless, I have a real longing for that gloomy solitude, and I
+shall go there soon for a few days. I hope you have no objections?"
+
+"I have very many objections to it," exclaimed Egon, indignantly. "What
+notion is this, I beg of you? Now, when the whole town lifts the poet
+of Arivana upon the shield, will you withdraw your honored presence and
+escape all the triumphs and attentions to bury yourself alive in a
+haunted little forest nook, which is only bearable in sunshine!
+Everybody will find it incomprehensible."
+
+"I don't care. I need solitude now. I go to Rodeck."
+
+Egon shook his head. Although he was accustomed to seeing his friend
+act in this domineering, inconsiderate manner whenever the notion
+seized him, and had himself spoiled him in this respect with all his
+might, the present idea seemed too preposterous.
+
+"I believe my most gracious aunt is right," he said half reproachfully,
+half jestingly. "She remarked yesterday at the theatre, 'Our young poet
+has caprices like all of his class.' I think so, too. What is the
+matter now, really, Hartmut? Yesterday and to-day you beamed with
+triumph, and now I have left you hardly an hour, when I find you in a
+regular attack of melancholy. Have the papers annoyed you? Perhaps it
+is some malicious, envious critic?"
+
+He pointed to the writing table, where the evening papers lay.
+
+"No, no," returned Rojanow quickly. But he turned his head so that his
+face was in shadow. "The papers contain only general remarks so far,
+and they are all flattering. You know that I am subject to such moods,
+which often overcome me without cause."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but now that good luck overwhelms you on all sides,
+those moods should absent themselves. But you really look haggard--that
+comes from the excitement through which both of us have passed during
+these last few weeks."
+
+He bent over his friend with concern, and Hartmut, in rising regret for
+his brusque manner, stretched out his hand.
+
+"Forgive me, Egon. You must have patience with me--it will pass off."
+
+"I hope so, for I want to do proud with my poet to-night. But I will go
+now, so that you can rest. Do not let anybody disturb you. We have
+still three hours before we have to go."
+
+The Prince left the room. He had not seen the bitter expression
+trembling around Hartmut's mouth when he spoke of his overwhelming good
+fortune, and yet he had spoken the truth. Fame was happiness--perhaps
+the highest in life--and to-day had confirmed the triumph of yesterday,
+until suddenly, an hour ago, a sharp discord had fallen into the
+flattering tune.
+
+The young poet had scanned the papers which he found upon his table on
+his return. They did not contain explicit remarks about Arivana, but
+recognized unanimously the great success and powerful impression of the
+work, and promised detailed criticism the next day.
+
+Suddenly, in turning to the last page, Hartmut came upon a name, at the
+sight of which intense, anxious surprise overwhelmed him.
+
+The next moment, however, he recognized that he was not the one
+concerned in the article. It stated that the last journey of the
+Prussian Ambassador to Berlin seemed to have been of greater importance
+than was at first supposed. In an audience with the Duke immediately
+after his return, Herr von Wallmoden had apparently brought some very
+important things to light; and now, a high-standing Prussian officer,
+who was the bearer of important messages to His Highness, was expected.
+It doubtless concerned military matters, and Colonel Hartmut von
+Falkenried would arrive in a few days.
+
+Hartmut dropped the paper as if it had suddenly become red-hot iron.
+His father would come to this place and would certainly hear everything
+from Wallmoden--_must_ hear everything. The chance of meeting was then
+very probable.
+
+"When you shall have gained a great, proud future, approach him again
+and ask if he still dares to despise you."
+
+Zalika had whispered it to her son when he struggled against
+flight--against the breaking of his word of honor. Now the beginning of
+his future was made. The name Rojanow already bore the laurel of the
+poet, and with that the whole past was erased. It should be--it must
+be! This conviction flashed in the glance which Hartmut had thrown so
+triumphantly up to the Ambassador's box yesterday.
+
+But now, when it meant the meeting of his father's eyes, the defiant
+one trembled. Those eyes were the only thing upon earth that he feared.
+
+Hartmut was half decided to go to Rodeck and return only when he heard
+through the papers that "the high-standing officer" had left the
+Residenz.
+
+Yet something kept him here--a secret but burning longing. Perhaps the
+hour of reconciliation had now come when the poet's fame rose so
+brilliantly; perhaps Falkenried would see now that such a power needed
+liberty and life to develop, and would pardon the unfortunate, boyish
+folly which, with his views, had hurt him so deeply.
+
+Was he not his child? his only son, whom he had embraced with such
+passionate tenderness that night at Burgsdorf? At this remembrance a
+longing for those all-powerful arms, for the home which should no
+longer be lost to him, for the whole boyhood which, although
+constrained, had yet been so happy, pure and guiltless, flooded
+Hartmut's inmost heart.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+At this moment the door opened and the butler entered, bearing upon a
+waiter a card. He presented it to Hartmut, who refused it with an
+impatient gesture.
+
+"Did I not tell you that I did not wish to see any one else to-day? I
+wish to remain undisturbed."
+
+"I told the gentleman so," replied the servant, "but he begged me to at
+least give you his name--Willibald von Eschenhagen."
+
+Hartmut started suddenly from his reclining position. He could not
+believe that he had heard aright.
+
+"What is the gentleman's name?"
+
+"Von Eschenhagen--here is the card."
+
+"Ah, let him enter, instantly!"
+
+The servant departed, and Willibald entered the next moment, but
+remained standing at the door in uncertainty. Hartmut had sprung up and
+looked toward him. Yes, there were the same familiar features--the
+dear, well-known face, the honest blue eyes of his friend, and with the
+passionate cry, "Willy--my dear old Willy, is it you! You come to me?"
+he threw himself stormily upon his breast.
+
+The young lord, who had no idea how strangely his appearance at this
+moment fitted into his friend's dreams of his youth, was most perplexed
+over this reception. He remembered how domineering Hartmut had always
+been to him, and how he had made him feel his mental inferiority at
+every opportunity. He had thought yesterday that the highly honored
+author of Arivana would be still more imperious and haughty, and now he
+found an overflowing tenderness.
+
+"Are you glad, then, at my coming, Hartmut?" he asked, still somewhat
+doubtful. "I was almost afraid it would not be acceptable."
+
+"Not acceptable, when I see you now after a lapse of ten long years!"
+cried Hartmut reproachfully, and he drew his friend down beside him,
+questioning him and covering him so with affection that Willy lost all
+embarrassment and also returned to the old familiarity. He said that he
+was in town for only three days and that he was on his way to
+Furstenstein.
+
+"Oh, yes; you are betrothed," joined in Rojanow. "I heard at Rodeck who
+was to be the Chief Forester's son-in-law, and have also seen Fraulein
+von Schonan. Let me congratulate you with all my heart."
+
+Willibald accepted the good wishes with a peculiar face, and looked to
+the floor as he replied, half audibly: "Yes, but to tell the truth,
+mamma made the engagement."
+
+"I should have known that," said Hartmut, laughing, "but you have at
+least said 'Yes' without being forced?"
+
+Willy did not answer. He studied the carpet intently and suddenly asked
+quite disconnectedly: "Hartmut, how do you do when you compose poetry?"
+
+"How do I do?" Hartmut with an effort suppressed his laughter. "Really
+that is not easy to tell. I do not believe that I can explain it
+sufficiently."
+
+"Yes, it is a funny condition to make poetry," assented the young man
+with a sad shake of the head. "I experienced it last night when I
+returned from the theatre."
+
+"What! You compose poetry?"
+
+"And such poetry!" cried Willy in high satisfaction, but added in
+somewhat subdued tones: "Only I cannot find rhymes, and it also sounds
+quite different from your verses. To tell the truth, it did not run
+right, and I want to ask you how you do the affair. You know it is not
+to be anything grand like your Arivana--only just a little poem."
+
+"Of course to 'her,'" finished Hartmut.
+
+"Yes, to her," assented the young lord with a deep breath, and now his
+listener laughed aloud.
+
+"You are a model son, Willy, one must confess. It does happen sometimes
+that one is betrothed at paternal or maternal command, but you
+dutifully fall in love with your bride-elect besides, and even compose
+poetry to her."
+
+"But it is not to the right one," exclaimed Willibald suddenly, with
+such a strained expression that Rojanow looked at him in perplexity. He
+really believed that his friend was not in his senses; and Willibald
+must also have felt that he was making a peculiar impression. He
+therefore began an explanation, but anticipated himself so much and was
+so vague, that the affair became only the more tangled.
+
+"In fact, I have had an encounter with a fellow this morning who dared
+to insult a young lady--Fraulein Marietta Volkmar, from the Court
+Theatre. I knocked him to the ground and I would do it again to him or
+to anybody who gets too near Fraulein Volkmar."
+
+He stretched out his arm so threateningly that Hartmut caught it
+quickly and restrained him.
+
+"Well, I do not intend to get near her--you can spare me for the
+present. But what is Marietta Volkmar to you--the little mirror of
+virtue of our opera--who has so far been considered unapproachable?"
+
+"Hartmut, I request that you speak of this lady with reverence. In
+short, this Count Westerburg has challenged me. I am going to exchange
+shots with him, and hope to give him a good reminder."
+
+"Well, you really are making good progress in romance," said Hartmut,
+who listened with ever-increasing interest. "You have been here only
+three days and have commenced with a quarrel which ends in a challenge,
+and are the knight and protector of a young singer--have a duel for her
+sake. Willy, for heaven's sake, what will your mother say?"
+
+"This concerns an affair of honor, and my mother cannot interfere
+here," declared Willy with a really heroic effect, "but now I must get
+a second here, where I am quite a stranger and do not know a soul.
+Uncle Herbert must not hear anything about it, of course, or he would
+interfere with the police. So I decided to come to you and ask you if
+you would render me this service."
+
+"That was what brought you," said Rojanow, in a tone of painful
+disappointment. "I really believed old friendship had done it; but,
+nevertheless, of course, I am at your command. What weapons does the
+challenge demand?"
+
+"Pistols!"
+
+"Well, you know what to do with them. We practiced often enough with a
+target at Burgsdorf, and you were a good shot. I shall look up the
+second of your opponent to-morrow morning and send you word then. I
+have to do that in writing, as I do not enter the house of Herr von
+Wallmoden."
+
+Willy only nodded. He thought Wallmoden's hostility was being
+reciprocated, but deemed it best not to make any inquiries upon this
+point.
+
+"Very well, just write me," he replied. "Arrange things as seems best
+to you; I shall be satisfied with everything; I have no experience in
+such things. Here is the address of the second, and now I must go. I
+have several things to put in order yet, in case the worst happens."
+
+He arose and extended his hand to his friend in farewell, but Hartmut
+took no notice of it. His eyes were fixed on the floor, as he said in
+low, hesitating tones: "One thing more, Willy. Burgsdorf is so near
+Berlin. Perhaps you often see----"
+
+"Whom?" asked Willibald, as Hartmut paused.
+
+"My--my father."
+
+The young lord became visibly embarrassed at the question. He had
+avoided the mention of Falkenried during the conversation, but did not
+seem to be aware of his near arrival.
+
+"No," he said, finally; "we hardly ever see the Colonel."
+
+"But does he not come to Burgsdorf as of old?"
+
+"No, he has become very unsocial. But I happened to see him in Berlin
+when I went to meet Uncle Herbert."
+
+"And how does he look? Has he aged any during these last years?"
+
+Willibald shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Of course he has aged; you would hardly recognize him with his white,
+hair."
+
+"White hair!" Hartmut burst forth. "He is hardly fifty-two years old.
+Has he been ill?"
+
+"Not that I know of. It came quite suddenly--in a few months--at the
+time when he asked for his discharge."
+
+Hartmut blanched, and his eyes were strained fixedly upon the speaker.
+
+"My father sought a discharge? He who is a soldier through, body and
+soul; to whom his vocation---- In what year was it?"
+
+"It did not come to an issue," said Willy, pacifyingly; "they did not
+let him go, but removed him to a distant garrison, and he has been in
+the Ministry of War for three years."
+
+"But he wanted to leave--in what year?" panted Rojanow, in a sinking
+voice.
+
+"Well, at the time of your disappearance. He believed his honor
+demanded it, and, Hartmut, you ought not to have done that to your
+father--not that. He almost died from it."
+
+Hartmut made no answer, no attempt to defend himself; but his breast
+heaved in deep, unsteady breaths.
+
+"We will not speak of it," said Willibald, stopping short; "it cannot
+be changed now. I shall expect your letter to-morrow. Get everything in
+order. Good night."
+
+Hartmut did not seem to hear the words--did not notice the departure of
+his friend. He stood there immovable, with eyes on the floor, and only
+after Willibald had long disappeared did he straighten himself slowly
+and draw his hand across his brow.
+
+"He wished to leave!" he murmured; "to leave the army because he
+thought his honor demanded it. No--no, not yet. I must go to Rodeck."
+
+The honored poet, upon whose brow Fate was pressing the first laurel
+wreath--who only yesterday had challenged the whole world in this
+victorious knowledge--dared not meet the eye of his father. He fled
+into solitude.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+In one of the quieter streets, whose modest but pleasant houses were
+mostly surrounded by gardens, Marietta Volkmar lived with an old
+lady--a distant relative of her grandfather--who was alone, but willing
+and glad to be protection and company to the young singer.
+
+The two ladies led a life about which the ever-busy tongue of gossip
+could find nothing to say, and were much beloved by other members of
+the house. Fraulein Marietta, with her pleasant, happy face, was an
+especial favorite, and when her clear voice rang through the house
+everybody stopped to listen. But the _singvoegelchen_ had grown mute in
+the past two days, and showed pale cheeks and eyes red from weeping.
+The people shook their heads and could not understand it until they
+heard from old Fraulein Berger that Dr. Volkmar was sick, and his
+granddaughter was worried about him, but could not obtain leave of
+absence without a more forcible reason.
+
+This was, indeed, no falsehood, for the old doctor had really been
+suffering for several days from a severe cold, but it offered no
+occasion for serious concern. It was only a plausible explanation of
+Marietta's changed demeanor, which was noticed even by her colleagues
+at the theatre.
+
+The singer was standing at the window, gazing steadily out, in her
+plain but cosily furnished sitting room, having just returned from a
+rehearsal, while Fraulein Berger sat at a little table with her
+needlework, casting anxious glances at her protegee.
+
+"But, dear child, do not take this affair so sorely to heart," she
+admonished. "You will wear yourself out with this anxiety and
+excitement. Why anticipate the worst at once?"
+
+Marietta did not turn. She was painfully pale, and a suppressed sob was
+in her voice as she replied:
+
+"This is now the third day, and yet I cannot learn anything. Oh, it is
+awful to have to wait like this, hour after hour, for bad news."
+
+"But why must it be bad news?" the old lady spoke consolingly. "Herr
+von Eschenhagen was still well and bright yesterday afternoon. I
+inquired about him at your special request. He went to drive with Herr
+and Frau von Wallmoden. The affair has probably been settled amicably."
+
+"I should have heard of it," said the young girl, in a heartbroken way.
+"He promised me, and he would have kept his word, I know. If misfortune
+has really happened to him--if he has fallen--I believe I could not
+live!"
+
+The last words were spoken so passionately that Fraulein Berger looked
+at the speaker in dismay.
+
+"Do be reasonable, Marietta," she entreated. "How are you responsible
+for an impertinent man insulting you, or the betrothed of your friend
+stepping in to your rescue? You really could not act more despairingly
+if your own betrothed stood before the pistol."
+
+The cheeks, just now so pale, flushed redly, and Marietta turned to the
+window with a quick gesture.
+
+"You do not understand, auntie," she said, in a low voice; "you do not
+know how much love and kindness have been shown me in the house of the
+Chief Forester--how earnestly Toni begged my forgiveness when she
+learned how deeply her future mother-in-law had offended me. What will
+she think of me when she hears that her betrothed has been in a duel
+for my sake? What will Frau von Eschenhagen say?"
+
+"Well, they will at least be open to the conviction that you are quite
+innocent in this affair, which, if it ends well, they will not hear of.
+I do not recognize or understand you in all this. You used to laugh
+away every care and anxiety, but this time you exaggerate it in a
+really incomprehensible manner. You have scarcely eaten or drunk in two
+days in your excitement; you must not sit at my table to-day as you did
+yesterday and the day before. I tell you that; and now I will look
+after the dinner."
+
+The kind old lady arose and left the room to prepare some extra dainty
+with which to tempt her protegee's fleeting appetite.
+
+She was right; the merry, bright Marietta would not now be recognized.
+Beyond a doubt it gave a painful, depressed feeling to be brought
+before the people of Furstenstein in so bad a light through that
+occurrence in the park, and even here in town her name, so carefully
+protected, might suffer if something of it should be heard; but,
+strange to say, these possibilities remained in the background because
+of a fear which grew with every hour and was hardly to be borne any
+longer.
+
+"With my blood, if it must be."
+
+Unconsciously she whispered Willibald's last words, and pressed her hot
+brow against the window pane. "Oh, my God, not that!"
+
+Suddenly at the street corner a figure appeared, which attracted
+attention on account of its unusual size. He came nearer with rapid
+steps and looked searchingly at the house numbers.
+
+With a suppressed cry of joy, Marietta sprang from the window. She had
+recognized Herr von Eschenhagen. She did not wait until he pulled the
+bell, but hastened to open the door. Tears shimmered yet in her eyes,
+but her voice was jubilant as she cried: "You come at last! God be
+praised!"
+
+"Yes, here I am, well and whole," assured Willibald, whose face lighted
+up at his reception.
+
+Neither knew how they reached the sitting room. To the young man it
+seemed as if a small, soft hand had been laid upon his arm and had
+drawn him along, all unresisting. But when they stood before each
+other, Marietta noticed that a broad, black bandage was around his
+right hand.
+
+"Mon Dieu, you are injured!" she cried in fear.
+
+"A slight scratch--not worth mentioning," Willibald said merrily,
+waving the hand. "I have given the Count a more severe reminder, but it
+is also only a glance shot in the shoulder, and not in the least
+dangerous to his precious life. That man could not even shoot right."
+
+"Then you did have the duel? I knew it."
+
+"This morning at 8 o'clock. But you need fear nothing more, mein
+Fraulein. You see everything has passed off well."
+
+The young singer drew a deep breath, as if relieved of a mountain load.
+
+"I thank you, Herr von Eschenhagen. No--no, do not refuse my thanks.
+You have endangered your life for my sake. I thank you a thousand
+times."
+
+"There is no cause, Fraulein; I did it gladly," said Willibald,
+cordially. "But, since I have stood before the pistol now for your
+sake, you must permit me to bring you a little token of remembrance.
+You will not throw it at my feet again?"
+
+He somewhat awkwardly--because of his left hand--drew out from his
+pocket a white tissue paper, and, opening it, disclosed a full-blown
+rose with two buds.
+
+Marietta dropped her eyes in confusion. Mutely she accepted the flowers
+and fastened one of them at her throat. Then she stretched out her hand
+to the giver just as mutely.
+
+He fully understood the apology.
+
+"Of course you are accustomed to different floral offerings," he said,
+apologetically. "I hear a great deal of the homage people pay you."
+
+The young girl smiled, but with a more pathetic than happy expression.
+
+"You have been a witness to what this homage is at times, and it was
+not the first time it has happened. The gentlemen seem to think they
+are permitted to venture anything when one is on the stage. Believe me,
+Herr von Eschenhagen, it is often hard to bear this lot, for which I am
+envied by so many."
+
+Willibald listened intently to these words.
+
+"Hard to bear? I thought you loved your vocation above everything, and
+would not leave it at any price."
+
+"Oh, surely I love it; but I had not thought that so much bitterness
+and hardship were connected with it. My teacher, Professor Marani,
+says: 'One must rise as on eagle's wings; then all the low and vulgar
+will remain far below.' He may be right, but one must be an eagle for
+that, and I am only a '_singvoegelchen_,' as my grandfather calls me,
+which has nothing but its voice and cannot rise so high. The critics
+often tell me that fire and strength are wanting in my rendering. I
+feel myself that I have no real dramatic talent. I can only sing, and
+would rather do that at home in our green forests than here in this
+golden cage."
+
+The voice of the usually bright, cheery girl sounded full of deeply
+suppressed emotion. This last occurrence had shown her again very
+plainly her unprotected position, and now her heart opened to the man
+who had interfered so bravely for her.
+
+He listened in rapt attention and seemed to read the words from her
+lips, but at this truly sad report his face beamed as if something very
+joyful was being related, and now he interrupted vehemently:
+
+"You long to get away from here? You would like to leave the stage?"
+
+Marietta laughed aloud, in spite of her sorrow.
+
+"No, I really do not think of that, for what should I do then? My
+grandfather saved and economized for years to make my education as a
+singer possible, and it would be poor gratitude if I should be a burden
+to him in his old age. He does not know that at times his little
+_singvogel_ longs for its nest, or that life is made hard for her here.
+I am not usually without courage. I persevere and stand strong whenever
+it must be so. Do not let these, my laments, be heard at Furstenstein.
+You are going there?"
+
+A shadow passed over the beaming face of young Eschenhagen, and he was
+the one now to lower his eyes.
+
+"I, indeed, go to Furstenstein this afternoon," he replied, in a
+strangely suppressed tone.
+
+"Oh, I ask this one thing more. You must tell your betrothed
+everything--you hear?--everything. We owe it to her. I shall write her
+to-day about the occurrence, and you will confirm my letter with your
+words--yes?"
+
+Willibald raised his eyes slowly and looked at the speaker. "You are
+right, Fraulein. Toni must hear everything the whole truth. I had
+already decided on that before I came here; but it will be a hard hour
+for me."
+
+"Oh, surely not," said Marietta, encouragingly. "Toni is good and full
+of trust. She will believe your word and my word, that we are both
+innocent in this affair."
+
+"But I am not without guilt--at least toward my bride-elect," declared
+Willibald, earnestly. "Do not look at me in such affright. You must
+hear it later, anyway, and it is perhaps better that I tell you myself.
+I am going to Furstenstein only to ask Toni"--he stopped short and drew
+a deep breath--"to give me back my troth."
+
+"For heaven's sake, why?" cried the young girl, horrified at this
+explanation.
+
+"Why? Because it would be wrong should I offer Toni my hand and
+stand with her at the altar, with my heart as it is now. Because
+only now do I see what the principal thing is for betrothal and
+marriage--because----" He did not finish, but his eyes spoke so plainly
+that Marietta fully understood the rest.
+
+Her face suddenly colored crimson. She drew back and made a violently
+repellent gesture.
+
+"Herr von Eschenhagen, be silent; do not speak another word."
+
+"But it is not my fault," Willibald continued, in spite of the command.
+"I have struggled manfully and tried truly to keep my promise during
+the whole time I was at Burgsdorf. I believed it would be possible; but
+then I came here and saw you again in 'Arivana' on that evening, and
+knew that the struggle had been in vain. I had not forgotten you,
+Fraulein Marietta--not for an hour--as often as I had tried to make
+myself believe it, and I shall not forget you all my life long. I shall
+confess this to Toni openly, and shall also tell my mother when I
+return to her."
+
+The confession was made. The young lord, who could not manage the first
+proposal at Furstenstein alone, but had to be helped by his mother, now
+spoke as warmly and heartily--as openly and as truly--as a man must
+speak in such an hour. He had learned it suddenly, and with the
+helplessness which he shook off with such decision, there seemed to
+fall off, too, all his awkwardness and ridiculous manner.
+
+He quickly approached Marietta, who had fled to the window, and his
+firm voice grew unsteady as he continued: "And now one question. You
+looked so pale when you opened the door for me, and your eyes spoke of
+tears. The affair may have been painful and mortifying to you; I can
+understand that, but did you also fear a little for my welfare?"
+
+No answer, but low sobs.
+
+"Did you fear for me? Only a little 'yes,' Marietta. You have no idea
+how happy you would make me."
+
+He bent low over the young girl, who now slowly raised the small, bowed
+head. In her dark eyes there glowed a spark as of secret happiness. The
+answer was almost inaudible.
+
+"I? Ach, I have almost _died_ of fear these last two days."
+
+Willibald gave a joyful exclamation and drew her to his breast; but
+only for a moment, then she struggled from his embrace.
+
+"No--not now. Go now, please."
+
+He released her at once and stepped back.
+
+"You are right, Marietta; not yet. But, after I have freed myself, I
+shall come again and ask for another 'yes.' Farewell."
+
+He hastened away before Marietta had scarce recovered control of
+herself. She was aroused by the voice of Fraulein Berger, who,
+unnoticed by the two, had stood upon the threshold of the adjoining
+room for several moments, and who now approached in a state of horror.
+
+"Child, for mercy's sake, what does it mean? Do you not consider----"
+
+The young girl did not let her finish, but threw both arms around her
+neck and wept passionately.
+
+"Ah, now I know why I was so enraged at the time he suffered his mother
+to insult me. It hurt me so inexpressibly to believe him a coward; I
+have loved him from the first."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+In the house of the Prussian Ambassador everything was in a state of
+preparation for the winter festivities. When Wallmoden had entered his
+present position, in the spring, society was already scattered in all
+directions for the summer, and immediately afterward occurred the sad
+event which had put an end to all festivities for them. These causes,
+however, were done with now.
+
+The many halls and apartments of the Ambassador's palace had been
+furnished with such splendor as Herbert's circumstances, made brilliant
+by his marriage, permitted; and it was his intention to have as
+magnificent a home as was possible to obtain. Their first grand
+reception was to take place next week, and in the meantime numerous
+calls were being made and returned.
+
+The Ambassador was also much occupied with his official duties,
+and, besides, there was one thing which ruined his peace of mind
+completely--the success of Arivana. If he had had doubts before about
+opposing Rojanow's publicity, it had now become quite impossible. The
+"adventurer" was raised upon the shield and his poetical spirit was
+being praised everywhere. The Court and society generally could not be
+forced now to drop him without subjecting themselves to mortification,
+and it was questionable, besides, if they would drop him at all, since
+only hints and vague remarks could be given. That grand success had
+made Hartmut almost unapproachable.
+
+To add to the embarrassment of the Ambassador's position, Falkenried's
+arrival was expected in the near future, from whom the truth could not
+be kept, for fear he should hear it from outsiders.
+
+The Colonel, of whose present trip nothing was known when Wallmoden had
+seen him in Berlin a short time ago, would be here in a few days and
+would make his headquarters at the Ambassador's palace, since he was no
+stranger to Adelaide. She and her brother had, in a measure, grown up
+under his eyes.
+
+When, ten years ago, the then Major Falkenried had been removed to the
+distant province, he had been stationed at a post in the small town
+lying in the immediate vicinity of the great Stahlberg works and
+dependent almost entirely upon them. The new Major was considered an
+excellent soldier, but a pronounced man-hater, who enjoyed his duties
+only, occupying all his spare time with military studies, and who hated
+everything that came under the head of society.
+
+As he was alone, he was excused from keeping an open house, and he
+exhibited himself only at houses where his position imperatively
+demanded it. Such consideration had to be shown the great manufacturer,
+who was the leader of the whole vicinity, and who received and
+entertained as guests the first and highest personages.
+
+Stahlberg had been the only one whom the military man approached.
+Although the grave and gloomy reticence of the Major excluded real
+friendship, yet the two men felt the highest esteem for each other, and
+the Stahlberg home was the only place where Falkenried appeared
+occasionally of his own free will.
+
+He had had intercourse there for years and seen the two children grow
+up. Therefore Wallmoden was the more offended that Falkenried did not
+attend his wedding, but excused himself through pressure of official
+duties.
+
+Adelaide knew little or nothing about the life of the Colonel. She
+considered him childless and heard only from her husband that he had
+been married early in life, but had been separated from his wife and
+was now a widower.
+
+It was about a week after the return of the Wallmodens that
+Falkenried's arrival was announced to the young wife as she sat one day
+at her writing table. She threw aside her pen, arose quickly and
+hastened to her friend.
+
+"You are heartily welcome, Colonel Falkenried. We received your
+telegram, and Herbert intended to meet you at the depot, but just at
+this hour he has an audience with the Duke, and is still at the palace,
+so we could only send the carriage."
+
+Her greeting had all the cordiality which an old friend of her father's
+could wish, but Falkenried's response was not of a like kind. Coldly
+and seriously he accepted the offered hand and the invitation to be
+seated, as he thanked her for her welcome.
+
+The Colonel had indeed changed, so much as scarcely to be recognized.
+Were it not for the tall, muscular form and strong, firm carriage, one
+could have taken him for an old man. His hair--the hair of a man barely
+fifty years old--was white as snow, the brow furrowed deeply, and sharp
+lines were buried in the face, making it look ten years older. The
+features, once so expressive, appeared fixed and immovable now; the
+entire appearance and bearing bespoke stern, impenetrable reticence.
+
+Regine's words, "The man is turned to stone," were only too true. One
+involuntarily gained the impression that he had become a total stranger
+to the world, and that all mankind had died off for aught that moved
+him--nothing was left except the duties of his vocation.
+
+"Perhaps I have disturbed you, Ada," he said, using her old home name
+as he glanced at the writing table where lay a half-finished letter.
+
+"There is plenty of time for that," replied the young wife, lightly. "I
+was only writing to Eugene."
+
+"Ah? I am the bearer of love from your brother. I saw him the day
+before yesterday."
+
+"I knew that he intended going to Berlin and to see you. He has not
+seen you for nearly two years now, and I, too, saw but little of you
+during our journey through Berlin. We hoped you would come to
+Burgsdorf, where we stayed for a few days, and I believe that Regine
+felt very hurt that you did not accept her invitation for this time,
+either."
+
+The Colonel looked to the floor; he knew why he avoided Burgsdorf and
+its reminiscences. He had hardly been there twice since his return to
+the Capital.
+
+"Regine knows how economical I have to be with my time," he replied,
+evasively. "But, to return to your brother, Ada; I should like to speak
+to you, and therefore I am glad to find you alone. What is the
+difficulty between Eugene and his brother-in-law? Has something
+happened to alienate them?"
+
+A certain embarrassment was visible in Adelaide's face at the question,
+but she answered lightly:
+
+"Nothing especial; the two are not very congenial."
+
+"Not very congenial? Wallmoden is nearly forty years his senior, and
+his guardian besides. Your brother will not be of age for several
+years. In such case the younger one must submit unconditionally."
+
+"Certainly; but Eugene, although as good as gold, is only too often
+rash and passionate as he has always been."
+
+"Alas, so he is. He will have to change considerably if he wishes to
+fill, half as well as his father did, the important and responsible
+position which awaits him. But something else seems to be the trouble
+here. I made a casual remark about your marriage, Ada--which event, to
+tell the truth, surprised me, although I am on friendly terms with your
+husband--and said that I had not thought you had so much ambition; but
+at this Eugene burst out and defended you in the most passionate
+manner, and spoke of a sacrifice which his sister had made for him. In
+short, he allowed himself to be carried away into words and hints which
+surprised me in the highest degree."
+
+"You should not have paid any attention to it," said Adelaide, with
+visible emotion. "A young, hot head takes everything tragically. What
+did he tell you?"
+
+"In fact, nothing definite. He seems to have given you his word to keep
+silent and not speak without your permission; but he seems to almost
+hate his brother-in-law. What does all this mean?"
+
+The young wife was silent; the conversation seemed painful to her in
+the highest degree.
+
+Falkenried looked at her searchingly as he continued: "You know it is
+not my way to inquire into the secrets of others. I take but little
+interest in the doings of people around me, but my friend's honor comes
+into consideration here; those remarks contain a crimination. Of
+course, I could not allow that, but when I remonstrated with your
+brother and threatened to speak to Wallmoden about it, he said: 'My
+Herr brother-in-law will explain the affair diplomatically to you. He
+has proved a very diplomat in it all. Ask Ada if you wish to learn the
+truth.' I ask you first, therefore; but if you cannot and will not
+answer, then I must speak to your husband, from whom I cannot keep such
+remarks."
+
+He spoke in a cold and measured tone, without any excitement. The
+affair, apparently, caused him no interest whatever. He considered it
+necessary to take it up solely because a point of honor came in
+question.
+
+"Do not speak to Herbert about it, I beg of you," interrupted Adelaide,
+quickly. "I shall have to explain to you, since Eugene allowed himself
+to be carried away so far; but he has taken the matter too hard from
+the beginning. There is nothing dishonorable about it."
+
+"I hope so, since Wallmoden is concerned," said the Colonel, with
+emphasis.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+The young Baroness lowered her voice and evaded the eyes of her
+listener as she commenced.
+
+"You know that my engagement happened a year ago at Florence. My father
+was even then very ailing, and the physicians desired that he should
+remain in Italy during the winter. We went to Florence, intending to
+stay two months, and then make further plans according to the wish of
+the invalid. My brother had accompanied us, but was to return home at
+the beginning of winter.
+
+"We took a villa outside the city, and, of course, lived quite secluded.
+Eugene saw Italy for the first time, and it was so mournful for him to
+sit day after day in the lonely sick room, that I seconded his request
+to go to Rome for a short time. He finally received permission. Oh, if
+I had never done it! But I could not know how deeply his inexperience
+would involve him then."
+
+"That means that he followed up adventures, although his father was at
+death's door."
+
+"Do not judge so harshly. My brother was scarcely twenty years old
+then, and had always lived under the eyes of a loving but very strict
+father. The short freedom proved dangerous to him. The young German,
+who had no knowledge of the world whatever, was enticed into circles
+where high--and as it was afterward proved--false gambling was the
+order of the day, and where a number of bad, but outwardly charming,
+elements met. Eugene, in his ignorance, did not understand it, and lost
+heavily, until suddenly the party was raided by the police. The
+Italians defended themselves, and it ended in a fight, into which
+Eugene, too, was drawn. He only defended himself, but he had the
+misfortune to injure a policeman severely, and was arrested with the
+others."
+
+The Colonel had listened silently, with impassive face, and his voice
+was as harsh as before as he said: "And Stahlberg had to live to see
+this of his son, who had been a model until then?"
+
+"He never heard of it; it was only a momentary losing of one's self--a
+case of one misled, rather than guilty, and it will not happen again.
+Eugene has given me his word of honor for that."
+
+Falkenried laughed so scornfully that his companion looked at him in
+consternation.
+
+"His word of honor! Yes, why not? That is given as easily as it is
+broken. Are you truly so trusting as to believe in the word of such a
+young lad?"
+
+"Yes, that I am," asserted Adelaide, in an injured tone, while her
+eyes, earnest and reproachful, met the gaze of the man whose awful
+bitterness she could not explain. "I know my brother. In spite of this
+escapade, he is the son of his father, and he will keep his word to me
+and to himself--I know it."
+
+"It is well for you if you can still believe and trust. I have long
+forgotten how," said Falkenried, in a low but milder tone. "And what
+happened then?"
+
+"My brother succeeded in being allowed to send me word immediately.
+'Keep it from father, it would be his death,' he wrote. I knew better
+than he did that our desperately ill father could not stand such news.
+But we were alone in a foreign country, without friends or
+acquaintances, and help had to be had instantly. In this extremity I
+thought of Herr von Wallmoden, who at the time was at the embassy at
+Florence. We had known him slightly before, and he had called directly
+after our arrival and placed himself at our command, should we need the
+help of the Ambassador. He had come to our house frequently, and now
+hastened to me immediately upon receiving my request. I told him all,
+and trusted him, beseeching his advice and help--and received it."
+
+"At what price?" demanded the Colonel, with darkly contracted brows.
+
+Adelaide shook her head.
+
+"No, no; it is not as you think--as Eugene also believed. I was not
+forced. Herbert gave me free choice, although he did not hide from me
+that the occurrence was much worse than I feared; that those sums lost
+in play must, nevertheless, be paid if one wished to keep the affair
+from publicity; that, in spite of all, it might get into the courts, on
+account of the injury to the policeman. He explained to me that he
+might be brought into a wrong light if he mixed himself up in such
+affairs. 'You desire me to save your brother,' said he; 'perhaps I can
+do it, but I jeopardize my position--my whole future thereby. One
+makes such a sacrifice, perhaps, only for his own brother, or--his
+brother-in-law."
+
+Falkenried arose suddenly and took a turn through the room. Then he
+stood still before the young wife and said, in angry tones: "And you,
+of course, believed that in your anxiety?"
+
+"Do you mean that it was not so?" asked Adelaide, startled.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders with a half-contemptuous expression.
+
+"Possibly. I do not know these diplomatic reasons. I know only one
+thing; Wallmoden has, indeed, proved himself a great diplomat in the
+whole affair. What did you answer him?"
+
+"I asked for time to think, everything had burst so upon me. But I
+knew, that no moment was to be lost, and that same evening I gave
+Herbert the right to act--for his brother-in-law."
+
+"Of course," muttered the Colonel, with deep disdain; "the wise, shrewd
+Herbert!"
+
+"He obtained leave of absence immediately, and went to Rome," continued
+the young Baroness, "returning in a week, accompanied by my brother. He
+had succeeded in freeing Eugene and withdrawing him from the whole
+affair. Even the newspapers did not mention the name of the young
+German who had been involved in it. I do not know by what means it was
+done. If one has powerful friends and does not need to spare money,
+much is possible. Herbert had spent money lavishly on all sides and had
+brought into use every advantage made possible to him through his long
+years of diplomatic work. He also cancelled the gambling debts,
+although with his own bond. He told me later that he had given half his
+fortune for that purpose."
+
+"It was very magnanimous, since by this sacrifice he won a cool
+million. And what did Eugene say to this--trade?"
+
+"He knew nothing of it, and soon returned to Germany, as had been
+decided at first. From that time Herbert came to our house daily and
+knew how to prepossess my sick father so well, that father finally felt
+a desire for the union himself. Only then did Herbert begin his wooing.
+I was grateful to him for giving it this turn, only Eugene was not
+deceived. He guessed everything, and forced the truth from me. Since
+then he has tortured himself with self-reproach and almost feels
+hostility toward his brother-in-law, in spite of my repeated assurance
+that I have never had cause to rue that step, and that I have in
+Herbert the most attentive and considerate husband."
+
+Falkenried's eyes rested intently upon the face of the young wife, as
+if he wished to read her most secret thoughts.
+
+"Are you happy?" he asked, slowly.
+
+"I am content."
+
+"That is much in this life," said the Colonel in the old, harsh tone.
+"We were not born to be happy. I have done you wrong, Ada. I believed
+the splendor of a high position, the desire to play a first role in
+society as wife of the Ambassador, had made you Frau von Wallmoden,
+but--I am glad that t judged you wrongly."
+
+He stretched forth his hand. Some expression was now in the icy gaze
+and an apology in the grasp of the hand.
+
+"You know everything now," concluded Adelaide, with a deep breath, "and
+I beg that you will not touch upon the subject before Herbert. You see,
+there was nothing dishonorable in his dealings. I repeat to you that he
+used neither force nor persuasion. I was forced only by the power of
+circumstances. I could not expect that he would make such sacrifices
+for a stranger."
+
+"If a lady had sought me in such anxiety, I would have made the
+sacrifices--unconditionally," declared Falkenried.
+
+"Yes, you! I would have followed you also with a lighter heart."
+
+The avowal betrayed, unconsciously, how hard had been the struggle
+which the young wife had not mentioned by a word. But she spoke the
+truth.
+
+She would much rather have given herself to the gloomy, reticent man,
+with his harsh and often offensive manner, if the sacrifice had to be
+made, than to the ever polite and attentive husband, who, in the face
+of her extremity--had traded with it.
+
+"You would have had a hard lot then, Ada," said the Colonel, with a
+grave shake of the head. "I am one of the men who cannot give or
+receive anything more in this life. I have finished with it long ago.
+But you are right; it is better to let that subject remain untouched
+between Wallmoden and me, for if I wished to tell him my true opinion
+about it--well, he will always be a diplomat."
+
+Adelaide arose, breaking off the conversation, and tried to assume a
+lighter tone.
+
+"And now let me take you to your rooms at last. You must be exhausted
+by the long trip."
+
+"No, a single night's journey will not tire a soldier. Duty makes
+harsher demands than that on us."
+
+He drew himself up straight and firm; one could see that his physical
+strength was yet unbroken. Those muscles and sinews seemed like steel.
+It was the features alone that bore the mark of age.
+
+The eyes of the Baroness lingered upon them thoughtfully, especially
+upon the brow which was so deeply and heavily furrowed and yet was
+formed so high and powerful under the white hair.
+
+It seemed to her as if she had seen that brow somewhere else, under
+dark locks; but there could not be a sharper contrast than between this
+too early aged, care-lined face and that youthful head with the
+foreign, southern beauty and the uncanny light in the eyes. Yet it had
+been the same brow over which the lightnings had flamed on that lonely
+forest height; the same high, powerful curve; even the blue veins which
+were so pronounced at the temples--a strange, incomprehensible
+likeness!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+After some hours the two friends were alone together in Wallmoden's
+study. The latter had just made the unavoidable as well as painful
+disclosure. He had told the Colonel under what circumstances Rojanow
+was in the city, and had unveiled to him uncompromisingly everything he
+knew of Hartmut's life and that of his mother, finally informing him of
+her death.
+
+He had feared this hour, but the result was quite different from what
+he had expected. Mutely Falkenried leaned against the window with
+folded arms and listened to the long explanations, without interrupting
+by a word or gesture. His face remained cold and impassive; no quiver,
+no motion betrayed that he heard those things which must bring anguish
+to his heart. He was now also "a man of stone."
+
+"I believed I owed these explanations to you," concluded the Ambassador
+finally. "If I have kept what I knew of the fate of the two from you so
+long, it was done solely that you might not be tortured unnecessarily
+with what was hard enough for you to overcome. But you had to learn now
+what has happened, and how matters stand at present."
+
+The Colonel retained his position and his voice betrayed no mental
+excitement as he replied:
+
+"I thank you for your good will, but you could have spared yourself
+these explanations. What is that adventurer to me?"
+
+Wallmoden looked up amazed; he had not expected such a response.
+
+"I thought it necessary to prepare you for the possibility of meeting
+him," he returned. "As you have heard, Rojanow now plays an important
+role; he is celebrated everywhere. The Duke is deeply wrapped up in
+him. You might meet him at the castle."
+
+"And what then? I do not know anybody by the name of Rojanow, and he
+will not dare to know me. We should pass each other as strangers."
+
+The Ambassador's gaze rested searchingly upon Falkenried's features as
+if to fathom this real coldness or incomprehensible self-command.
+
+"I thought you would receive the news of the reappearance of your son
+very differently," he said, half aloud.
+
+For the first time he intentionally used this title; hitherto he had
+merely said Rojanow. But now, for the first time also, an emotion was
+visible in the calm figure at the window. But it was an emotion of
+anger.
+
+"I have no son--remember that, Wallmoden. He died to me that night at
+Burgsdorf, and the dead do not rise."
+
+Wallmoden was silent; the Colonel approached him and laid his hand
+heavily upon his arm.
+
+"You said just now that it was your duty to enlighten the Duke, and
+that you had not done so solely out of consideration for me. I
+have, indeed, but one thing to guard in the world--the honor of my
+name--which, through that exposition, would be at the mercy of the
+world's raillery and scorn. Do what you think you must do--I shall not
+hinder you. But--I shall also do what I have to do."
+
+His voice sounded as cold as before, but it contained something so
+awful that the Ambassador started up in affright.
+
+"Falkenried, for heaven's sake, what do you mean? How am I to interpret
+those words?"
+
+"As you like. You diplomats define honor differently at times from us.
+I am very one-sided about it."
+
+"I shall keep silence inviolably, I pledge you my word," assured
+Wallmoden, who did not understand the last bitter hint, for he had no
+idea of Adelaide's confession. "I had decided on that before you came;
+the name of Falkenried shall not be sacrificed by me."
+
+"Enough, and now no more of it. You have prepared the Duke for what I
+bring?" asked Falkenried, passing on to an entirely different subject
+after a short pause. "What has he to say to it?"
+
+Here again was the old iron, unbending will, which put aside all
+questioning; but the sudden change seemed to be acceptable to the
+Ambassador. He was, here as well as elsewhere, the wise diplomat who
+dreaded nothing so much as public exposure, and who would never have
+thought of exposing Hartmut, had he not feared that by a possible
+leaking out of the truth later and of his knowledge of it, it might be
+counted against him. Now, in the worst case, he could cover himself
+with the promise he had given the father. Even the Duke must
+acknowledge that he--Wallmoden--had had to spare his friend. The shrewd
+Herbert knew how to calculate here, too.
+
+The stay of Colonel Falkenried was only of short duration, and during
+the time he had no rest. Audience with the Duke--conferences with high
+military dignitaries, communications with his own embassy--all were
+crowded within a few days.
+
+Wallmoden was hardly less occupied, until finally everything was
+settled. The Ambassador, and especially Colonel Falkenried, had reason
+to be satisfied with the results, for everything had been successful
+that was expected and desired by their government, and they could be
+sure of the highest appreciation at home.
+
+Only the most nearly connected circles knew that something important
+was going on, and even in these circles only a few knew the full
+importance of the conferences. Scarcely anything was noticed in public,
+which, therefore, occupied itself only the more with its present
+favorite, the poet of Arivana, whose incomprehensible behavior made him
+so much more interesting in the Residenz.
+
+Almost immediately after that brilliant triumph of his work he had
+withdrawn from all praise and homage, and had gone into "forest
+solitude," as Prince Adelsberg laughingly informed all questioners.
+Where this solitude was, nobody learned. Egon assured them that he had
+given his word not to betray the place of his friend's seclusion, for
+he needed rest after all his excitement, but would return in a few
+days. Nobody knew that Hartmut was at Rodeck.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+Within the week, one cold winter morning, the carriage of Herr von
+Wallmoden stood at his palace door. It seemed to be preparing for a
+long excursion, for servants were carrying furs and travelling rugs to
+it, while upstairs in the room where they had just breakfasted, the
+Ambassador was taking leave of Colonel Falkenried.
+
+"Until to-morrow evening, _auf wiedersehen_," he was saying as he shook
+hands. "We shall be back by that time without fail, and you will surely
+remain a few days longer?"
+
+"Yes, since the Duke wishes it so particularly," answered the Colonel.
+"I have so reported it to Berlin, and my report left on the same train
+that carried yours."
+
+"Yes, I believe they will be satisfied with these reports; but it
+has been a hot time. We had no rest all those days. Now, fortunately,
+everything is arranged, and I can afford to absent myself for
+twenty-four hours to drive to Ostwalden with Adelaide."
+
+"Ostwalden is the name of your new country home? I remember that you
+spoke of it yesterday. Where is it situated?"
+
+"About two miles from Furstenstein. Schonan drew my attention to it
+while we were with him and I looked at the place at that time. It is
+rather an extensive possession in the famous Wald, beautifully
+situated, but the price was too high at first, which has delayed the
+settlement. We have but now come to a final understanding."
+
+"I believe Ada is not quite satisfied with your selection. She seems to
+have something against the vicinity of Furstenstein," interrupted
+Falkenried, but the Ambassador only shrugged his shoulders carelessly.
+
+"A caprice, nothing more. At first Adelaide was quite delighted with
+Ostwalden, but later she raised all sorts of objections--but I cannot
+pay any attention to that. I shall probably remain there for
+considerable periods, as I no longer like to travel far in the summer.
+A country seat which is only four hours removed from town is therefore
+of great value to me. The castle itself is in rather a dilapidated
+condition at present, but something can be made of it. With appropriate
+changes and additions it can be made a really superb residence, and I
+intend doing that. I shall therefore look it over carefully, so that
+the plans can be finished as soon as possible. I have not been there as
+yet since I bought it."
+
+He made his statements with much evident satisfaction over his plans.
+Herbert von Wallmoden, who had originally possessed only a limited
+fortune, and was compelled to expend it with great care, had suddenly
+found it necessary to buy a sumptuous place in town, where he lived
+only temporarily, and to have a princely villa for his summer
+residence. But he did not find it necessary to consider the wishes
+of his wife, whose wealth made it possible to him to play the great
+land-owner.
+
+Falkenried may have had such ideas while listening, but he did not
+speak of them. He had turned graver and stonier, if possible, in the
+last few days, and if he really asked a question or made a remark
+during the conversation, one could see it was but mechanical, and
+because he had to say something.
+
+Only when Adelaide entered, perfectly equipped for the journey, he
+arose promptly and offered his arm to lead her to the carriage. He
+lifted her in, and Wallmoden, who followed her, leaned once more from
+the carriage door. "We shall assuredly return to-morrow. Au revoir."
+
+Falkenried bowed and stepped back; It was indifferent to him whether he
+saw the friend of his youth again. This, too, had lost its interest;
+but when he ascended the steps, he murmured half aloud; "Poor Ada, she
+deserved a better fate!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+In the meanwhile everything pursued its usual course at Furstenstein.
+Willibald had been there a week. He had arrived two days later than had
+been expected, but the injury to his hand was the cause of that.
+According to his explanation it had happened through his own
+carelessness, and the hand was already rapidly getting well.
+
+The Chief Forester found that his future son-in-law had changed much
+for the better during the short intervening time of his absence, and
+that he had become much more earnest and decided; and he remarked to
+his daughter with the highest satisfaction: "I believe that Willy is
+only now commencing to be human. One notices directly when his lady
+mamma is not standing commandingly at his side."
+
+But Herr von Schonan did not have much time at his disposal to notice
+the engaged couple, as he was at present overwhelmed with official
+duties. The Duke had ordered several changes in the forest government
+to be made according to the suggestions of the Chief Forester, who was
+now zealously occupied in executing all of them.
+
+He saw and heard daily that Antonie and Willy were on the best terms,
+so he left them mostly to themselves.
+
+Meanwhile in the house of the doctor at Waldhofen care and anxiety had
+made their appearance. The sickness of the doctor, which at first had
+given no cause for fear, suddenly took a dangerous turn, which was
+augmented greatly by the age of the patient. He had called persistently
+for his granddaughter, and she had been telegraphed for. She had at
+once obtained leave of absence--her role in Arivana was filled by
+another--and she hastened without delay to Waldhofen.
+
+Antonie showed a touching fidelity to her friend at this time. Day
+after day found her at the home of the Volkmars to console and cheer
+Marietta, who clung to her grandfather with her whole soul.
+
+Willibald seemed to be likewise necessary at these consolations, for he
+accompanied Toni regularly, and the Chief Forester thought it quite
+natural that "the poor little thing" was being consoled and helped to
+the best of their ability, more especially as she had suffered so
+unmerited an insult in his house, for which he could not to this day
+forgive his sister-in-law.
+
+Finally, after three long, sorrowful days and nights, the doctor's
+strong constitution conquered; the danger was passed, and hopes of a
+full recovery were entertained.
+
+Herr von Schonan, who was cordially attached to the doctor, was
+heartily glad of it, and so everything seemed to have come into the
+best of order.
+
+But threatening weather arose from the north. Without a word of warning
+Frau von Eschenhagen suddenly appeared at Furstenstein. She had not
+taken time to stop in town where her brother lived, but came directly
+from Burgsdorf, and burst like a hurricane upon her brother-in-law, who
+sat in his room very comfortably reading the paper.
+
+"All good spirits--is it you, Regine?" he cried, amazed. "This is what
+I call a surprise; you ought to have sent us word."
+
+"Where is Willibald?" demanded Regine in a dangerous tone, by way of
+answer. "Is he at Furstenstein?"
+
+"Of course, where else should he be? I believe he has announced his
+arrival here to you."
+
+"Let him be called--immediately."
+
+"But what is the matter?" asked Schonan, noticing now for the first
+time his sister-in-law's excitement. "Is there a fire at Burgsdorf,
+or what? I cannot call Willy to you this moment, for he is at
+Waldhofen----"
+
+"Probably at Dr. Volkmar's--and she is probably there, too."
+
+"Who is 'she'? Toni has, of course, gone with him. They visit that poor
+little thing daily--Marietta--who was quite despairing at first. I must
+speak a word with you on this point, Regine. How could you offend the
+dear girl so deeply, and in my house besides? I only heard of it
+afterward, or----"
+
+A loud, angry laugh interrupted him. Frau von Eschenhagen had thrown
+hat and cloak upon a chair and now drew close to her brother-in-law.
+
+"Are you to reproach me because I tried to avert the evil which you
+have brought upon yourself? Of course you have always been blind and
+would never listen to my warnings--now it is too late."
+
+"I believe you are not in your right mind, Regine," said the Forester,
+who really did not know what to think of it all. "Will you be so kind
+as to tell me what you mean?"
+
+Regine drew forth a newspaper and handed it to him, pointing with her
+finger to a paragraph.
+
+"Read!"
+
+Schonan obeyed, and now his face also grew red in angry surprise. The
+article, which was dated from the South German Residenz, read as
+follows:
+
+
+"We have just learned that a duel with pistols took place last Monday,
+very early in the morning, in a remote part of our park. The opponents
+were a well-known resident, Count W--, and a young North German
+landowner, W--v. E--, who is visiting his relative here--a high and
+distinguished diplomat. The cause of the duel is reported to be a
+member of our Court Theatre, a young singer who bears the best of
+reputations. Count W-- was injured in the shoulder. Herr v. E-- carried
+off a slight wound in the hand, and departed immediately."
+
+"Thunder and lightning!" burst forth the Chief Forester, violently.
+"The betrothed of my Toni has a duel for Marietta's sake! So this is
+the cause of the injured hand which he brought with him! This is
+charming, indeed! What else do you know about it, Regine? My paper did
+not notice it."
+
+"But mine did; it was copied from one of your papers, as you see. I
+read it yesterday and hastened here at once. I did not even stop to see
+Herbert, who cannot have known anything about it, or he would have
+notified me."
+
+"Herbert will be here at noon," said Schonan, throwing the paper
+angrily upon the table. "He is at Ostwalden with Adelaide, and has
+written that he will return by Furstenstein and stop over a few hours.
+Perhaps he is coming on this account, but that does not change anything
+in the matter. Has that boy--that Willibald--gone crazy?"
+
+"Yes, that he has," assented Frau von Eschenhagen in like anger. "You
+made fun of me, Moritz, when I exhorted you not to let your child
+associate with an actress. Indeed, I had no idea that matters could
+take such a turn until the moment I discovered that Willy--that my
+son--was in love with Marietta Volkmar. I snatched him instantly from
+the danger and returned to Burgsdorf. This was the reason of our sudden
+departure, which I kept from you, because I considered Willy's
+condition as a passing fancy. The boy seemed to have returned to his
+senses completely. I would not otherwise have permitted him this
+journey; and to be surer still, I placed him under the protection of my
+brother. He cannot have been more than three or four days in town, and
+now we must live to see this!"
+
+Quite exhausted, she threw herself into an arm-chair. The Chief
+Forester began to stride about the room vehemently. "And this is not
+the worst yet," he cried. "The worst is the farce which the boy is
+playing with his betrothed here. My child goes to Waldhofen day after
+day, consoling and helping wherever she can, and the Herr Willy always
+runs along, and uses the opportunity as a rendezvous. That is too
+outrageous! You have raised something nice in that son, Regine."
+
+"Do you think I make excuses for him?" demanded Regine. "He shall
+answer to us both--I have come for that. He shall learn to know me."
+
+She lifted her hand as if making a vow, and Schonan, who was still
+racing through the room, repeated angrily: "Yes, he shall learn to know
+us."
+
+Then and there the door opened, and the betrayed bride-elect entered
+into this wild excitement--calm and serene as usual, and saying in the
+most innocent way: "I have just heard of your arrival, dear aunt; you
+are very welcome."
+
+She received no answer, but from both sides instead sounded the
+question: "Where is Willibald?"
+
+"He will be here directly; he has gone to the castle gardener for a few
+moments, as he did not know of his mother's arrival."
+
+"To the gardener! Perhaps to get roses as before," burst forth Frau von
+Eschenhagen; but the Chief Forester opened his arms and cried in
+pathetic tones:
+
+"My child! my poor betrayed child! Come to me come into your father's
+arms."
+
+He attempted to draw his daughter to his heart, but Regine came upon
+the other side and also attempted to draw her to her breast, crying out
+in just as pathetic tones: "Compose yourself, Toni. An awful blow
+confronts you, but you must bear it. You must show your betrothed that
+he and his betrayal are an abomination to your deepest soul."
+
+This stormy sympathy was rather startling, but fortunately Antonie had
+strong nerves. So she freed herself from the double embrace, stepped
+back, and said with calm decision: "I do not think it so. I begin only
+now to really like Willy."
+
+"So much the worse," said Schonan. "Poor child, you do not know yet;
+you have no idea of anything! Your betrothed has had a duel for
+another's sake."
+
+"I know that, papa."
+
+"For Marietta's sake," explained Frau von Eschenhagen.
+
+"I know it, dear aunt."
+
+"But he loves Marietta!" cried both in accord.
+
+"I know that, too," replied Toni, with superior mien. "I have known it
+for a week."
+
+The effect of this explanation was so crushing that the two furious
+people became silent and looked at each other in consternation. Toni
+continued with imperturbable composure:
+
+"Willy told me everything directly upon his arrival. He spoke so
+beautifully and truly that I wept with emotion. At the same time a
+letter arrived from Marietta, in which she begged my pardon, and that
+was still more touching. So nothing was left to me but to give back to
+Willy his promise and freedom."
+
+"Without asking us?" exclaimed Regine.
+
+"The asking would not have been of any use here," said Toni, calmly,
+"for I could not marry a man who tells me that he loves another. We
+have therefore quietly dissolved our engagement."
+
+"So? And I learn it only now? You have become very independent
+suddenly," cried her father angrily.
+
+"Willy intended to speak to you the next day, papa, but he could not
+have remained here any longer after such an explanation, and just then
+occurred the serious illness of Dr. Volkmar and Marietta's arrival. She
+was in despair poor Marietta! and Willy's heart almost broke at the
+thought of leaving her alone in this anxiety and of going away without
+knowing what turn the illness would take; so I proposed to him to keep
+quiet for the present, until the danger should be past; but I went with
+him to Waldhofen daily, so that he could see and console Marietta. They
+have been so grateful to me--those two. They have called me the
+guardian angel of their love."
+
+The young lady seemed to find this very touching, too, for she carried
+her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen stood stiff and rigid as a statue, but Schonan
+folded his hands and said with a resigned sigh: "May God bless your
+kindness, my child! but such a thing has never happened before. And you
+have arranged the affair very smoothly, I must confess. You have sat
+and looked quietly on while your betrothed made love to another girl."
+
+Antonie shook her head impatiently. Apparently she liked the role of
+guardian angel, and found her position one she could fill without any
+great exertion, since her affection for her betrothed had always been a
+very cool one.
+
+"There was no sign of love-making, as the doctor was too seriously
+ill," she returned. "Marietta cried incessantly and we had plenty to do
+to console her. Now you see and understand that I am not at all
+betrayed, and that Willy has acted openly and honestly. I asked him
+myself to be silent to you, and, in fact, the matter concerns us
+only----"
+
+"Do you think so? It is therefore of no concern to us?" interrupted the
+Chief Forester furiously.
+
+"No, papa. Willy is of the opinion that we need not mind our parents in
+this matter at all."
+
+"What does Willibald mean?" demanded Frau von Eschenhagen, who regained
+her speech at this unheard-of assertion.
+
+"That each must love the other before marrying, and he is right,"
+declared Toni, with unusual vivacity. "It was not in our engagement at
+all--in fact, we were not even consulted--but I shall not permit it
+another time. I see now what it means for two people to love each other
+with all their heart, and how remarkably Willy has changed through it.
+I, too, want to be loved as Marietta is loved, and if I do not find a
+man who loves me exactly like that--then I shall not marry at all."
+
+And after this remark Fraulein Antonie walked out of the room with much
+decision and a highly elevated head, leaving father and aunt in an
+indescribable condition.
+
+The Chief Forester was the first to regain composure, but suppressed
+vexation was still in his voice as he turned to his sister-in-law and
+said: "Your boy has managed nicely, I must confess, Regine. Now Toni
+wants to be loved also, and begins to get romantic ideas in her head,
+and Willy seems to be far gone already in that respect. I actually
+believe he has managed to make this second proposal by himself."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen paid no attention to this bitter hint of her
+interference at the former time. Her face bore an expression which
+promised nothing good.
+
+"You seem to look upon this affair from a comic standpoint," she said.
+"I take it differently."
+
+"That will not help you any," returned Schonan. "When such a model son
+commences to rebel, the affair is usually hopeless, especially when he
+is in love. But I am curious to know how Willy behaves himself as a
+lover--it must be a remarkable sight!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+Herr von Schonan's curiosity was to be immediately satisfied, for Willy
+now appeared. He had heard of the arrival of his mother and was
+therefore prepared for anything, for that there must be something
+especial to bring her to Furstenstein so unexpectedly, he knew. But the
+young lord did not shrink back this time as he did two months ago, when
+he timidly concealed the rose in his pocket. His bearing betrayed that
+he was determined to take up the unavoidable contest.
+
+"Here is your mother, Willy," commenced the Chief Forester. "I suppose
+you are very much surprised to see her here?"
+
+"No, uncle, I am not," was the answer, but the young man made no
+attempt to approach his mother, for she stood there like a threatening
+storm cloud, and her voice rumbled like distant thunder as she said:
+"So you know why I have come?"
+
+"I at least guess it, mamma, even if I cannot understand how you have
+heard----"
+
+"The papers have told all--there it lies," interrupted Frau von
+Eschenhagen, pointing to the table, "and, besides, Toni has told us
+everything--do you hear? everything!"
+
+She pronounced this last word in an annihilating tone. Willy was not
+moved from his composure, but replied tranquilly:
+
+"Well, I shall not have to tell you, then. I should have spoken to
+uncle to-day about it."
+
+This was too much. The storm cloud burst now with thunder and
+lightning; it loaded and discharged with such vehemence over the head
+of the young lord that really nothing seemed left for him to do but to
+disappear quickly under the ground, which could not bear a person of
+his kind any longer.
+
+But he did not disappear; he only bowed his head to the storm, and when
+it finally subsided--for Frau Regine had necessarily to draw breath
+some time--he drew himself up and said: "Mamma, please let me talk."
+
+"You want to talk? that is remarkable," declared Schonan, who was not
+used to such efforts from his daughter's betrothed; but Willibald
+actually began, hesitatingly and uncertainly at first, but he gradually
+acquired firmness in speech and bearing.
+
+"I am sorry that I have to offend you, but it could not be helped. I am
+just as innocent about the duel as Marietta is. She was being followed
+by an impertinent fellow persistently. I protected her and chastised
+the offender, who sent me a challenge, which I never could nor would
+decline. I have to beg Toni's pardon alone for loving Marietta, and I
+did that immediately upon my arrival. She heard everything and gave me
+back my pledge. Indeed, we have broken our engagement much more
+independently than we formed it."
+
+"Oh, ho, is that meant for us?" cried the Forester angrily. "We did not
+force you--both of you could have said no if you had wished."
+
+"Well, we do that now as a supplement," returned Willibald, so quickly
+that Schonan looked at him amazed. "Toni came to the same conclusion
+that custom alone is not sufficient for marriage, and if one has
+learned to know happiness, one wants to possess it also."
+
+Fran von Eschenhagen, who had not yet quite regained her breath,
+started at these words as if bitten by a snake. It had never entered
+her mind that a second engagement would follow the first, now broken.
+She had never contemplated this most awful of possibilities.
+
+"Possess it," she repeated. "What do you wish to possess? Does that
+mean perhaps that you want to marry this Marietta--this creature----"
+
+"Mamma, I beg you to speak in a different tone of my future wife," her
+son interrupted her, so gravely and decidedly that the angry mother
+stopped indeed. "Toni has given me freedom; therefore there is no wrong
+in my love for Marietta, and Marietta's reputation is blameless--I am
+convinced of that. Whoever hurts or offends her has to answer to me,
+even if it should be my own mother."
+
+"Hear, hear! the boy is coming out," murmured the Chief Forester, with
+whom the sense of justice overpowered his vexation, but Frau von
+Eschenhagen was far from listening to justice.
+
+She had thought to crush her son with her appearance, and now he
+offered her resistance in this never before heard of manner.
+
+His manly behavior tried her most, as she recognized by it how deep and
+powerful was the feeling which could change him so completely.
+
+"I will spare you the enforcement of it toward your mother," she said
+with boundless bitterness. "You are of age, and master of Burgsdorf. I
+cannot prevent you, but if you really bring this Marietta Volkmar there
+as your wife--then I leave."
+
+This threat did not miss its aim. Willibald started and drew back.
+
+"Mamma, you speak in anger."
+
+"I speak in deepest earnestness. As soon as an actress enters the house
+where I have lived and worked for thirty years--where I had hoped to
+lay my head down for its final rest--I shall leave the house forever.
+She may reign there then. You have the choice between her and your
+mother."
+
+"But, Regine, do not force it to such a conclusion," Schonan tried to
+pacify her. "You torture the poor boy with this cruel 'either--or.'"
+
+Regine did not listen to the exhortation. She stood there white to the
+lips, her eyes immovably fixed upon her son, and she repeated
+unyieldingly:
+
+"Decide for yourself--this girl or me."
+
+Willibald had also turned pale, and his lips quivered painfully and
+bitterly as he said in a low tone:
+
+"That's hard, mamma; you know how I love you, and how you hurt me with
+your going away; but if you really are so cruel as to force me to
+choose, well then"--he straightened himself with decision--"then I
+choose my betrothed."
+
+"Bravo!" cried the Chief Forester, forgetting entirely that he was one
+of the offended ones. "Willy, I feel like Toni. I begin only now to
+really like you. I am positively sorry now that you will not be my
+son-in-law."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen had not expected such a turn of affairs. She had
+trusted in her old power, which she now saw fall into fragments, but
+she was not the woman to give in. She would not have bent her obstinate
+will even if her life had depended upon it.
+
+"Good! then we have finished with each other," she said curtly, and
+turned to go without heeding her brother-in-law, who followed her,
+trying to pacify her; but before they reached the door it was opened
+and a servant entered with a hasty announcement:
+
+"The steward of Rodeck is outside and begs----"
+
+"I have no time now," stormed the impulsive Schonan. "Tell Stadinger I
+cannot speak with him at present. I have important family affairs----"
+
+He did not finish, for Stadinger already stood upon the threshold,
+having followed the servant closely, and said in a peculiarly
+suppressed tone: "I come about a family affair also, Herr Chief
+Forester, but it is a sad one. I cannot wait, but must speak to you
+immediately."
+
+"But what is it?" asked Schonan, mystified. "Has something happened?
+The Prince is not at Rodeck so far as I know."
+
+"No, mein Herr. His Highness is in town, but Herr Rojanow is there and
+sends me. He begs you and Herr von Eschenhagen to come to Rodeck
+immediately, and you, gracious lady"--he glanced at Frau von
+Eschenhagen, whom he knew from her former visits to Furstenstein--"you
+would do well to come likewise."
+
+"But why? What has happened?" cried Schonan, now really disturbed.
+
+The old man hesitated; he had apparently been charged to break the news
+gradually. Finally he said: "His Excellency, Herr von Wallmoden, is at
+the castle, and the Frau Baroness also."
+
+"My brother!" interrupted Regine with apprehension.
+
+"Yes, gracious lady. His Excellency fell out of the carriage, and now
+he lies there unconscious, which means to the physician we called in
+great haste that the matter is dangerous."
+
+"In God's name! we must go at once, Moritz," cried the frightened lady.
+
+Herr von Schonan had already grasped the bell rope and pulled it.
+
+"The carriage as quick as possible!" he cried to the servant. "How did
+it happen, Stadinger? Tell us what you know."
+
+"The Herr Baron was coming from Ostwalden with the gracious lady,
+intending to come to Furstenstein," responded Stadinger. "The road, you
+know, leads through the Rodeck tract not far from the castle. Our
+Forester, who was with some of his subordinates in the Wald, fired a
+few shots, and a wounded deer dashed across the road in wild flight
+just by the carriage. The horses took fright and ran--the driver could
+not hold them. The two Foresters who saw it ran after them. They heard
+the Frau Baroness beg her husband: 'Remain seated. Herbert! for God's
+sake, no, do not jump,' but His Excellency seemed to have lost his head
+entirely. He tore the door open and jumped. At the wild pace they were
+going he fell, of course, with full force, and against a tree. The
+driver succeeded in bringing his horses to a standstill not far at a
+bend of the road. The Frau Baroness, who was not hurt, hastened to the
+place of misfortune as quickly as possible, and she found the poor
+gentleman there seriously injured and unconscious. The Forester's
+people carried him to Rodeck, which was near by. Herr Rojanow has
+looked after everything that could be done at the moment, and now he
+sends me to bring you the news."
+
+It was natural that under the pressure of this heart-rending news the
+recent bitter family quarrel should cease instantly. In great haste
+they made ready for departure. Antonie was called and informed, and as
+soon as the carriage drove up the Chief Forester and his sister-in-law
+hastened downstairs.
+
+Willibald, who followed with Stadinger, detained him on the steps for a
+moment and asked in a low tone: "Has the doctor given his opinion? Do
+you know anything more about it?"
+
+The old man nodded sadly, and answered also in low tones: "I stood near
+when Herr Rojanow asked him in the ante-room. There is no hope--the
+poor Excellency will not live through the day."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+The little hunting castle of Rodeck, which lay so cold and lonely in
+the first December snowy days, had seldom seen such excitement as
+to-day.
+
+It was about noon when the two Foresters, whose firing was the innocent
+cause of the disaster, brought the injured Ambassador to the house.
+They had known that the longer march to Furstenstein was impossible, so
+they turned toward Rodeck, which lay scarcely a quarter of an hour's
+walk from the place of the accident.
+
+Hartmut Rojanow, who was at the castle, was immediately called, and had
+made the necessary arrangements with quick decision. The rooms which
+Prince Adelsberg usually occupied were put at the disposal of the
+Baroness, and a messenger was despatched on horseback for the nearest
+physician, who, fortunately, was easy to reach.
+
+When the doctor's statement allowed no hope, Stadinger was sent to
+Furstenstein to summon the relatives, who soon arrived, but only to
+find Herr von Wallmoden dying. He did not regain the consciousness
+which he had lost in that awful fall; he lay there immovable,
+recognizing no one; and when the day drew to a close all was over.
+
+The Chief Forester, with Willibald, returned to Furstenstein toward
+night. He had sent a telegram before leaving Furstenstein, to notify
+the Embassy of the sad accident which had befallen its chief, and now
+had to follow it with the announcement of his death.
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen had remained at Rodeck with her brother's widow.
+To-morrow preparations would be made to carry the body to the Residenz,
+and the two ladies wished to remain at his side until then.
+
+Adelaide, who had proved so courageous during the danger, and who had
+done her full duty at the bedside of her husband, seemed, now that this
+duty was over, to give way entirely under the sudden and prostrating
+blow. She was stunned and dazed by the awful accident.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+At the window of his room, which was in an upper story, stood Hartmut,
+gazing out into the desolate forest, which glittered so ghostly in the
+dim starlight. Yesterday had brought the first snow, and now everything
+was stiff in its cold embrace. The large lawn in front of the castle
+was deeply covered; the trees bent heavily under their white burden,
+and the broad branches of the firs were bowed to the ground.
+
+Up there in the dark night sky, star after star shone in calm splendor,
+and far off on the northern horizon dawned a slight rosy light, like
+the first greeting of the dawn. And yet it was night cold, icy cold,
+winter night, in which as yet no ray of the coming day could fall.
+
+Hartmut's eyes were riveted upon the mysterious glow. In his heart,
+too, it was dark, and yet something dawned there, fair and low,
+like the dawn of the morn. He had not seen Adelaide von Wallmoden
+since that fatal hour upon the forest height, until he met her
+to-day at the side of her husband, who had been borne, bleeding and
+unconscious--dying--into the castle.
+
+This sight forced back every remembrance, and demanded assistance to
+the extent of his power. He had not entered the death chamber, and had
+only received the doctor's report; neither had he appeared upon Frau
+von Eschenhagen's arrival, but later on had spoken with the Chief
+Forester and Willibald. Now everything was decided. Herbert von
+Wallmoden was no longer among the living, and his wife was a widow--was
+free.
+
+A deep breath agitated Hartmut's breast at the thought, and yet nothing
+joyful was in it, although his feelings had undergone a change since
+the hour he ventured his highest stake and--lost.
+
+But that hour had proved to him the deep abyss which was open between
+them even now that the bond of Adelaide's marriage was broken. She had
+"shuddered" before the man who believed in nothing--to whom nothing was
+sacred, and he was the same man he had been then.
+
+He had offered an apology without words in the creation of the added
+portion of Arivana which bore her name, but Ada had floated back to the
+heights from which she had come with her cry of warning, and mankind,
+with their glowing hate and love, remained upon earth.
+
+Hartmut Rojanow could not force the hot, wild blood which flowed in his
+veins into a quiet movement; he could not bow to a life full of strict
+obedience and duty--neither did he wish to. For what had the genius
+which won his way everywhere been given him, if it could not lift him
+over the duties and barriers of every-day life?
+
+And yet he knew that those large, blue eyes pointed inexorably to the
+hated path--that would never do.
+
+The red glimmer over the forest yonder had turned darker and risen
+higher. It looked like the reflection of a powerful fire; but that
+calm, steady light came from no fire. Immovable it stood in the north;
+mysterious, high, and far removed--an aurora in approaching splendor.
+
+The rolling of a carriage coming near in great haste broke Hartmut from
+his revery. It was past nine o'clock; who could arrive at such an hour?
+Perhaps it was the second physician who had been sent for in the
+afternoon, but who had been away from home; perhaps some one from
+Ostwalden, where the news may have already been carried.
+
+Now the carriage turned the corner of the lawn; the wheels crunched
+upon the hard, frozen ground, and the vehicle reached the main entrance
+of the castle.
+
+Rojanow, who to-day represented the master of the house, left his room
+and started to meet the new arrival. He had reached the stairs which
+led down to the entrance hall, and put his foot upon the first step,
+when he suddenly shuddered and remained rooted to the spot.
+
+Down there a voice spoke which he had not heard for ten long years; it
+was suppressed, and yet he recognized it at the first moment.
+
+"I come from the Embassy. We received a dispatch this afternoon, and I
+took the first train to hasten here. How is he? Can I see Herr von
+Wallmoden?"
+
+Stadinger, who had received the newcomer, replied in such low tones
+that the import of his words was lost to Hartmut, but the stranger
+asked hastily: "I do not come too late?"
+
+"Yes, mein Herr. Herr von Wallmoden died this afternoon."
+
+A short pause followed, then the stranger said, huskily but firmly:
+"Lead me to the widow--announce Colonel von Falkenried."
+
+Stadinger turned to go, followed by a tall figure in a military cloak,
+of which one could see only the outlines in the dimly-lighted hall.
+
+The two figures had long ago disappeared in the lower rooms, and still
+Hartmut stood leaning on the baluster, looking downward. Only when
+Stadinger returned alone did he collect himself and retire to his room.
+
+Here he walked restlessly for a quarter of an hour. It was a hard,
+silent conflict which he waged. He had never been able to bend his
+pride; had never humbled himself, but he had to bow low before his
+deeply offended father--he knew that. But again a burning, absorbing
+longing overcame him, becoming all-powerful and finally conquering. He
+drew himself up resolutely.
+
+"No, I will not shrink like a coward now. We are under one roof; the
+same walls surround us; now it shall be ventured. He is my father and I
+am his son."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+
+The castle clock struck twelve in slow, hollow strokes. Deathlike
+stillness lay over the forest outside, and it was as still in the house
+where a corpse lay. The steward and servants had retired, as had Frau
+von Eschenhagen. Exhausted nature demanded its due. She had made the
+long, tedious journey from Burgsdorf without stop, and had lived
+through the hard, trying day.
+
+Only a few windows were dimly lighted; they belonged to the rooms which
+had been appointed to Frau von Wallmoden and Colonel Falkenried, which
+lay near together, separated only by an ante-room.
+
+Falkenried intended to accompany the widow back to the Residenz on the
+morrow. He had spoken with her and Regine, and had stood for a long
+time beside the body of his friend, who only yesterday had called to
+him so confidently, "_auf wiedersehen_"--who had been so full of his
+projects and plans for his future and his newly acquired possessions.
+Now all this had come to an end. Cold and stiff he lay upon his bier,
+and cold and gloomy Falkenried now stood at the window of his room.
+Even this awful accident was not able to shake his stony composure, for
+he had long ago forgotten to consider death a misfortune. _Life_ was
+hard--but not death.
+
+He looked silently out into the winter night and he, too, saw the
+ghostly glimmer which lighted the darkness out there. Dark-red it now
+glowed upon the distant horizon, and the whole of the northern sky
+seemed penetrated by invisible flames.
+
+Redlike, as through a purple veil, twinkled the stars. Now a few
+distant rays shot up, growing more numerous, and rising always higher
+to the zenith.
+
+Beneath this flaming sky the snow-covered world lay cold and white. The
+aurora was shining in the fulness of its splendor!
+
+Falkenried was so lost in the glory of the sight that he did not hear
+the opening and closing of the door of the ante-room. Carefully the
+partly closed door of his own room was now opened, but the one entering
+did not bring himself into view, but remained motionless upon the
+threshold.
+
+Colonel Falkenried still stood at the window half-averted, but the
+flickering light of the candles which burned upon the table lighted his
+face distinctly; the strong, deep lines of the features, and the
+gloomy, careworn brow beneath the white hair.
+
+Hartmut shivered involuntarily; he had not anticipated such a deep and
+awful change. The man standing in his prime, looked aged, and who had
+brought this premature age upon him?
+
+A few moments passed in this deep silence, then a voice vibrated
+through the room half-audible, beseeching, and full of a tenderness
+suppressed with difficulty--a single word pregnant with meaning.
+
+"Father!"
+
+Falkenried started as if a spirit voice had reached his ear. Slowly he
+turned as if really believing he heard a spirit-haunting voice.
+
+Hartmut quickly approached a few steps, then stood still.
+
+"Father, it is I--I come----"
+
+He stopped short, for now he met his father's eyes; those eyes which he
+had feared so much, and what they now expressed robbed him of the
+courage to speak further. He bowed his head in silence.
+
+Every drop of blood seemed to have left the face of Colonel Falkenried.
+He had not known--he had no idea that his son was under the same roof
+with him; the meeting found him totally unprepared, but it did not tear
+from him one exclamation, nor sign of anger or weakness. Rigid and mute
+he stood there and looked upon him who had once been his all. At last
+he raised his hand and pointed to the door.
+
+"Go!"
+
+"Father, listen to me----"
+
+"Go, I say." The command now sounded threatening.
+
+"No, I shall not go!" cried Hartmut passionately. "I know that
+reconciliation with you depends upon this hour. I have offended
+you--how deeply and seriously I feel only now--but I was a boy of
+seventeen, and it was my mother whom I followed. Think of that, father,
+and pardon me--grant pardon to your son."
+
+"You are the son of the woman whose name you bear--not mine!" said the
+Colonel with cutting scorn. "A Falkenried has no son without honor."
+
+Hartmut was about to burst forth at this awful word; the blood rose hot
+and wild to his brow, but he looked upon that other brow beneath the
+hair bleached like snow, and with superhuman effort controlled himself.
+
+The two believed themselves alone during this interview in the
+stillness of the night--surely everything was sleeping in the castle.
+They had no idea that a witness was there.
+
+Adelaide von Wallmoden had not retired to rest. She knew that she could
+find no sleep after this day which had so suddenly and disastrously
+made her a widow. Dressed still in the dark traveling suit which she
+had worn on the unfortunate drive, she sat in her room, when suddenly
+Colonel Falkenried's voice reached her ear.
+
+With whom could he be speaking at such an hour? Was he not a total
+stranger here? And the voice sounded so strangely hollow and
+threatening.
+
+She arose in alarm and entered the ante-room which separated the two
+sleeping apartments--for only a moment, she thought--only to see
+that nothing had happened; then she heard another voice which she
+knew--heard the word "Father," and like lightning the truth flashed
+upon her, which the next words confirmed. As if paralyzed, she remained
+standing there, every word reaching her through the partly closed door.
+
+"You make this hour hard for me," said Hartmut with painfully sustained
+composure. "Be it so--I have not expected it otherwise. Wallmoden has
+told you everything. I might have known it, but then he could not keep
+from you what I have sought and won. I bring to you the laurel of the
+poet, father--the first laurel which has come to me. Learn to know my
+work; let it speak to you, then you will feel that its creator could
+not live and breathe in the constraint of a vocation which kills every
+poetical emotion; then you will forget the unfortunate error of the
+boy."
+
+Here again it was Hartmut Rojanow who spoke thus with his overweening
+self-consciousness and pride, which did not leave him even in this
+hour; the poet of Arivana, for whom there existed no duties--no
+barriers; but he encountered a rock here, upon which he shattered.
+
+"The boy's error!" repeated Falkenried, just as harshly as before.
+"Yes, they called it so to make it possible for me to remain in the
+army. I name it differently, and so does every one of my comrades. You
+were to have been an ensign. In a few weeks it would have been
+desertion of the standard by law also. I have never considered it
+anything else. You had been raised in the strict discipline of honor of
+our caste, and knew what you did, for you were no longer a boy. _He who
+flees secretly from the military service which he owes his fatherland
+is a deserter; he who breaks a vow--a given word--is without honor. You
+did both!_ But of course you and your kind pass over such things
+easily."
+
+Hartmut clenched his teeth; his whole body trembled at these merciless
+words, and his voice sounded hollow, choked, as he answered:
+
+"Enough, father. I cannot bear it. I wished to bow before you--wished
+to submit--but you yourself drive me from you. This is the same cruel
+sternness with which you drove my mother from you. I know it from her
+own lips. Whatever her later life was, and however through it my own
+has developed--this severity alone has been the cause of it."
+
+The Colonel folded his arms, and an expression of unspeakable disdain
+quivered around his mouth.
+
+"From her own lips you know? Possibly. No woman has sunk so deeply but
+she would try to veil such a truth from her son. I did not wish to
+pollute your ears at that time with this truth, for you were innocent
+and pure. Now you will probably understand me when I tell you that the
+separation was a demand of honor. The man who stained my honor fell by
+my bullet, and she who betrayed me--I pushed from me."
+
+Hartmut became white as death at this disclosure. He had never thought
+that. He had fully believed that only the harshness which lay in his
+father's character had caused the separation. The remembrance of his
+mother fell lower and lower; he had loved her just as ardently as she
+had loved him, even when he felt at times that she was his ruin.
+
+"I wished to protect you from the poisonous breath of this presence and
+influence," continued Falkenried. "Fool that I was! You were lost to me
+even without the coming of your mother. You bear her features; it is
+her blood that courses through your veins, and it would have demanded
+its dominion sooner or later. You would have become anyway what you are
+now--a homeless adventurer, who does not recognize his fatherland and
+his honor."
+
+"This is too much!" burst forth Hartmut wildly. "I shall not permit
+myself to be so abused, even by you. I see now that no reconciliation
+between us is possible. I go, but the world will judge differently from
+you. It has already crowned my first work, and I shall force from it
+the appreciation which my own father keeps from me."
+
+The Colonel looked at his son--something awful was in the glance; then
+he said icily and slowly, emphasizing each word: "Then take care also
+that the world does not learn that the 'crowned poet' did a spy's
+service two years ago at Paris."
+
+Hartmut shrank as if hit by a bullet.
+
+"I? In Paris? Are you out of your senses?"
+
+Falkenried shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
+
+"Acting besides? Do not trouble yourself--I know all. Wallmoden proved
+to me what role Zalika Rojanow and her son played at Paris. I know the
+origin of the means by which they continued the life they were
+accustomed to when their wealth was lost. They were very much sought
+after by the commissioners, for they were exceedingly apt, and they who
+bought their services received them."
+
+Hartmut stood as if lifeless. So this was the awful solution of the
+problem which Wallmoden had given him that night in his hint. He had
+not understood its meaning then, but sought the solution in another
+direction. This was it, then, which his mother kept from him--from
+which she had diverted him with caresses and coaxings whenever he
+put a suspicious question. She had sunk to the last, most disgraceful
+lot--and her son was branded with her.
+
+The silence which now ensued was awful; it lasted for minutes, and when
+Hartmut finally spoke again his voice had lost its sound--the words
+came brokenly, almost inaudibly, from his lips:
+
+"And you believe--that I--that I knew about this?"
+
+"Yes," said the Colonel, coldly and firmly.
+
+"Father, you cannot--must not do that. The punishment would be too
+terrible. You must believe me when I tell you that I had no idea
+of this disgrace--that I believed a part of our wealth had been
+saved--that--you will believe me, father?"
+
+"No." Falkenried remained rigid and unbending as before.
+
+Beside himself with anguish, Hartmut fell upon his knees.
+
+"Father, before everything that is sacred to you in heaven or in
+earth--oh, do not look at me so terribly. You drive me frantic with
+that look! Father, I give you my word of honor----"
+
+An awful, wild laugh from his father interrupted him.
+
+"Your word of honor as at that time at Burgsdorf. Get up--abandon
+acting; you do not deceive me by it. You went from me with a breaking
+of your word--_you return with a lie_. Go your own way--I go mine. Only
+one thing I request of you--command you. Do not dare to use the name of
+Falkenried by the side of the branded one of Rojanow. Never let the
+world know who you are. When that happens my blood will be upon you,
+for then--I end with life!"
+
+With a loud cry Hartmut sprang to his feet and approached his father,
+but Falkenried repelled him by a commanding gesture.
+
+"Do you think that I still love life? I have borne it because I had
+to--perhaps I considered it my duty; but there is one point where this
+duty ends; you know it now--act accordingly."
+
+He turned his back upon his son and walked to the window. Hartmut did
+not speak another word. Mutely he turned to go.
+
+The ante-room was not lighted, yet it was filled with the glow
+of the blazing skies outside, and in this glow stood a woman--deathly
+pale--with eyes fixed with an indescribable expression upon the one
+approaching.
+
+He glanced up and a single look showed him that she knew all. This was
+the last. He had received his mortal humiliation before the woman he
+loved--had been thrown into the dust before her!
+
+Hartmut did not know how he left the castle, how he reached the open
+air. He only felt that he should stifle in those walls--that he was
+driven forth with fury and power. He found himself at last under a fir
+tree, which bowed its snow-covered limbs over him. It was night in the
+forest--cold, icy winter night, but up there in the sky the mysterious
+light shone on and on with purple power, with quivering rays, which
+united at the zenith into a crown.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+
+It was summer again. July had commenced, and in the hot, sun-parched
+days the forest mountains beckoned irresistibly with their cool
+shadows, and the green, airy splendor of their dales and heights.
+
+Ostwalden, the estate which Herbert von Wallmoden had purchased
+immediately before his death, and had not been permitted to live in for
+even one summer, had since then rested in solitude. But a few days ago
+the young widow had arrived there in company with her sister-in-law,
+Frau von Eschenhagen.
+
+Adelaide had left the South German Residenz shortly after the death of
+her husband and returned home with her brother, who had hastened to her
+side at the news of her husband's death. Her short married life had
+lasted but eight months, and now the wife, not yet twenty years old,
+wore the widow's veil.
+
+Regine had been easily persuaded to accompany her sister-in-law. The
+once absolute mistress of Burgsdorf had stood to her "either--or," and
+as Willibald proved just as obstinate, she had made her threat true,
+and had moved to town even during the first period of mourning for her
+brother.
+
+But Frau von Eschenhagen deceived herself if she thought to gain her
+end by this last move. She had hoped that her son would not let it come
+to a real separation, but it was in vain that she let him feel the full
+bitterness of the separation. The young master had had full opportunity
+to prove that his newly awakened independence and love were not mere
+momentary feelings.
+
+He tried everything to make his mother reconsider, but when he did not
+succeed, he showed a like stubbornness, and mother and son had not seen
+each other for months.
+
+However, his engagement with Marietta had not been made public as yet.
+He believed he owed his former fiancee and her father too much respect
+to allow a second betrothal to follow too soon upon the heels of the
+first. Besides, Marietta was bound by contract to the theatre for fully
+six months, and as her betrothal was to remain a secret for the
+present, she could not obtain an earlier release. Only now had the
+young girl returned to her grandfather at Waldhofen, where Willibald
+was also expected.
+
+Of course Frau von Eschenhagen knew nothing about this or she would
+hardly have accepted the invitation which brought her into the
+neighborhood.
+
+The day had been so warm and sunny that only late afternoon brought
+cooler air, but the road to Ostwalden was mostly shady, as it lay
+through the forests of Rodeck.
+
+Two horsemen were now on this road; one in gray hunting jacket and
+hat--the Chief Forester, von Schonan; the other a slender, youthful
+form clad in a distinguished looking summer suit--Prince Adelsberg.
+They had met by chance and learned that both were bound for the same,
+destination.
+
+"I should not have dreamed of meeting you here, Your Highness," said
+Schonan. "It was said that you would not visit Rodeck at all this
+summer, and Stadinger, with whom I spoke the day before yesterday, did
+not know a syllable of your near arrival."
+
+"No; and he cried Ach! and Weh! when I fell upon the house so
+unexpectedly," replied Egon. "It would not have needed much to make him
+show me from my own door, because I followed my dispatch instantly, and
+nothing was prepared for me. But the heat at Ostend was well-nigh
+unbearable. I could not stand the glowing sands of the beach any
+longer, and was overcome by an irrepressible longing for my cool, quiet
+forest nook. God be thanked that I have gotten away from the heat and
+fuss of a watering place!"
+
+His Highness was pleased not to tell the truth in this case. He had
+hastened here from the beach of the North Sea to enjoy a certain
+"neighborhood" of which he happened to hear. Stadinger had mentioned in
+a report, in which he asked for permission to make some changes at
+Rodeck, that these same arrangements had already been made at
+Ostwalden, where Frau von Wallmoden dwelt at present.
+
+To his surprise, instead of the expected permission, his young master
+arrived in person after three days. The Prince had not known anything
+better after this news than to throw over all his summer plans.
+
+The Chief Forester did not seem to believe the pretext, for he remarked
+somewhat sarcastically: "It surprises me, indeed then, that our Court
+stays at Ostend so long. The Duke and Duchess are there; also Princess
+Sophie, with a niece--a relative of her late husband, I hear."
+
+"Yes, a niece." Egon turned suddenly and looked at the speaker. "Herr
+Chief Forester, you, too, want to deliver congratulations to me--I see
+it in your face--but if you do that I shall challenge you instantly
+here in the midst of the forest."
+
+"Well, Your Highness, I do not intend to bring a duel upon myself,"
+laughed Schonan, "but the newspapers already speak quite openly of an
+approaching or already consummated engagement, which suits the wishes
+of the princely ladies."
+
+"My most gracious aunts wish many things," said Egon coolly. "Their
+most obedient nephew, though, is often of a different opinion, alas;
+and it has been the case this time also. I went to Ostend upon the
+invitation of the Duke, which I could not refuse, but the air did not
+agree with me at all, and I cannot risk my health so recklessly. I felt
+the first symptoms of sunstroke, which would certainly have taken me
+off, so I decided, then, in good time----"
+
+"To take yourself off," finished Schonan. "This is like Your Highness,
+but now you can count upon a three-fold displeasure."
+
+"Possibly. I shall bear it in solitude and self-banishment. I intend,
+besides"--here the young Prince drew a very solemn face--"to give all
+my attention this summer to my estates--especially Rodeck. A change in
+the building shall be made there--Stadinger has already written me
+about it, but I considered a personal surveillance necessary."
+
+"On account of the chimneys?" asked Schonan dryly. "Stadinger thought
+that as the chimneys smoked last winter, he would like to have new ones
+built."
+
+"What does Stadinger know about it?" cried Egon, vexed that his old
+"Waldgeist" had again gotten ahead of him with his most uncomfortable
+love for truth. "I have very grand plans for beautifying---- Ah, here
+we are!"
+
+He started his horse into a quicker gait and the Chief Forester
+followed his example, for Ostwalden indeed lay before them.
+
+The extensive changes with which the late Wallmoden had intended to
+convert Ostwalden into a splendid show place had not been made; but the
+old ivy-covered castle, with its two side turrets, and the shady,
+although somewhat neglected park, possessed a picturesque charm. It was
+understood that the present mistress intended neither changes nor a
+sale of the property, for to the heiress of the Stahlberg wealth a
+villa more or less was of no consequence.
+
+Upon their arrival the gentlemen learned that Frau von Wallmoden was in
+the park; but Frau von Eschenhagen was in her room. The Prince allowed
+himself to be announced to the lady of the house, while the Chief
+Forester first looked up his sister-in-law, whom he had not seen since
+the previous winter. He went to her apartments and entered without more
+ado.
+
+"Here I am," he announced in his usual unceremonious manner. "I don't
+need to be announced to my Frau sister, even if she seems to hold me at
+arm's length. Why did you not come along, Regine, when Adelaide drove
+to Furstenstein the day before yesterday? Of course, I do not believe
+the excuse which she brought me in your name, and have now come two
+hours' riding on horseback to ask for an explanation."
+
+Regine offered him her hand. She had not changed outwardly in these six
+or seven months. She still bore the same strong, self-reliant
+appearance and decided way, but her former serenity and cheerfulness,
+which, in spite of her brusquerie, were so winning, had disappeared
+from her manner. If she never acknowledged it under any circumstances,
+it was plainly to be seen that she suffered because her only son grew
+strange to her--the son to whom once his mother's love and will had
+been all things.
+
+"I have nothing against you, Moritz," she replied. "I know that you
+have retained the old friendship for me in spite of all that has been
+done to you and your daughter; but you ought to understand how
+embarrassing it is to me to visit Furstenstein again."
+
+"On account of the dissolved engagement? You ought to be consoled about
+it at last. You were present and saw and heard how easily Toni took
+matters. She was decidedly better pleased with her role of 'guardian
+angel' than with that of fiancee; and she has tried several times to
+change your mind by her letters, just as I have; but we both have been
+unsuccessful."
+
+"No; I know how to value your rare magnanimity."
+
+"Rare magnanimity!" repeated Schonan, laughing. "Well, yes, it might
+not happen often that the former fiancee and prospective father-in-law
+put in a good word for the recreant betrothed, so that he and his
+sweetheart may gain the maternal blessing. But for once we are thus
+superior in our frankness; and besides, both of us came to the
+conclusion that Willy, in fact, has only now become a sensible person,
+and this has been accomplished solely and alone by--yes, I cannot help
+it, Regine--by the little Marietta."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen frowned at this remark. She did not consider it
+best to answer it, but asked in a tone that plainly betrayed her wish
+to change the subject: "Has Toni returned? I learned through Adelaide
+that she had been at the Residenz, but was daily expected home."
+
+The Chief Forester, who had accepted a seat in the meantime, leaned
+back comfortably in his chair.
+
+"Yes, she returned yesterday, but with a second shadow, for she brought
+some one along, who she insists must and shall be her future husband,
+and he insists upon it likewise with such emphasis, that really nothing
+is left for me to do but to say Yes--Amen!"
+
+"What! Toni engaged again?" asked Frau von Eschenhagen in surprise.
+
+"Yes, but this time she managed it all by herself; I did not have an
+inkling of it. You will remember that she took it into her head at that
+time that she, too, wanted to be loved in a surpassing manner, and
+enjoy the usual romance of it. Herr Lieutenant von Waldorf seems to
+have attended to that. He has, as she told me with highest
+satisfaction, sunk on his knees before her, and declared he could not
+and would not live without her, while she gave him a similar touching
+assurance, and so forth. Yes, Regine, it will not do any longer to lead
+the children by the apron strings when they become of age. They imagine
+that marriage is solely their affair, and really they are not so far
+wrong about it."
+
+The last remark sounded very suggestive, but Regine overlooked it
+completely. She repeated thoughtfully:
+
+"Waldorf? the name is quite strange to me. Where did Toni get
+acquainted with the young officer?"
+
+"He is my son's friend and he brought him home with him at his last
+visit. In consequence of that an acquaintance with his mother was
+begun, which ripened until she invited Toni to visit her some weeks,
+and there and then the falling in love and engagement took place. I
+have nothing to say against it. Waldorf is handsome, jolly, and in love
+up to his ears. He does seem to be a little volatile, but he will
+settle down when he gets a sensible wife. The model boys are not after
+my taste; they are the very worst when they do get wild, as we have
+seen in your Willy. Waldorf will get his discharge in the fall, for my
+daughter is not suited for a lieutenant's wife. I will buy an estate
+for the young couple, and the wedding will occur at Christmas."
+
+"I am so glad for Toni's sake," said Frau von Eschenhagen, cordially.
+"You take a burden from my heart by this news."
+
+"I am glad, too," nodded the Chief Forester, "but now you ought to
+follow my example and take a burden from the hearts of a certain
+other couple. Be reasonable, Regine, and give in! The little Marietta
+has remained true, although she was on the stage. Everybody praises
+her blameless conduct. You do not need to be ashamed of your
+daughter-in-law."
+
+Regine arose suddenly and pushed her chair back.
+
+"I beg you once for all, Moritz, to spare me such requests. I shall
+stand firm at my word. Willibald knows the condition under which alone
+I will return to Burgsdorf. If he does not fulfil it--the separation
+remains."
+
+"He knows better," said Schonan dryly, "than to give up his bride-elect
+and marriage solely because she does not suit his Frau mamma. Such
+conditions are never fulfilled."
+
+"You express yourself very amiably indeed," returned Frau von
+Eschenhagen angrily. "Of course, what do you know of the love and
+anxiety of a mother, or of the gratitude her children owe her? All of
+you are ungrateful, inconsiderate, selfish----"
+
+"Oho! I beg you, in the name of my sex, to refrain from such
+vituperations," interrupted the Chief Forester hotly; but suddenly he
+reconsidered and said: "We have not seen each other for seven months,
+Regine; we really ought not to quarrel the first day again--we can do
+that later on. Let us therefore leave your refractory son alone for the
+present, and speak of ourselves. How do you like it in town? You do not
+exactly look so very well satisfied."
+
+"I am exceptionally satisfied," declared Regine with great decision.
+"What I need only is work. I am not used to idleness."
+
+"Then create work for yourself. It rests solely with you to again step
+to the head of a large household."
+
+"Are you commencing again----"
+
+"I did not mean Burgsdorf this time," said Schonan, playing with his
+riding whip. "I only meant--you sit all alone in town, and I shall sit
+all alone at Furstenstein when Toni marries--that is very tiresome! How
+would it be--well, I have already explained it to you once before, but
+you did not want me then. Perhaps you have bethought yourself better
+now. How would it be if we should make the third couple at this double
+wedding?"
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen looked gloomily to the floor and shook her head.
+
+"No, Moritz. I feel less like marrying now than ever."
+
+"Already a 'No' again!" shouted the Chief Forester wrathfully. "Is this
+a second refusal you give me? At first you did not want me because your
+son and your beloved Burgsdorf had grown too near your heart, and now
+when you see that both get along very well without you, you do not want
+me because you do not '_feel like it_.' Feeling does not belong to
+marrying, anyhow only some sense is wanted; but if one is
+unreasonableness and obstinacy personified----"
+
+"You woo me in a very flattering manner, indeed," interrupted Regine,
+now wrathful also. "It would be an exceedingly peaceful marriage if you
+act like this as a suitor."
+
+"It would not be peaceful, but neither would it be tiresome," declared
+Schonan. "I believe we could both stand it. Once more, Regine, do you
+want me or do you not want me?"
+
+"No; I do not care to '_stand_' a married life."
+
+"Then let it alone!" cried the Chief Forester furiously, jumping up and
+snatching his hat. "If it gives you so much pleasure to say 'No'
+forever, then say it. But Willy will marry in spite of you, and he is
+right; and now I shall be the best man at the wedding just to spite
+you."
+
+With which he rushed off, quite beside himself at this second jilting,
+and Frau von Eschenhagen remained behind in a similar frame of mind.
+They had really quarrelled again at the first _Wiedersehen_, and even
+the second refusal could not be left out of this friendly habit.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+Meantime Prince Adelsberg was with Frau von Wallmoden in the park. He
+had begged her not to interrupt her outing, and so they both walked in
+the shade of the huge trees in the cool, green twilight, while out on
+the meadow lay still the glaring sunlight.
+
+Egon had not seen the young widow since the death of her husband. The
+formal visit of condolence, which he had made after the accident, had
+been received by Eugene Stahlberg in the name of his sister, and then
+they had left the city immediately.
+
+Adelaide wore, of course, the widow's mourning; but her companion
+thought he had never seen her so beautiful as to-day in the deep,
+sombre black and crepe veil, beneath which the blonde hair glimmered.
+His glance passed repeatedly over this beautiful blonde head, and
+always the question recurred: What has really happened to these
+features that they look so entirely different?
+
+Egon had only known the lady at whose side he now walked in that cool,
+haughty composure which had made her so unapproachable to him and the
+world. Now this coldness had disappeared, and he saw and felt but could
+not decipher the strange change which had taken its place.
+
+The young widow could not possibly mourn so deeply and seriously for a
+husband who was so far removed from her in age, and who, even had he
+been young, could never have given her the love youth demands, with his
+practical, coldly calculating nature. And yet there lay over her whole
+appearance the expression of secret suffering--of a sorrow which was
+mutely but painfully borne.
+
+Where did this mysterious line come from, this soft light of the eyes
+which seemed to have learned but now to know tears?
+
+"It always seems to me as if life and fire could glow there and
+transform the snow region into a blooming world," Prince Adelsberg had
+once exclaimed in jest. Now this transformation had taken place,
+slowly, almost imperceptibly. But this soft, half-painful expression
+which replaced the former seriousness, this dreamy look, gave a charm
+to the young woman which, with all her beauty, had been missing
+before--a charming, gentle grace.
+
+At first the conversation touched upon indifferent things only, the
+questions and answers that were customary and formal. Egon narrated
+incidents of happenings during the winter at Court and in town, and
+then offered the same explanation of his sudden arrival which he had
+given the Chief Forester, speaking of the unendurable heat at Ostend
+and of his longing for the cool, still forest solitude.
+
+A fleeting smile which quivered over the lips of his companion told him
+that she believed this pretext as little as had the Chief Forester, and
+that the notice in the papers had also been seen by her. He grew
+unaccountably vexed about it and studied how he could remedy the
+mistake, here where he could not be so plain-spoken, when Adelaide
+suddenly asked: "Shall you remain alone at Rodeck, Your Highness? Last
+summer you had a--guest with you."
+
+A shadow passed over the face of the young Prince. He forgot the rumor
+of his engagement and his anger about it at this remark.
+
+"You mean Hartmut Rojanow?" he asked, gravely. "He will hardly come, as
+he is in Sicily at present, or at least was there two months ago. I
+have had no news from him since, and do not even know where to write
+him."
+
+Frau von Wallmoden bent down and picked some flowers growing at the
+wayside as she remarked: "I thought you were in lively correspondence
+with each other."
+
+"I hoped so at the beginning of our separation, and it is not my fault;
+but Hartmut has become a perfect mystery to me lately. You were witness
+of the brilliant success of his 'Arivana' at our Court Theatre; it has
+since then been reproduced at several other theatres. The play is
+conquering by storm wherever it appears, and the author withdraws from
+all these triumphs--almost flees from his rising fame--hides from all
+the world, even from me. Let who can comprehend it!"
+
+Adelaide had regained her former erect carriage, but the hand which
+held the flowers trembled slightly, while her eyes were directed upon
+the Prince in breathless expectancy.
+
+"And when did Herr Rojanow leave Germany?" she asked.
+
+"At the beginning of December. Shortly before that he had gone to
+Rodeck for a few days immediately after the first appearance of his
+drama. I considered it a caprice and yielded. Then he suddenly returned
+to my house, in town, in a condition of mind and body which really
+frightened me, and announced his departure; listened to no entreaties,
+answered no questions, but remained firm about going, and really left
+like a whirlwind. Weeks passed before I heard of him; then he sent me
+occasional letters, which, if rare enough, at least kept me aware of
+his whereabouts, and I could answer him. He went to Greece, where he
+strayed now here, now there. After that he went to Sicily, but now all
+information has stopped, and I am in the greatest alarm."
+
+Egon spoke with suppressed excitement. One could see how deeply the
+separation from his passionately loved friend hurt him. He did not
+dream that the young widow at his side could have given him an
+explanation of the mystery. She knew what drove Hartmut to wander
+restlessly from land to land; what made him shudder before the famous
+poet's name which bore that secret but awful stain. But it was the
+first news she had heard of him since that disastrous night at Rodeck,
+which had discovered everything to her.
+
+"Poets are sometimes differently constituted from common mortals," she
+said, slowly plucking to pieces one of her flowers. "They have the
+right sometimes to be incomprehensible."
+
+The Prince shook his head, incredulously and sadly.
+
+"No, it is not that; this comes from an entirely different source. I
+felt long ago that something dark--mysterious--lay in Hartmut's life,
+but I never inquired into it, for he would not suffer the slightest
+touch on this point, and he kept silent persistently. It is as if he
+stands under a doom, which gives him no peace or rest anywhere, and
+which springs upon him suddenly when one thinks it buried and
+forgotten. I received this impression anew when he took leave of me in
+wild agitation; it was impossible to hold him. But you cannot imagine
+how I miss him! He has spoiled me with his presence for over two years
+and with all the advantages of his rich, fiery nature which he gave
+lavishly. Now everything has become desolate and colorless to me, and I
+do not know at times how I can bear life without him."
+
+They came to a standstill, for they had reached the limit of the park.
+Green meadows lay before them in the sunlight, and over yonder rose the
+heights of the forest mountains. Adelaide had listened in silence,
+while her gaze was lost in the far distance; but now she turned
+suddenly and stretched out her hand to her companion.
+
+"I believe you can be a very sacrificing friend, Your Highness. Herr
+Rojanow ought not to have left you; perhaps you could have saved him
+from this--doom."
+
+Egon could not believe his senses; the warmth of the heartfelt
+tone--the eyes in which a tear glimmered--the whole, almost passionate,
+sympathy with his sorrow surprised as much as it delighted him. He
+grasped the hand fervently and pressed his lips upon it.
+
+"If anything can console me for Hartmut's departure, it is your
+sympathy!" he cried. "You will permit me to use the privilege of a
+neighbor and come occasionally to Ostwalden? Do not deny me this, as I
+am so lonely at Rodeck, and I came here only and solely----"
+
+He checked himself suddenly, for he felt that such a confession was not
+appropriate but an offense, as he saw plainly.
+
+The young widow withdrew her hand quickly and drew back. It had
+required only this moment to transform her again into "Aurora."
+
+"To flee from the heat and noise of a watering place like Ostend," she
+finished coolly. "You said so, at least, a little while ago, Your
+Highness."
+
+"It was a pretext," declared the Prince, gravely. "I left Ostend only
+to put an end to certain rumors which were connected with my stay
+there, and which even found their way into the papers. They were
+positively without foundation so far as I am concerned, I give you my
+word, Your Excellency."
+
+He had quickly embraced the opportunity to dispel the error which he
+did not wish to suffer at this place at any price, but the result did
+not come up to his expectation. Frau von Wallmoden had again wrapped
+herself up in her old, unapproachable manner and made him suffer for
+his premature haste.
+
+"Why this solemn explanation, Your Highness? As it was only a rumor, I
+understand just as fully as your other neighbors that you wish to
+retain the privilege of choice. But I believe we must return to the
+castle, as you said that my brother-in-law had come with you, and I
+should like to see him before he leaves."
+
+Egon bowed assent, and tried obediently to accept the indifferent and
+every-day tone by which he was made aware that he should not be
+anything more here than a "neighbor." He took the first favorable
+moment at the castle to make his excuses, which were immediately
+accepted, but not without an invitation to come again had been given,
+and that was at present the most important thing.
+
+"Blamed haste!" he muttered as he galloped away. "Now I shall be kept
+as distant as ever, perhaps for weeks. As soon as one tries to approach
+the woman a little nearer--the ice stares into one's face. But"--and
+here the face of the Prince lit up--"but at last the ice commences to
+melt. I saw and felt it in that tone and look. I must be patient
+here--the prize is worthy one's perseverance."
+
+Egon von Adelsberg did not dream that this look and tone, upon which he
+built his hopes, were for another, and that she wished only to hear
+from that other when the permission to call again had been given.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+
+July had only half gone when the world, which seemed but now to repose
+in deepest calm, was suddenly startled from this peace. A lightning had
+flamed up on the Rhine, the glare and uncanny light of which reached
+from ocean to the Alps. A war-cloud stood heavy and threatening in the
+west, and soon the cry of war resounded through the land.
+
+It broke over Southern Germany like a whirlwind--tore men from their
+field of action, changed all conditions and overthrew all plans. Where
+a week ago comfort and security reigned, men were now grasped and
+carried away by storm.
+
+At Furstenstein the daughter of the house was celebrating her
+betrothal, but she had to take leave of her betrothed, who hastened to
+his regiment.
+
+At Waldhofen, where Willibald was expected for a long visit, he
+appeared suddenly in stormy haste to see Marietta once more in the few
+days which remained before he, too, should be called away.
+
+At Ostwalden, Adelaide prepared for departure, to once more embrace the
+brother who had hastened to join the standard.
+
+Prince Adelsberg had left Rodeck at the first news of war, and hurried
+to the Residenz, which he reached at the same hour as the Duke. The
+world seemed all at once to have gotten an entirely changed face, and
+the people with it.
+
+In the little garden of Dr. Volkmar's house stood Willibald von
+Eschenhagen, talking earnestly and impressively with the grandfather of
+his fiancee, who sat before him upon a bench, and did not seem to be
+acquiescent to what Willy was explaining.
+
+"But, my dear Willy, this is precipitation without an equal," the good
+doctor said, shaking his head. "Your engagement with Marietta has not
+yet been made public, and now you want to be married heels over head.
+What will the world say to it?"
+
+"The world finds everything explained under the present circumstances,"
+returned Willibald; "and we cannot go after outside considerations. I
+have to go to war, and it is my duty to secure Marietta's future in any
+case. I cannot bear the thought that she should have to return to the
+stage after my death, or should be dependent upon my mother's mercy.
+The fortune to which I am heir is in my mother's hands, who disposes of
+it exclusively. I possess as yet only the entailed estates which, in
+case I die, go over to a side branch of the family; but our family law
+secures the widow of the lord of the estates a rich dowry. If it should
+not be granted me to return from battle, I want to give my fiancee at
+least the name and position in life to which she has a right. I cannot
+go to the war contentedly until this has been arranged first."
+
+He spoke quietly, but with much decision. The awkward, timid Willibald
+could not be recognized in this young man, who overlooked the situation
+so clearly and pleaded so earnestly for his wishes to be granted.
+
+He had had, however, a school of independence in those last six months,
+when he had been put entirely upon his own resources, and had his
+firmness continually tried in the contest with his mother; and one
+could see that he had learned something in this school.
+
+His outward appearance was also more prepossessing; in fact, as the
+Chief Forester expressed it, he had only now become a man.
+
+Dr. Volkmar could not resist these arguments. He well knew that if the
+war took away her betrothed, Marietta would again be without means and
+without protection; and a burden fell from his heart at the thought of
+her secure future. Therefore he gave up all argument and only asked:
+"What does Marietta say to it? Has she given her consent?"
+
+"Yes; we decided on it last night, directly after my arrival. Of
+course, I did not speak to her about security and widowhood, for she
+would have been beside herself if I had dwelt at length upon the case
+of my death; but I told her that in case of my being wounded, she, as
+my wife, could hasten to me without preliminaries or companions, and
+could remain with me, and this decided her. We should have had but a
+quiet wedding, anyway."
+
+His face clouded at the last words, and the doctor said, with a sigh:
+"Yes, indeed, none of us would have been inclined to celebrate the
+wedding with festivities if the couple had to go to the altar without
+the blessing of the mother. Have you really tried every way with her,
+Willy?"
+
+"Everything," replied the young lord, solemnly. "Do you think it will
+be easy for me to miss my mother on such a day? But she has left me no
+choice, therefore I must bear it. I shall now take the necessary steps
+instantly, and in anticipation thereof have brought my papers with me."
+
+"And do you believe that a marriage can be possible on such short
+notice?" asked the doctor, doubtfully.
+
+"At this time, yes. The formalities have been reduced to the
+necessities, and all preliminaries are dispensed with where a hasty
+marriage is desired. As soon as Marietta is my wife, she will accompany
+me to Berlin, where she will remain until my regiment leaves. Then she
+will return to you until the close of the war."
+
+Volkmar arose and gave Willibald his hand.
+
+"You are right; it is perhaps best so under the present circumstances.
+Well, my little _singvogel_, so you will really marry as quickly as
+your betrothed wishes?"
+
+The question was addressed to Marietta, who now entered the garden. Her
+pale cheeks showed the trace of tears, but it was with an exceedingly
+happy look that she flew into Willibald's open arms.
+
+"I am ready at any time, grandpapa," she said, simply. "The
+leave-taking will be easier to us after we belong to each other and you
+give your blessing."
+
+The old gentleman looked half sadly, half happily upon the young
+couple, who wished to be united before their sad separation should so
+quickly take place. Then he said, with emotion: "Well, so be it: marry
+then with my blessing. I give it to you from my inmost heart."
+
+Everything necessary was then quickly discussed. The marriage was to
+take place as soon as possible, and, of course, quietly and simply.
+Willibald intended to go to Furstenstein to-day to notify the Chief
+Forester of the settled plan.
+
+Dr. Volkmar left them to make a call upon a patient, and Willibald
+remained alone with his fiancee. They had not seen each other for so
+long, and now the future lay dark and threatening before them. But the
+next few days belonged to them, and they were happy in this thought, in
+spite of everything.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+Engaged in their subdued chatting, they did not notice that the house
+door was opened, and some one came with slow, rather hesitating steps
+along the hall, until the rustle of a woman's dress upon the gravel
+path made them listen, and suddenly both sprang to their feet.
+
+"My mother!" cried Willibald, in joyful surprise; but at the same time
+he put his arm around Marietta as if he wished to protect her from a
+renewed attack, for Frau von Eschenhagen's face seemed hard and gloomy,
+and her bearing did not look like reconciliation.
+
+Without noticing the young girl, she turned to her son:
+
+"I learned through Adelaide that you were here," she began in a rather
+harsh tone, "and I only wanted to ask how everything is at Burgsdorf.
+Have you looked for a steward during your absence? One does not know
+how long the war will last?"
+
+The joyous expression on the face of the young lord vanished. He had
+really hoped for a different greeting at this unexpected appearance of
+his mother.
+
+"I have arranged everything to the best of my ability," he replied.
+"The greater part of my people have been called to enlist; even the
+inspector has to leave in a few days, and a substitute cannot be had
+now. Work must therefore be reduced to the necessities, and old Martens
+will overlook everything."
+
+"Martens is a goose," said Regine, in her old, terse way. "If he takes
+the reins, everything at Burgsdorf will go topsy-turvy. Nothing else is
+left for me to do but to go there myself and look after things right."
+
+"How? You would?" cried Willibald. But his mother cut him short.
+
+"Do you think I would let your possessions go to nothing while you are
+in the war? It will be securely cared for in my hands--you know that. I
+have held the reins there long enough and will do it again--until you
+return."
+
+She still spoke in the hard, cold tones, as if she wished to exclude
+every warmer feeling. But now Willy stepped up to her, with his arm
+still around his bride-elect.
+
+"You will take care of my worldly possessions, mamma," he said,
+reproachfully; "you will take them under your protection. But for the
+best and dearest thing that belongs to me you have no word nor look.
+Have you really only come to tell me that you will go to Burgsdorf?"
+
+Fran von Eschenhagen's harsh reticence could not hold fast at this
+question. Her lips trembled.
+
+"I came to see my only son once more before he goes to war--perhaps to
+death," she said, with painful bitterness. "I had to hear from others
+that he had come to say farewell to his bride. He did not come to his
+mother, and that--that I could not bear."
+
+"We should have come," cried the young lord; "we should have made one
+more attempt to win your heart before leaving. See, mother, here is my
+bride-elect--my Marietta. She is waiting for a friendly word from you."
+
+Regine threw a long look upon the young couple, and again her face
+quivered painfully as she saw how Marietta pressed shyly, but
+confidently, to the man in whose protection she knew herself so secure.
+Maternal jealousy stood a last, hard struggle; but finally she allowed
+herself to be conquered. She stretched out her hand to the young girl.
+
+"I offended you once, Marietta," she said, in a half-stifled voice,
+"and did you a possible wrong that time; but for that you have taken
+from me my boy, who, until then, had not loved anybody but his mother,
+and who now loves nobody but you. I believe we are quits."
+
+"Oh, Willy loves his mother as dearly as ever," Marietta said heartily.
+"I best know how he has suffered under the separation."
+
+"So? Well, we will have to agree with each other for his sake," said
+Regine, with an attempt at playfulness, which did not quite succeed.
+"We shall be in a great deal of anxiety about him soon, when we know
+him in the battlefield; care, anxiety, will be plentiful then. What do
+you think, my child? I believe we could bear it easier if we worry
+about him together."
+
+She opened her arms, and the next second Marietta lay sobbing upon her
+breast. Tears glittered also in the eyes of the mother when she bent
+down to kiss her future daughter-in-law; but then she said in the old,
+commanding tone: "Do not cry; hold up your head, Marietta, for a
+soldier's fiancee must be brave--remember that."
+
+"A soldier's wife," corrected Willibald, who stood by with beaming
+eyes. "We have just now decided to be married before I leave."
+
+"Well, then, Marietta really belongs to Burgsdorf," declared Regine,
+who was hardly surprised, and seemed to find this decision quite in
+order. "No arguments, child. The young Frau von Eschenhagen has nothing
+to do further at Waldhofen, except as she comes for a visit to her
+grandfather. Or are you perhaps afraid of your grim mother-in-law? But
+I believe you have in him"--she pointed to her son--"a sufficient
+protection, even if he is not at home. He would be capable of declaring
+war upon his own mother if she did not bear his little wife upon her
+hands."
+
+"And she will do that, I know it. When my mother opens her heart, she
+does it perfectly."
+
+"Yes, now you can flatter," Frau von Eschenhagen said, with a rebuking
+glance. "So you go with me to your future home, Marietta. You need not
+worry about the duties; I will attend to that. When I go away again it
+will be different; but I see already that Willy will hold you like a
+princess all your life long. It is right with me, just so he returns to
+us safe and sound."
+
+She reached out her hands now to her son, and those two had perhaps
+never been in a closer or more loving embrace than to-day.
+
+When the three entered the house, a quarter of an hour later, they met
+the Chief Forester, who actually started back at the sight of his
+sister-in-law. Regine marked his surprise with the liveliest
+satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Moritz, am I still the most unreasonable, obstinate person?" she
+asked, offering her hand. But Schonan, who had not recovered from his
+jilting, kept his behind him, and muttered something incomprehensible.
+Then he turned to the young couple:
+
+"So? And now you are to be married in hot haste. I met Dr. Volkmar just
+now and he told me about it; so I came to offer myself as best man. But
+perhaps that will not be acceptable, since the Frau Mamma is at her
+post."
+
+"Oh, you are just as cordially welcome, uncle," cried Willibald.
+
+"Well, yes, I can just be used as a secondary person in a marriage,"
+grumbled the Chief Forester, with a reproachful glance at Regine. "And
+so there will be a marriage before the war? One must say, Willy, you
+have marched with seven-league boots from your practical Burgsdorf into
+romance, and I should never have looked for it in you. However, my Toni
+is just as intent upon romance. She and Waldorf would have liked best
+to marry like this in steaming haste before marching orders came, but I
+have vetoed that, for circumstances are different with us, and I do not
+care to already sit at home, lonely as an owl."
+
+He glanced again with the very grimmest expression at Frau von
+Eschenhagen, but she approached him now, and said, cordially: "Do not
+bear malice, Moritz. So far we have always made up again. Let us forget
+this quarrel also. You see, at least, that I can say 'Yes' for once,
+when the whole happiness of my boy depends upon it."
+
+The Chief Forester hesitated a moment longer, then grasped the offered
+hand and pressed it cordially. "I see it," he acknowledged, "and
+perhaps you will now forget altogether that blamed 'No,' Regine, about
+another point."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+
+The Steward of Rodeck stood in the study of Prince Adelsberg's palace,
+in the Residenz. He had been called there to receive various orders and
+plans before the departure of his young lord.
+
+Egon, who already wore the uniform of his regiment, had given him
+verbal instructions, and now dismissed the old man.
+
+"Keep the old forest nook in good order for me as heretofore," he
+concluded. "It is just possible that I may go to Rodeck for a few hours
+before I leave, but I hardly believe so, for the order to march may
+come any day. How do I please you in my uniform?"
+
+He arose and drew himself up to his full height. The slender, youthful
+form looked well in the uniform of a lieutenant, and Stadinger measured
+him with admiring eyes.
+
+"Real splendid!" he assured the Prince. "It is a pity that Your
+Highness is not a soldier by profession."
+
+"Do you think so? Well, I am one now, body and soul. Service in the
+field will come rather hard to me, and I will have to get used to it
+first. But it does not hurt when one is under strict discipline."
+
+"No, Your Highness, it will not hurt you at all," remarked Stadinger,
+with his terrible truthfulness. "When Your Highness travels about for
+years in the Orient with a great sea serpent and a whole herd of
+elephants, or when you run away from the most gracious Court at Ostend
+because you do not want to marry at all--nothing comes of that but
+only----"
+
+"But only stupidity," completed the Prince, wisely. "Stadinger, I shall
+severely miss one thing in the campaign--your boundless tiresomeness.
+You want to give me a last curtain lecture--I see it in your face--but
+will spare you the trouble. Remember me rather to Lena when you get
+home. Is she back at Rodeck now?"
+
+"Yes, Your Highness, _now_ she is there," said the old man, with heavy
+emphasis.
+
+"Of course, because I march to France. But be content; I shall return a
+genuine model of sense and virtue, and then--then I shall marry, too."
+
+"Really?" Stadinger cried in joyful surprise. "How glad the most
+gracious Court will be."
+
+"That depends," teased Egon. "I may terrorize the most gracious Court
+with my engagement, and perhaps inflict cramps upon my most gracious
+Aunt Sophie with it. Don't look so stupid at this, Stadinger. You don't
+understand it, but I will permit you to crack your head over it
+during the campaign. But now go, and if we should not see each other
+again--keep your master in pleasant remembrance."
+
+Stadinger's face took on the grimmest of wrinkles to hide the upwelling
+tears, but he could not succeed.
+
+"How can Your Highness talk like that?" he muttered. "Shall I, an old
+man, remain perhaps alone in this world, and not see you any more--so
+handsome so young and happy! I could not live at that."
+
+"And I have vexed you so much, old Waldgeist," said the young Prince,
+giving him his hand; "but you are right--we must think of victory and
+not death. But, when both come together, then death is easy."
+
+The old man bent over his master's hand, and a tear fell upon it.
+
+"I wish I could go, too," he said, under his breath.
+
+"I believe it," laughed Egon; "and you would not look bad as a soldier,
+in spite of your snow-white hair. But we younger ones have to march
+now, and you old ones remain at home. Farewell, Stadinger----" He shook
+his hand cordially. "I really believe you are crying. You ought to be
+ashamed of yourself. Away with tears and sad anticipations. You will
+yet read me another lecture."
+
+"May God grant it!" sighed Peter Stadinger, from the depths of his
+heart. With wet eyes he looked once more into the youthful face, so
+full of life, smiling at him, so happy and sure of victory. Then he
+left sadly, with bowed head, realizing how much his young master had
+grown into his heart.
+
+The Prince cast a glance at the clock. He was to go to his superior,
+but saw that he had almost an hour yet, so he reached for the
+newspapers and plunged into the newest dispatches and reports.
+
+A rapid footstep sounded in the ante-room. Egon looked up in surprise.
+Servants were not in the habit of making such a noise, and callers were
+always announced. But this caller did not need any announcing, as all
+the servants knew. All doors were open to him in the house of Prince
+Adelsberg.
+
+"Hartmut, is it you?"
+
+Egon sprang to his feet in joyful surprise, and cast himself on the
+breast of the newcomer.
+
+"You back in Germany, and I have no idea of it! You wicked monster, to
+leave me for fully two months without news of you! Have you come to say
+good-by to me?"
+
+Hartmut had neither returned the greeting nor the stormy embrace.
+Silently and gloomily he suffered both, and when he spoke at last, even
+his tone betrayed nothing of the joy of this _Wiedersehen_.
+
+"I came straight from the depot. I hardly dared hope to find you still
+here, and yet everything depends upon it for me."
+
+"But why did you not announce your return to me? I wrote you
+immediately after the declaration of war. You were still in Sicily
+then, were you not?"
+
+"No; I left there as soon as war seemed unavoidable, and did not
+receive your letter. I have been in Germany a week."
+
+"And you come to me only now?" said Egon, reproachfully.
+
+Rojanow did not notice this reproach. His eyes rested upon his friend's
+uniform with almost a jealous expression.
+
+"You are already on duty, I see," he said, hastily. "I also intend to
+enter the German army."
+
+Egon evidently expected something entirely different. He retreated a
+step in boundless surprise.
+
+"In the German army? You--a Roumanian?"
+
+"Yes, and therefore I have come to you. Will you make it possible for
+me?"
+
+"I?" asked the Prince, whose surprise grew greater and greater. "I am
+nothing more than a young officer. If you are really in earnest in this
+strange resolve, you must go to one of the standing posts of command."
+
+"I have already done that at various places. I have tried it even in
+your neighboring state, but they will not accept the stranger. They
+demand all sorts of papers and references, which I do not possess, and
+torture me with endless questions. Everywhere suspicion and mistrust
+affront me. Nobody will understand my resolve."
+
+"To speak the truth, Hartmut, I don't understand it, either," said
+Egon, solemnly. "You have always showed such a deep antipathy to
+Germany--you are the son of a country whose higher circles know only
+French education and customs--which stands in sympathy exclusively with
+France. The mistrust of strangers is easily understood. But why do you
+not turn directly to the Duke, and personally accomplish your desires?
+You know how prepossessed he is with the poet of 'Arivana.' It will
+cost you only an audience, which will be granted you at any time, and
+an order from him will remove every difficulty and admit every
+exception."
+
+Rojanow's glance fell, and his clouded brow grew darker as he replied:
+"I know that, but I cannot ask anything from that side. The Duke would
+put the same questions as all the rest, and I could not withhold the
+answer from him, and the truth--I cannot tell it to him."
+
+"Not even to me?" asked the Prince, stepping up to him and laying his
+hand on Hartmut's shoulder. "Why do you insist so persistently upon
+entering our army? What do you look for under our colors?"
+
+Hartmut passed his hand across his brow, as if to wipe something away
+from there. Then he replied, heavily and huskily:
+
+"Salvation--or death."
+
+"You return as you went--a puzzle," said Egon, shaking his head. "You
+have hitherto refused every explanation. Can I not now learn your
+secret?"
+
+"Obtain me an entrance into your army, and I will tell you everything,"
+Rojanow cried in feverish excitement. "No matter under what conditions,
+only see that it is granted me. But do not speak to the Duke nor to a
+general, but turn to one of the lower commanders. Your name, your
+relationship with the reigning house makes your word powerful. They
+will not answer Prince Adelsberg with a 'No' when he himself speaks for
+a volunteer."
+
+"But the same question will be put to him as to you--you, a Roumanian."
+
+"No, no," cried Hartmut, passionately. "If I must confess it to you--I
+am a German."
+
+The effect of this disclosure was not as great as Hartmut might have
+feared. The Prince looked at him for a moment, amazed.
+
+"I have thought so at times, for the one who could compose an Arivana
+in the German language did not get this language by education, but had
+grown up with it. But you bear the name Rojanow----"
+
+"The name of my mother, who belonged to a Roumanian--Bojar's family. My
+name is--Hartmut von Falkenried."
+
+His own name sounded strange in his ears, for he had not pronounced it
+for years; but Egon grew attentive at the name.
+
+"Falkenried? That was the name of the Prussian Colonel who came on that
+secret mission from Berlin. Are you any connection of his?"
+
+"He is my father."
+
+The young Prince looked compassionately upon his friend, for he saw how
+terribly hard this confession came to him. He felt that a family drama
+was hidden here, and, too delicate to investigate further, he only
+asked: "And you do not want to proclaim yourself the son of your
+father, not a Falkenried? Every Prussian regiment would be open to you
+then."
+
+"No, they would be closed to me forever. I fled from the cadets' school
+ten years ago."
+
+"Hartmut!" Absolute terror was in the exclamation.
+
+"Do you also, like my father, consider me worthy of death for it? You,
+of course, have grown up in freedom and have no conception of the iron
+rule which reigns in these institutions; of the tyranny with which one
+is bent under the yoke of blind obedience. I could not stand it. I was
+forced to freedom and light. I begged--entreated my father--but in
+vain. He held me fast in the chain--when I broke it, and fled with my
+mother."
+
+He uttered this, all with wild, desperate defiance; but his eyes rested
+anxiously upon the face of his listener. His father, with his severe
+ideas of honor, had sentenced him; but his friend, who idolized him,
+who in passionate enthusiasm admired his genius and all that he did--he
+_must_ understand the necessity of his step. But this friend was
+silent, and in this silence lay the sentence.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+
+"You too, Egon?"
+
+In the tone of the questioner who waited several minutes in vain for an
+answer, there lay deep bitterness. "And you too, Egon, who have so
+often told me that nothing should hamper the flight of the poet; that
+he must break the fetters which would hold him to the ground. I did
+that--and you would have done the same."
+
+The Prince drew himself up with the firmness of decision.
+
+"No, Hartmut; you are mistaken there. Perhaps I should have fled from a
+strict school, but from the colors--never!"
+
+Here it was again--the harsh words which he had already heard once
+before--"fled from the colors." It forced the blood to his brow again.
+
+"Why did you not become an officer?" continued Egon. "You could
+have become one early at your home; you could have taken your leave
+then at an age when life only commences. Then you would have been
+free--honorably."
+
+Hartmut was silent. His father had told him the same, but he had not
+wanted to wait and submit himself to rules. A barrier had stood in his
+way, and he simply threw it down unconcernedly. But he threw down duty
+and honor with it.
+
+"You do not know all that stormed upon me at that time," he replied,
+heavily. "My mother--I do not wish to accuse her--but she has been my
+doom. My father had separated from her in early life. I thought her
+dead, when suddenly she entered my life and snatched me to her with her
+burning mother love--with her promise of freedom and happiness. She
+alone is responsible for that unfortunate breaking of my word----"
+
+"What word?" interrupted Egon, excitedly. "Had you sworn to the
+standard?"
+
+"No, but I had given my father my word to return when he allowed me the
+last conversation with my mother----"
+
+"Instead of which you fled with her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The answer was almost inaudible and was followed by a long pause. The
+Prince spoke never a word; but in his open, sunny face deep, bitter
+pain was depicted--the bitterest of his life, for at this moment he
+lost his so passionately loved friend.
+
+At last Hartmut resumed, but he did not raise his eyes. "You understand
+now why I want to force an entrance into the army at any price. Now
+that war has broken out, the man can atone for the boy's sin. Therefore
+I left Sicily immediately after the first threatening news, and flew as
+in a storm to Germany. I hoped to be able to hasten to arms. I had no
+idea of all the difficulties and hindrances which would be put in my
+way. But you can put them aside, if you intercede for me."
+
+"No, I cannot do that," said Egon, coldly. "After what I have heard
+just now, this is impossible."
+
+Hartmut turned deathly white and stepped up close to Egon with a
+vehement gesture.
+
+"You cannot? That means--you will not?"
+
+The Prince was silent.
+
+"Egon!" Wild, stormy entreaty was in the tone. "You know I have never
+made a request of you--this is the first and last one. But now I
+beg--entreat you for this friendly service. It is the relief from the
+doom which has hung over me since that hour. The reconciliation with my
+father--the reconciliation with myself--you must help me!"
+
+"I cannot," repeated the Prince. "The rejection to which you have been
+subjected may hurt you deeply--I believe it--but it is only just. You
+have broken with your fatherland--with your duties--and that cannot be
+mended so easily without anything further, when one has become of a
+different opinion. You fled from the service of our standard--you, the
+son of an officer! Now the army is closed to you, and you must bear
+it."
+
+"And you tell me that so calmly--so coldly!" cried Hartmut, beside
+himself. "Do you not see that it is a question of life or death to me?
+I saw my father again that day at Rodeck, when he hastened to the
+deathbed of Wallmoden. He crushed me with his contempt--with the awful
+words he threw into my face. It was that which drove me away from
+Germany, which chased me ceaselessly from place to place. His words
+went with me and made life a hell to me. I have greeted the war cry as
+a deliverance. I want to fight for the fatherland which I once cast
+from me, and now the door which is open to every one is closed to me
+alone. Egon, you turn from me! Oh--there is only one way left for me!"
+
+With a sudden, passionate motion he turned to the table, where the
+Prince's pistols were lying; but the Prince sprang at him and tore him
+back.
+
+"Hartmut, are you out of your senses?"
+
+"Perhaps I shall be so. All of you torture me beyond endurance."
+
+Boundless despair lay in those words.
+
+Egon, too, had turned pale, and his voice trembled as he said: "Before
+it goes so far--I will try to find an opening in a regiment for you."
+
+"At last! I thank you."
+
+"However, I cannot promise you anything, for the Duke has to be put
+altogether aside now. Besides, he leaves to-morrow for the battlefield.
+Should he learn later on that you serve in his corps, we shall then be
+in the midst of the storm of war, and one does not ask 'How' and 'Why'
+in the face of a completed fact. But it may take days before the
+decision arrives. Will you be my guest?"
+
+Formerly the Prince would have accepted that as only natural and would
+have been exasperated if his friend had refused; now he made the
+inquiry, and Hartmut felt what lay in the cold question.
+
+"No, I shall not remain in town," he replied. "I shall go to the
+Forester at Rodeck, and I beg that you will send your answer there. I
+can return here in a few hours."
+
+"As you wish. Then you will not go to the castle?"
+
+Hartmut gazed at him with a long, sad look.
+
+"No; to the Forester's. Farewell, Egon."
+
+"Farewell."
+
+They parted without a pressure of the hand, without a further word, and
+when the door closed behind him, Hartmut knew that he had lost the
+friend who had idolized him. Judged here, too--and cast out! He had to
+atone terribly for the old guilt.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER L.
+
+
+Over the Wald hung a dark, cloudy sky, which, from time to time, sent
+down showers of rain. Gray mists clung around the heights, and storms
+raged through the crowns of the trees. It was a regular autumn day in
+the middle of summer.
+
+The mistress of Ostwalden was alone at her castle. She had received
+news from her brother that he had already left, and that the meeting
+planned between them could not take place. Therefore Adelaide had
+postponed her departure to be present at the marriage of Willibald and
+Marietta, which was quietly celebrated in the presence of the nearest
+relatives.
+
+The young couple had left for Berlin, where Willibald was to join his
+regiment immediately. His young wife wished to remain near him the few
+days before the order came to march. From there she was to go to
+Burgsdorf, whither her mother-in-law had preceded her.
+
+The morning hours had not yet passed when Prince Adelsberg drove up to
+the castle of Ostwalden. He had asked for leave of absence to-day to
+"arrange some important matters"; but the important matters did not
+carry him to Rodeck, but to Ostwalden. He came to say farewell to
+Adelaide, whom he had not seen since that first visit.
+
+As his carriage entered the castle yard, they met the priest of the
+neighboring village with the holy sacrament, and attendant chorister.
+Apparently the last rites had been administered to one seriously ill.
+The Prince inquired to whom the sad visit had been paid, and learned
+that it was to one of the inspectors of the estate, and that the
+mistress of the castle was at present with the dying man; but the guest
+should be announced to her instantly.
+
+Egon restlessly paced up and down the reception room, into which he had
+been shown. He had come here to obtain an assurance, without which he
+did not feel able to march into a campaign of life or death; and the
+uncertainty with which such a campaign was ever taken, must serve as
+apology for thus approaching a young widow still in deep mourning. It
+need not yet be a proposal. He wanted to take with him only a hope the
+promise of which had risen so brightly at their last meeting, when
+Adelaide had shown such warm interest in his sorrow about his absent
+friend. He did not dream that he had made a fatal mistake. Still, in
+spite of this, a deep shadow rested upon the face of the Prince,
+usually so cheerful. It was not the leave-taking which gave him pain,
+for he went to the battlefield with glowing enthusiasm and the happy
+faith of youth, which dreams only of victory, and rejects all dark
+prospects. Besides, he dreamed of another happiness in the future,
+which he wished to secure now.
+
+The door opened to admit Frau von Wallmoden.
+
+"I beg your pardon for detaining you so long, Your Highness," she said,
+after the first greetings. "It was probably told you that I was beside
+a deathbed?"
+
+"I learned so upon my arrival," replied Egon, who had hastened to meet
+her. "Is the case really so serious?"
+
+"Alas, yes! poor Tanner! He used to be tutor in a family in the
+neighborhood, but had to give up his position on account of a serious
+illness. At the request of the Chief Forester, I gave him employment in
+cataloguing my husband's library, which had been sent to Ostwalden, and
+it was hoped that he would quite recover in the easy office and the
+invigorating forest air. He was so grateful for it, and told me only
+yesterday how happy his mother was that he should be excused from
+military service, on account of not being yet quite well. But suddenly
+this morning he had a hemorrhage, and the physician tells me that he
+can live but an hour longer. It is awful to see a young life bleed to
+death like that!"
+
+"And yet this will happen to thousands in the next few weeks," said
+Egon, gravely. "Have you been with the poor man?"
+
+"Yes, at his request. He knew how it was with him, and wished to lay a
+prayer upon my heart for his old mother, who loses in him her only
+support. I have calmed his mind on that subject, but it was all I could
+do for him----"
+
+One could see how deeply the scene at the deathbed had impressed the
+young widow, and Egon, too, felt deep compassion at the narrative.
+
+"I come to say farewell," he said, after a short pause. "We march the
+day after to-morrow, and I could not deny myself a visit to you once
+more. I am happy to have found you here, as I understand you intend
+leaving soon."
+
+"Yes, for Berlin. Lonely Ostwalden is so far remote, and in this time
+of feverish expectation one wishes to be as near the centre of
+communications and connections as possible. I am anxious about my
+brother, who has joined the standard."
+
+Again a pause ensued, and the Prince was about to break it with
+expression of what lay so near his heart, when Frau von Wallmoden
+anticipated him with a question, asked with apparent indifference, but
+in a voice which trembled slightly:
+
+"You were in much anxiety about the non-arrival of news of your friend
+at your last visit, Your Highness. Have you heard from him yet?"
+
+Egon's eyes fell, and the shadow which had been dispelled during the
+conversation returned, heavily and gloomily, to his face.
+
+"Yes," he replied, coldly. "Rojanow is back in Germany."
+
+"Since the declaration of war?"
+
+"Yes, he came----"
+
+"To join the army! Oh, I knew it!"
+
+The Prince looked at her amazed.
+
+"You knew it, Your Excellency? I thought you had known Hartmut as a
+Roumanian only, and through me."
+
+A deep blush suffused the cheeks of the young Frau von Wallmoden. She
+felt the exclamation had been a betrayal, but she quickly regained
+composure. "I became acquainted with Herr Rojanow last fall, when he
+was your guest at Rodeck," she answered, composedly; "but I have known
+his father for long years, and he---- I suppose your Highness knows all
+that has happened?"
+
+"Yes, I know it now," said Egon, with heavy emphasis.
+
+"Colonel Falkenried was a near friend of my father's and visited our
+house frequently, although I had never heard of his son. I had
+considered the Colonel childless until that awful hour at Rodeck, the
+day my husband died. Then I learned the truth, and was a witness of a
+meeting between father and son."
+
+The Prince breathed a sigh of relief at this explanation, which
+dispelled the disastrous thought just dawning upon him.
+
+"I understand your concern, then," he replied. "Colonel Falkenried is,
+indeed, to be pitied."
+
+"He only?" asked Adelaide, struck by the harsh tone of the last words.
+"And your friend?"
+
+"I have no friend--I have lost him!" cried Egon, with passionate pain.
+"What he confessed to me two days ago opened an abyss between us, and
+what I know now parts us forever."
+
+"You judge the misdemeanor of a seventeen-year-old lad very severely.
+He must have been only a boy then."
+
+A deep reproach lay in the words of the young widow; but the Prince
+shook his head vehemently.
+
+"I do not speak of that flight and that breaking of his word, although
+they weigh heavily with the son of an officer. But what I heard
+yesterday--I see you do not yet know the worst, gracious lady, and how
+should you? Spare me this report."
+
+Adelaide had turned pale, and her eyes, full of fear, hung fixed upon
+the speaker.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LI.
+
+
+"I beg of Your Highness," Adelaide commenced again, "to tell me the
+truth--the whole truth. You said that Herr Rojanow had returned to join
+the army. I had thought he would--had expected it--for it is the only
+thing by which he can atone for his old guilt. Has he joined the
+standard already?"
+
+"Happily it has not gone so far, and that has spared me a heavy
+responsibility," said Egon, with supreme bitterness. "He reported to
+several regiments, but was refused everywhere."
+
+"Refused! But why?"
+
+"Because he did not dare to confess himself a German, and because a
+very just suspicion was raised toward the strange Roumanian. One has to
+be cautious at the present time that no--spies may force their way into
+the ranks of our armies."
+
+"For God's sake, what do you mean?" cried Adelaide, who began now to
+comprehend the situation.
+
+Egon sprang up in great excitement and drew nearer.
+
+"If you wish, then, to know it, gracious lady--listen. Hartmut came to
+me and requested me to use my influence to make the entrance into one
+of our regiments possible to him. I refused at first, but he forced me
+to consent by a threat which was hardly meant seriously. I kept my word
+and asked one of our higher officers, whose brother was secretary to
+our embassy at Paris and who had just returned from there with him.
+This gentleman was present at our interview. He heard the name,
+Rojanow--inquired further into the matter and gave me disclosures; I
+cannot repeat them. I have loved Hartmut as I have nothing else upon
+this earth--have almost idolized him. I let myself be carried away by
+the force of his genius, and now I learn that the friend who was
+everything to me is a monster; that he and his mother did service as
+spies at Paris. Perhaps he wished to do the same in our army!"
+
+He covered his eyes with his hand, and there was something awful in the
+agony of the young man whose idol had been so ruthlessly shattered.
+
+Adelaide had risen, and the hand with which she leaned upon the back of
+the chair trembled.
+
+"And what have you--has he--answered to that?"
+
+"Do you mean Rojanow? I have not seen him since and shall not see him
+again. I shall spare myself and him that much. He is now at the
+forestry at Rodeck and awaits my answer there. I have notified him in
+three lines of what I learned, without adding a remark or a word. He
+has probably received the letter and will understand it sufficiently."
+
+"Good God! that will drive him to his death," Adelaide burst forth.
+"How could you do it! How could you judge the unfortunate one without
+hearing him!"
+
+"The unfortunate one!" repeated the Prince cuttingly. "Do you really
+consider him that?"
+
+"Yes, for I do not hear these awful accusations for the first time. His
+father cast them in his face at that meeting."
+
+"Well, if even his own father accuses him----"
+
+"The deeply offended, deeply embittered man! He cannot have an unbiased
+judgment, but you--the friend of Hartmut--you, who stood so near
+him--you ought to have stepped in and defended him."
+
+Egon looked with questioning surprise upon the excited lady.
+
+"You appear to wish to do so now, Your Excellency," he said slowly. "I
+cannot do it, for there is too much in Hartmut's life which confirms
+the suspicion. It explains everything to me that has hitherto seemed
+mysterious. These are quite decided facts upon which the accusation is
+based----"
+
+"Against the mother! She has ever been the doom--the ruin--of her son;
+but he did not know the shameful work to which she had fallen; he lived
+at her side ignorant of it. I saw how he broke down when his father
+uttered the awful words--how he struggled against it as in a death
+struggle. That was truth--that was the despair of a man who is being
+punished more deeply than he has transgressed. That flight--that
+breaking of his word--robs him now of the faith of those who stand
+nearest to him. But if his father and his friend both so judge him--_I
+believe in him!_ It is not true! He is not guilty!"
+
+She had drawn herself fully erect in her stormy excitement. Her cheeks
+glowed; her eyes sparkled, and her tone and words contained that
+convincing passion which only love knows when defending the loved one.
+
+Egon stood there transfixed and looked at her. There it was--the
+awakening, of which he had often dreamed, Fire and life glowed there
+now--a blooming world arose from the ice; but it was another who had
+called it forth.
+
+"I do not dare to decide as to whether you are right, gracious lady,"
+said the Prince in a toneless voice, after a brief silence. "I only
+know one thing. Whether Hartmut be guilty or not, he is enviable in
+this hour."
+
+Adelaide shrank back; she understood the hint and lowered her head
+mutely before the reproachful glance.
+
+"I came to say farewell," continued Egon. "I intended to add a
+question--a prayer--to this leave-taking, but that is over now. I have
+only to bid you farewell."
+
+Adelaide raised her eyes, in which hot tears glistened, and offered her
+hand.
+
+"Farewell, and may God take you in His care and keeping during the
+campaign!"
+
+But Prince Adelsberg shook his head silently.
+
+"What shall I do with life?" he finally cried in overwhelming sorrow.
+"I should like best--no, do not look at me so entreatingly! I know now
+that I made a fatal mistake, and I will not torture you with a
+confession; but, Adelaide, I would gladly die could I buy with death
+the look and tone you had just now for another. Farewell!"
+
+Once more he pressed her hand to his lips, then hastened away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LII.
+
+
+The storm had increased in violence during the afternoon. It roamed in
+the forest, dashed among the open heights and chased the clouds over
+the sky with increasing wrath. It raged with full force around that
+forest height which had once witnessed such a significant encounter
+between two people, but the man who leaned there now alone and lonely
+at the trunk of a tree did not seem to feel it, for he stood immovable
+in the midst of it.
+
+Hartmut's face was deathly pale; a stony, unnatural calm rested upon
+it, and the sparkle of the eyes had died out, while the hair fell heavy
+and damp over his brow. The storm had torn his hat from his head; he
+had noticed it as little as the rain which drenched him.
+
+He had found himself at this place after hours of roaming through the
+forest--here, where a remembrance drew him unconsciously. It was the
+right place for his purpose.
+
+The news which had been looked for so feverishly had finally come; no
+letter; nothing but a few lines without any preface, and with only the
+signature, "Egon--Prince Adelsberg." But in these lines there lay
+annihilation for him who received them. Cast out forever--judged by his
+friend without a hearing! Doom had awfully fulfilled itself in the son
+of Zalika.
+
+The crashing of a huge limb which broke under the pressure of the storm
+and fell whizzing to the ground, aroused Hartmut from his despairing
+revery. He had not even started at the crash, but slowly turned his
+glance to the heavy mass which fell close to him. A foot nearer and it
+would have struck him--would perhaps have made an end of all the shame
+and torture in one moment; but death was not made so easy for him. That
+blessing came to him only who loved life--he who wished to throw it
+away must do so with his own hand.
+
+Hartmut took the gun from his shoulder and put the butt to the ground;
+then he laid his hand upon his breast to find the right place. Once
+more he glanced up to the veiled skies with their scudding masses of
+clouds, and down to the little dark forest lake in the deceiving
+meadow, over which the fog clustered as at that time at home. The
+beckoning, charming will-o'-the-wisp had appeared to him there; he had
+followed the flame of the depths, and now it drew him down hopelessly;
+there was no further rising into the heights where other, brighter
+lights shone. A bullet in the heart and everything would be at an end.
+
+He was about to grasp the trigger when he heard his name called in a
+tone of deadly anxiety. A slender figure in a dark cloak sprang toward
+him from the edge of the forest, and the weapon fell from his hand, for
+he gazed into the face of Adelaide, who stood trembling before him.
+
+Moments passed without a word from either. It was Hartmut who recovered
+first.
+
+"You here, gracious lady?" he asked with enforced calmness. "Are you
+out in the forest in this weather?"
+
+"I should like to put the same question to you."
+
+"I have been hunting, but the weather is unpropitious, and I was about
+to discharge my gun----"
+
+He did not finish, for the sad, reproachful glance upon him told that
+the lie was in vain. He broke off and looked gloomily before him.
+Adelaide, too, gave up all pretense, and in her voice all her anxiety
+trembled as she cried: "Herr von Falkenried, what did you intend to
+do?"
+
+"What would have now been done had you not interfered," said Hartmut,
+harshly. "And believe me, gracious lady, it would have been better if
+coincidence had brought you here a few moments later."
+
+"It was no coincidence. I was at the forestry at Rodeck, and heard that
+you had been gone for hours. An awful presentiment drove me to look for
+you here. I was almost sure I should find you here."
+
+"You looked for me? Me, Ada?" His voice shook at the question. "How did
+you know that I was at the forestry?"
+
+"Through Prince Adelsberg, who called to see me this morning. You
+received a letter from him?"
+
+"No, only a communication," returned Hartmut with quivering lips. "No
+single word was directed to me personally in the short lines; they
+brought only a communication in a business tone which the Prince
+thought necessary. I fully understood it."
+
+Adelaide was silent; she had known it would drive him to suicide.
+Slowly she walked with him under the protection of the trees, for it
+was hardly possible to keep erect out in the open space in this raging
+storm, but Hartmut did not seem to feel it.
+
+"You know the contents of the communication--I see that you do," he
+commenced again, "and it is not new to you, either. You overheard what
+happened that night at Rodeck, but believe me, Ada, what I felt at that
+moment when you stood before me in that ghostly glow which shone
+through that night, and it grew clear to me that I had been ground into
+the dust before you--what I felt might have satisfied even my father's
+vengeance, might have atoned for all my sin."
+
+"You do him wrong," replied the young widow solemnly. "You saw him only
+in the stern, iron inflexibility with which he cast you from him. I saw
+him differently after you had gone. He broke down there in wild
+anguish; he then let me look into the heart of a despairing father who
+loved his son above everything. Have you not made an attempt since then
+to convince him?"
+
+"No; he would believe me as little as Egon does. He who has once broken
+his word, has lost forever their faith, even if he would regain it with
+his life. Perhaps my death upon the battlefield would have enlightened
+them, but when I fall now by my own hand they will see in it only the
+deed of a despairing man--a guilty one--and will despise me even in my
+grave."
+
+"Not everybody will do that," said Adelaide lowly. "I believe in you,
+Hartmut, in spite of everything."
+
+He looked at her, and through the gloomy hopelessness of his soul there
+flamed something of the old fire.
+
+"You, Ada? And you tell me that upon this spot where you cast me off?
+You did not know anything about me then----"
+
+"And for that reason I shuddered before the man to whom nothing was
+sacred--who recognized no law but his will and his passions; but that
+winter night, when I saw you at your father's feet, showed me that you
+fell more through doom than guilt. Since then I have known that you can
+and must cast that unfortunate inheritance from your mother far from
+you. Rouse yourself, Hartmut. The road which I then showed you is still
+open; whether it leads to life or death--it leads upward."
+
+He shook his head gloomily.
+
+"No, that is past. You have no conception of what my father has done to
+me with his terrible words. What my life has been since then I--but let
+me be silent about it; nobody can grasp it; but I thank you for your
+faith in me, Ada. Death is made easier to me through that faith."
+
+The young widow made a quick motion toward the weapon which lay at his
+feet.
+
+"For God's sake, no! You dare not do that!"
+
+"What am I to do with life?" Hartmut burst forth with terrible
+vehemence. "My mother has branded me as with a red-hot iron, and this
+closes to me every way to atonement--to salvation. I am cast out from
+the ranks of my people, where even the poorest peasant can fight; a
+privilege which is denied only to the dishonorable criminal, is denied
+also to me, for I am nothing else in Egon's eyes. He fears that I might
+become a traitor--a spy to my own brothers!"
+
+He covered his face with both hands, and the last words died in a sob;
+then he felt a hand touch his arm gently.
+
+"The brand is extinguished with the name Rojanow. Throw that from you,
+Hartmut; I bring you what you tried in vain to obtain--entrance into
+the army!"
+
+Hartmut started and gazed at her in unbelief.
+
+"Impossible! How could you----"
+
+"Take these papers," interrupted Adelaide, drawing forth a package.
+"They are made out in the name of Joseph Tanner 29 years old, slender,
+with dark complexion, black hair and eyes--you see everything will
+suit--with these nobody will refuse you an entrance as a volunteer."
+
+She gave him the papers, around which his right hand closed
+spasmodically as upon the most precious jewel.
+
+"And these papers?" he asked, still doubting.
+
+"Belong to a dead man. They were given me for another purpose, but the
+deceased has no further use for them and will pardon me if with them I
+save a living man."
+
+Hartmut stormily opened the package. The wind almost tore the sheets
+from his hand and he was scarcely able to decipher the contents as the
+young widow continued:
+
+"Joseph Tanner had a small office at Ostwalden, when seized with a
+hemorrhage this morning. He had but a few hours to live and gave me his
+last words and mementos for his mother. The poor woman shall receive
+everything--every letter, every scrap which can be a solace to her, but
+I have taken the official papers--for you. We do not rob anybody in
+doing this, for they are valueless to the mother to whom they now
+belong. Perhaps a strict judge would call that deceit, but I gladly
+shoulder the blame, and God will pardon it, and so will the
+fatherland."
+
+Hartmut closed the case and hid it in his breast, which heaved under a
+deep, deep breath. Then he drew himself up and pushed the rain-soaked
+locks from the high brow, so like his father's--his only inheritance
+from the Falkenrieds, but which gave him an unmistakable resemblance to
+them.
+
+"You are right, Ada," he said. "I cannot thank you in words for what
+you have done for me. Words have no power, but--I shall strive to
+deserve it."
+
+"I know that. Farewell and--_auf wiedersehen!_"
+
+"No, do not wish that," said Hartmut gloomily. "Death in battle can
+exonerate me to myself, but not to my father or Egon, for they would
+never hear of it; and if I remained among the living the old stain
+would return; but when I fall, tell them who rests under the foreign
+name. Perhaps then they will believe you and remove the curse from my
+grave."
+
+"Do you want to fall?" asked Adelaide with plaintive reproach, "even if
+I tell you that you sadden me inexpressibly?"
+
+"Sadden you, Ada!" he cried passionately. "Do you no longer shudder at
+my love--at the fate which drew us together? Oh, I might have possessed
+the highest happiness, for you are--free; but it comes near to me now
+for only a fleeting moment, and vanishes again into unattainable
+heights, like the form of the legend who bears your name in my drama.
+Nevertheless, it has approached me, and I may be permitted for once
+only to clasp it to me in farewell."
+
+He drew her to him and pressed a kiss upon the brow of his love, who
+leaned against him sobbing.
+
+"Hartmut, promise me that you will not seek death."
+
+"No; but it will know how to find me. Farewell, my own Ada."
+
+He tore himself away hastily. Adelaide remained alone. The storm roared
+above her head; the giant crowns of the trees moaned and swayed; the
+storm sang its wild song on and on, but suddenly over in the west there
+flamed a dark-red rent through the clouds. It was only for a brief
+moment--only one solitary ray of the sinking sun, but it shiningly
+illumined the forest height and the departing one, who turned once more
+and sent back a last greeting. Then the clouds massed together again,
+and the ray was extinguished.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LIII.
+
+
+The reddish, flickering glow of a wood fire lighted up the interior of
+a small, isolated house which had formerly served as a dwelling to a
+station-keeper, but was now pressed into service for the sentinels of
+the outpost. The room did not bear an expression of cosiness with its
+bare, smoked walls, low ceiling and small, barricaded windows, but the
+tremendous logs which flared and burned in the uncouth stone fireplace
+offered a very welcome warmth, for it was bitterly cold out of doors,
+and the whole country was buried in the snow of a severe winter.
+
+The regiment here was hardly better off than their comrades before
+Paris, although they belonged to the Southern army corps.
+
+At present two young officers were entering, and the one who still held
+the door open called laughingly to the one preceding: "Please bend
+down, Herr Comrade, or you might take our door frame along, for our
+villa is in rather a dilapidated condition, as you see."
+
+The warning was not without need, for the giant figure of the guest--a
+Prussian Lieutenant of the Reserve--was not at all in proportion to the
+door. Nevertheless, he succeeded in entering safely and looked around
+at the four walls, while his companion, who wore the uniform of a South
+German regiment, continued: "Permit me to offer you a seat in our
+'salon,' which is not so bad considering the circumstances. We have
+already had it worse during the campaign. So you are looking for
+Stahlberg? He is with my comrade out at the post, but will probably
+return directly. You will have to be patient for a quarter of an hour."
+
+"With pleasure," assured the Prussian. "I see from that that Eugene's
+injury is really as slight as he reported. I looked for him in the
+hospital, and heard that he was making a visit to the outposts, but as
+we shall probably march on by to-morrow, I did not wish to let this
+opportunity pass by unimproved, and therefore came to see him now."
+
+"His wound was indeed only slight--a shot in the arm, which is already
+far advanced toward healing, but will, nevertheless, disable him for
+service for a short time. You are a friend of Stahlberg?"
+
+"Yes, and connected besides through the marriage of his sister. I
+see that you do not remember me, Your Highness. Let me give you my
+name--Willibald von Eschenhagen. We met last year----"
+
+"At Furstenstein," interrupted Egon von Adelsberg quickly. "Certainly,
+now I remember you perfectly. It is remarkable how the uniform changes
+one; I really did not know you at first."
+
+He glanced with a half-admiring look at the once awkward country squire
+who had appeared so ridiculous to him, but who now possessed a stately,
+military appearance.
+
+It was not the uniform alone, though, which had changed Willibald so
+completely. What love had begun the campaign had finished by tearing
+him from the accustomed surroundings and circumstances. The young Baron
+had not only, as his Uncle Schonan expressed it, "become a man," but
+had developed into a true, genuine man.
+
+"Our meeting at that time was a brief one," continued the Prince, "but
+nevertheless you will permit me to offer my congratulations? You are
+betrothed----"
+
+"I believe you are under a mistake, Your Highness," interrupted
+Willibald with some embarrassment. "Although I had been introduced to
+you at Furstenstein as the future son-in-law of the house, but----"
+
+"That has been changed," finished Egon, smiling. "I knew it, for the
+comrade of whom I spoke just now is Lieutenant Waldorf, the happy
+fiance of Baroness Schonan. My words were meant for Fraulein Marietta
+Volkmar."
+
+"At present Frau von Eschenhagen."
+
+"What! You are already married?"
+
+"Have been for five months. We were married just before marching orders
+came, and my wife is now at Burgsdorf with my mother."
+
+"Then accept my congratulations on your marriage. But really, Herr
+Comrade, I ought to call you to account for the unwarrantable damage
+you have done to art. Please tell your wife that, as far as I can learn
+out here in the campaign, the entire Residenz still mourns her loss in
+sackcloth and ashes."
+
+"I shall not forget it, although I fear the Residenz has not much time
+for such mourning at present. Ah, the gentlemen are returning--I hear
+Eugene's voice."
+
+Steps were heard outside and the expected ones entered. Young Stahlberg
+greeted his relative with an exclamation of the most joyful surprise.
+He had not seen Willibald during the campaign, although both served in
+the same army corps. He still bore his arm in a sling, but otherwise
+looked well and happy.
+
+Eugene did not possess the beauty of his sister, and the feature of
+decided will-power which the daughter had inherited from her father was
+missing. The son showed a gentle, more conciliatory nature in his
+appearance as well as demeanor, but still he resembled his sister
+closely, which might have been the cause of Prince Adelsberg's intimacy
+with him.
+
+His companion, a handsome young officer with sparkling, saucy eyes, now
+approached, and the Prince performed the introduction.
+
+"I will not fear that the gentlemen will challenge each other when I
+mention the names," he said, jestingly. "They are obliged to be
+called--so then, Herr von Eschenhagen--Herr von Waldorf."
+
+"God forbid! For my part I am peace personified," cried Waldorf gayly.
+"Herr von Eschenhagen, I am glad to meet the cousin of my fiancee, and
+so much more so because he is already in the bonds of holy matrimony.
+We also would have liked to do as you did--marry before the march--but
+my father-in-law put on his grimmest mien and declared, 'Gain victory
+first and then marry.' Well, we have done the first continually for
+five months, and as soon as I return home I shall speedily ask for the
+second."
+
+He cordially shook the hand of his bride-elect's former fiance, then
+turned to the Prince.
+
+"We brought along something for Your Highness--something we seized
+outside. Orderly of Rodeck, advance to His Highness--the Lieutenant,
+Prince Adelsberg."
+
+The door opened, and in spite of the gathering twilight the Prince
+recognized the wrinkled face and snow-white hair of him who entered. He
+started.
+
+"All good spirits defend us! It is Peter Stadinger!"
+
+It was, indeed, the live Stadinger who stood before his young master.
+He did not seem to be wholly a stranger to the others, for although
+they now saw him for the first time, they greeted his appearance with
+the liveliest joy.
+
+"Above everything, let us have light to take a good look at the
+'Waldgeist' of His Highness," cried Waldorf, lighting candles and
+holding them with comical solemnity close before the old man.
+
+Egon laughed.
+
+"You see, Stadinger, what a well-known and frequently spoken of person
+you are here. Now let me introduce you in proper form. Behold here,
+gentlemen, Peter Stadinger--celebrated for his unequaled churlishness
+and his moral lectures, which make one quake. He probably thinks I
+cannot exist without them, and he will doubtless give to me here also
+upon the battlefield the satisfaction of this friendly habit. I hope
+that some of it will fall upon your heads, gentlemen--and now begin,
+Stadinger!"
+
+But the old man, instead of obeying, grasped the hand of his master in
+both of his and said in a heartrending tone: "Ach, Your Highness, how
+we have trembled and feared for you at Rodeck!"
+
+"Well, that is polite!" said Eugene Stahlberg, but the Prince assumed a
+displeased air.
+
+"So? And you therefore took to your legs speedily and left everything
+to go topsy-turvy at Rodeck. I should not have thought you would
+neglect your duty like that!"
+
+Stadinger looked at him in doubting perplexity.
+
+"But I have come according to orders. Your Highness has written me to
+make haste and come and take Louis from the hospital--you would attend
+to the travel and everything. I arrived this noon, and found the lad as
+well as could be expected. The doctor thinks I can take him home with
+me in a week, for then all danger would be over. But the kindness Your
+Highness has shown to Louis and all the others from Rodeck who are in
+the army can never be told. May God reward you a thousand times!"
+
+Egon withdrew his hand impatiently.
+
+"It is 'Herr Lieutenant' now, remember that. I insist upon my military
+title--and what does this mean, now that when I count upon your
+churlishness you are meek as a lamb and give us a pathetic scene!
+I forbid it! This Louis, gentlemen, is a grandson of this old
+Waldgeist--a fine, brave fellow, but he has a sister who is much
+handsomer. I am sorry to say this senseless grandfather sends her away
+regularly when I go to Rodeck. Why did Lena not come along? You should
+have thought of bringing her."
+
+This proved effective against the meekness and affection, which were as
+unusual as embarrassing.
+
+Stadinger drew himself up rigidly and replied with his usual terseness:
+"I believed Your Highness had no time here in the war to think about
+such foolishness."
+
+"Aha, now it is coming!" said the Prince under his breath to Waldorf,
+who stood beside him, but aloud he continued: "That is where you are
+very much mistaken. A fellow gets uncivilized in the war, and when I
+return home again----"
+
+"Then Your Highness has promised to get married at last," reminded the
+old man in the most emphatic tone, which called forth general laughter
+among the young officers. Egon joined it, but his laugh sounded forced,
+just as did his reply:
+
+"Yes, yes; I have promised, but I have reconsidered the matter in the
+meantime. I may keep my word in ten years or perhaps in twenty, but no
+sooner."
+
+Stadinger, who in spite of the command would not have used the title of
+Lieutenant under any consideration, because that would be a humiliation
+to the ducal family in his eyes, flew into a high state of indignation
+and gave free vent to it.
+
+"If I do not almost believe it! If Your Highness has really for once a
+sensible thought, it does not hold good for twenty-four hours--and your
+sacred father a married man, too! Man has to marry, anyhow, and all
+foolishness stops of its own accord after marriage."
+
+"Now that he is in the run of it, gentlemen, let him moralize to you,"
+cried Egon, and the young officers, to whom this was great fun, teased
+the poor Stadinger until he lost all respect and exhibited himself in
+the full halo of his admonitory nature.
+
+Half an hour later Willibald and Eugene Stahlberg approached the Prince
+to take leave.
+
+"You march on by to-morrow?" he asked.
+
+"At daybreak. We march toward R----, where Major-General von Falkenried
+is stationed with his brigade, though it will take several days to
+reach there, for the whole country between here and the fortress is
+occupied by the enemy, and we have to clear our way."
+
+"But tell the General, Willy, that I shall follow in at least a week,"
+said Eugene. "It is bad enough that I have to remain behind so long on
+account of a shot wound not worth mentioning. Next week I shall report
+myself well, whatever the doctor may say, and after that I shall join
+my regiment without delay--I hope before the capture of R----"
+
+"You must, indeed, make haste then," said Egon, "for resistance does
+not last long usually where General Falkenried stands; we have seen
+that often enough. He is always in front with his men always the first
+to storm a place, and has already won inconceivable things. It seems as
+if no impossibility exists for him."
+
+"But he has the good luck to be always put in the front," grumbled
+Lieutenant Waldorf. "Now again he is to take R----, while we lie here,
+God knows how long. And he will take possession of it--there is no
+doubt of that--perhaps he has taken it already. News reaches us only by
+roundabout ways so long as the enemy stands between us."
+
+He arose to escort the two gentlemen out, while the Prince remained
+behind.
+
+Standing before the fire with folded arms, he gazed into it, and his
+face bore an expression not in accordance with the gayety which he had
+but now been showing. Seriously, yet gloomily, he looked into the
+dancing flames, and the shadow would not leave his usually sunny eyes.
+
+He seemed to have forgotten the presence of Stadinger, but as the
+latter made himself heard by clearing his throat, he started.
+
+"Ah, you are still here? Remember me to Louis and tell him I will come
+to see him again to-morrow. We don't have to say farewell yet, as you
+remain here for the present. You did not think we had such gay times
+here? Yes, one makes life easy as possible when one has to be ready
+every day to lose it."
+
+The old man stood before his master and looked sharply into his eyes,
+then he spoke half aloud:
+
+"Yes, the gentlemen were gay and Your Highness the gayest of all but
+you are not happy in spite of it."
+
+"I? What do you mean? Why should I not be happy?"
+
+"I don't know that, but still I see it," insisted Stadinger. "When Your
+Highness used to come from Furstenstein, or were up to all sorts of
+things with Herr Rojanow, you looked different and laughed different,
+and just now when you looked into the fire it seemed to me as if Your
+Highness had something very heavy upon your heart."
+
+"Get away with all your observations!" cried Egon, to whom his old
+Waldgeist was again becoming uncomfortable. "Do you suppose we are
+always jolly? I should say that when one has the bloody battlefield
+always before the mind, earnest thoughts come near."
+
+Nothing could be said to that, and Stadinger remained silent, but he
+could not be deceived. He knew quite well that something was wrong with
+his young master, and that something was hidden behind this ostensibly
+exhibited gayety.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LIV.
+
+
+Lieutenant Waldorf re-entered the room, but left the door open. "Come
+right in here," he called to the man hesitating outside. "Here is an
+orderly from the Seventh Regiment with a report. Well, don't you hear,
+orderly? Come in!"
+
+The repetition of the order sounded very impatient. The soldier who
+stood upon the threshold hesitated there, and had even made a start
+back, as if he wished to return to the darkness outside. He now obeyed,
+but kept close to the door, so that his face remained in the dusk.
+
+"Do you come from the outposts at the Capellenberg?" asked Waldorf.
+
+"At your command, Herr Lieutenant."
+
+Egon, who had turned indifferently, started at the sound of that voice.
+He made a hasty step forward, then stopped as if suddenly recollecting
+himself, but his eyes were fixed with an almost terrified expression
+upon the speaker.
+
+As far as could be discerned in the semi-darkness he was a tall young
+fellow in the coarse cloak of the common soldier, with helmet upon his
+closely-cut hair. He stood there, rigidly immovable, and delivered his
+report correctly, but his voice had a peculiarly choked, hollow sound.
+
+"From Captain Salfeld," he reported. "We have seized a suspicious
+character, dressed as a peasant, but probably from the French reserve,
+who tried to steal into the fortress. What writings he had with
+him----"
+
+"Do come nearer," commanded Waldorf, impatiently. "We cannot half
+understand you."
+
+The soldier obeyed, drawing near to the officers. The light now fell
+full and sharp upon his features, but his face bore an ashy paleness;
+the teeth were tightly closed, and the eyes were fastened to the floor.
+
+Egon's hand clutched the hilt of his sabre convulsively, and only by an
+effort he suppressed the stormy exclamation which was forced to his
+lips, while Stadinger, with wide-open eyes, glared at the man, who now
+continued: "The writings which he had with him were not of much
+account, but contained hints which he was probably to fill out
+verbally. The Captain thinks that if he were strictly examined, more
+could be learned, and asks now whether he shall send the prisoner here
+or to headquarters."
+
+The report was neither surprising nor unusual. It often happened that
+suspicious people were seized. The enemy's reserve tried obstinately to
+obtain connection with the fortress; perhaps they kept it up in spite
+of all the watchfulness of the besiegers: but Prince Adelsberg seemed
+to have to struggle for breath before he could give the answer.
+
+"I beg the Captain to send the prisoner here. We shall be relieved in
+two hours and then we march straight to headquarters. I shall attend to
+the fellow."
+
+"I hope he can be made to speak when he is seriously pressed," remarked
+Waldorf. "He would not be the first whose heart had fallen when his
+position became clear to him. Well, we shall see."
+
+The soldier stood there awaiting his dismissal; not a muscle quivered
+in his face, but neither did he raise his eyes from the floor. Egon had
+now collected himself, and, retaining the assumed ignorance, he asked
+in the curt tone of the superior:
+
+"Do you belong to the Seventh Regiment?"
+
+"At your command, Herr Lieutenant."
+
+"Your name?"
+
+"Joseph Tanner."
+
+"Drawn?"
+
+"No, volunteer."
+
+"Since when?"
+
+"Since the 30th of July."
+
+"You have been in the whole campaign?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Lieutenant."
+
+"Very well; now take the message to your Captain."
+
+The soldier saluted, turned upon his heel and left.
+
+Waldorf, who had been a little surprised at the examination, but had
+not attached any importance to it, looked after him, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+"Those out at the Capellenberg have the worst time of it. No rest by
+day or night; taxed to the utmost, and with all that they are often
+ordered to help the pioneer corps. The poor fellows work there in the
+hard, frozen ground until the sweat runs in streams from their brows,
+and their hands bleed. Our people surely are better off."
+
+He left the room to appoint an orderly to guard the expected prisoner
+and give him the necessary instructions; but Egon tore the window open
+and leaned out; it seemed as if he should suffocate.
+
+Then he heard Stadinger's voice behind him in subdued tones, which
+nevertheless betrayed the greatest terror.
+
+"Your Highness."
+
+"What is it?" Egon asked without turning.
+
+"Has not Your Highness seen?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The orderly who was here just now. That was Herr Rojanow as sure as he
+lives and breathes."
+
+Egon saw that presence of mind was needed here, so he turned around and
+said coldly: "I believe you see ghosts."
+
+"But, Your Highness----"
+
+"Nonsense! there may be a little resemblance. I noticed it myself,
+therefore I wanted to know the name of the man. You heard that it was
+Joseph Tanner."
+
+"But still it was the real live Herr Rojanow," cried the unshakable
+Stadinger, whose sharp eyes could not be deceived. "Only the black
+locks were gone and the proud, haughty manner, but it was his voice."
+
+"Get away from me with your fancies!" Egon broke out angrily. "You know
+that Herr Rojanow is in Sicily, but here you want to trace him in an
+orderly of the Seventh Regiment. It is truly worse than ridiculous."
+
+Stadinger held his peace. It was, indeed, ridiculous and impossible,
+and consequently was his young Prince so ungracious. He felt offended
+that a common soldier should be confounded with his friend. And really
+the haughty Rojanow, who understood how to command from the very
+bottom of his heart, and had often chased all the servants at Rodeck
+helter-skelter with his orders--and the orderly who had been snubbed by
+Lieutenant Waldorf because he did not speak loud enough--were two ever
+so different things. If only it had not been for the voice!
+
+"Think, Your Highness," besought the old man, who was now wavering.
+
+"I think that you are an old seer of spirits," said Egon more mildly.
+"Go into your quarters and sleep away the fatigue of your journey, or
+you will be finding some more resemblances. Good-night!"
+
+Stadinger obeyed and took his leave. Fortunately he had not known
+Joseph Tanner, who had only been at Ostwalden a few weeks, and the
+encounter had put him in such a fright that the partly concealed
+excitement of his master passed quite unnoticed by him. But he clung to
+his doubts; the thing was strange--very strange.
+
+When the Prince found himself alone he began to pace the floor in
+violent excitement. So! what he had refused his former friend had been
+enforced. Joseph Tanner! He plainly remembered the name, which had been
+mentioned to him at Ostwalden, and he knew now whose hand had opened
+for Hartmut the ranks of the army which had been closed to a Rojanow.
+
+What will not the love of a woman attain!--a woman who desires to see
+her love exonerated at any price. She herself had sent him out into
+danger and death--to save him for life and--herself. Jealousy rose wild
+and hot in Egon's breast at the thought, and with it that awful
+suspicion, not yet overcome, raised its head again threateningly. Did
+Hartmut really wish to atone only in this war? Was not his presence at
+the outposts a danger, for which one was responsible if he kept it a
+secret?
+
+Then came back to the Prince's mind the pale, gloomy face of the man
+to-night--the friend who had once been so dear to him, and who must
+have suffered agonies of torture at this encounter, far exceeding his
+imagination. He well knew Hartmut's unbending pride, and this pride was
+now bowed low in the dust in that subordinate position day after day.
+He had heard it; how out there on the Capellenberg they often worked so
+hard that in spite of the icy weather the sweat poured in streams from
+their brows, and their hands bled. This was what the spoiled, famed
+Rojanow was doing; the man at whose feet the whole town laid its homage
+only a year ago, and whom the house of the reigning Prince had
+overwhelmed with distinction; and he was doing it of his own free will,
+when the success of his poetical work afforded him the richest
+revenues. And with it all, he was the son of General Falkenried!
+
+Egon's breast rose under a deep but relieved breath. This view of it
+was giving him back slowly his lost faith; all torturing doubts fled
+before this. The old sin of the boy Hartmut was now being atoned for,
+and the other more awful sin was the mother's alone--not his.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LV.
+
+
+It was toward nine o'clock in the evening when Prince Adelsberg left
+his quarters to go to the Commanding General. He was not obeying an
+official order, but an invitation, for the General had been close
+friends with his father, and had shown paternal attention to the son
+all during the campaign.
+
+Egon would have given much to have been permitted to remain at home
+to-night, for the encounter with Hartmut had shaken him to the inmost
+heart, but the invitation of the superior could not be disregarded, and
+one could not follow one's inclinations in war-time.
+
+An adjutant met the Prince upon the stairs, seeming to be in the
+greatest haste, and only dropping a hint of bad news, which Prince
+Adelsberg would probably hear from the General. Egon mounted the stairs
+shaking his head.
+
+The General was alone, pacing the room in apparent excitement and with
+a face which boded no good.
+
+"Good evening, Prince Adelsberg," he said, pausing in his walk at the
+entrance of the young officer. "I am sorry I cannot promise you a
+pleasant evening, but we have received news which will probably ruin
+every pleasure of being together."
+
+"I just heard a hint about it," replied Egon; "but what has happened,
+Your Excellency? The dispatches of to-day noon sounded favorable."
+
+"I have had this news but an hour. You yourself delivered the
+suspicious man who had been seized by our outposts to headquarters. Do
+you know what he had with him?"
+
+"Yes, for Captain Salfeld sent the papers with the prisoner. I was also
+of the opinion that he was to complete the information verbally, as
+they had been carefully prepared. They had apparently counted upon the
+possibility of the man's falling into our hands. He would not confess
+anything, but I knew he would be examined closely here."
+
+"Which has been done. The man was a coward, and when he saw the bullet
+threatening him he saved himself by a confession, the truth of which
+cannot be doubted. You remember that in one of the papers it was
+mentioned that one could in an extreme case follow the heroic example
+of the commander of R----?"
+
+"Yes, that is incomprehensible, as the fortress is on the eve of
+surrender. General Falkenried sent word that he hopes to move in by
+to-morrow."
+
+"And I fear he will make his word good," cried the General. Egon looked
+at him in amazement.
+
+"You _fear_, Excellency?"
+
+"Yes, for there is a scoundrelly scheme--a betrayal without example.
+They mean to surrender the fortress, and when their garrison has
+withdrawn to a safe distance, and our army has moved in, they intend to
+blow the citadel to atoms."
+
+"For God's sake!" shrieked the Prince in horror. "Cannot General
+Falkenried be notified?"
+
+"That is the question. I fear that it will not be possible. I have sent
+out warnings upon two different routes, but our direct connection with
+R---- is cut off; the enemy has the mountain passes in possession; the
+messengers will have to make a wide circuit and cannot arrive there in
+time."
+
+Egon was silent in deepest consternation. The passes were, indeed,
+occupied by the hostile forces. Eschenhagen's regiment had been sent to
+clear the way, but that might take several days.
+
+"We have considered all possibilities," continued the General, "but
+there is no way out of it--nothing but a slight hope that the surrender
+has been delayed in some way; but Falkenried is not the man to allow
+himself to be kept waiting. He will hasten the finale and then he is
+lost with perhaps thousands with him."
+
+He resumed his walk through the room. One could see how the fate of his
+endangered comrades went to the heart of this iron man.
+
+The Prince, too, stood helpless, but suddenly a thought flashed upon
+him. He drew himself up.
+
+"Your Excellency."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"If it should be possible to send a dispatch over the passes, a good
+horseman might possibly get to R---- by to-morrow morning. Of course,
+he would have to ride for life and death----"
+
+"And through the midst of the enemy--nonsense! You are a soldier and
+must tell yourself that it is impossible. The foolhardy rider would not
+get half a mile--he would be shot down."
+
+"But if a man could be found who would be willing to make the attempt
+in spite of everything? I know such a man, Your Excellency."
+
+The General frowned angrily.
+
+"Does that mean that you wish to offer yourself for this useless
+sacrifice? I would have to prohibit that, Prince Adelsberg. I know how
+to value the courage of my officers, but I shall not give them
+permission for such impossible enterprises."
+
+"I do not speak of myself," said Egon earnestly. "The man of whom I am
+thinking belongs to the Seventh Regiment, and is at present upon
+sentinel duty on the Capellenberg. It was he who reported the
+prisoner."
+
+The General had grown thoughtful, but he shook his head incredulously.
+
+"I say it is impossible; but what is this man's name?"
+
+"Joseph Tanner."
+
+"Private?"
+
+"Yes, he entered voluntarily."
+
+"You know him, then?"
+
+"Yes, Your Excellency; he is perhaps the best rider in the whole army;
+dauntless to foolhardiness, and capable to act in such a case with the
+circumspection of an officer. If the thing can possibly be done, he
+will do it."
+
+"And you believe--such a thing cannot be commanded--it is, indeed, an
+act of despair--you believe that the man would take this message of his
+own free will?"
+
+"I stand for it."
+
+"Then, indeed, I cannot nor dare not say no where so much is at stake.
+I will order Tanner up immediately."
+
+"May I not take the order to him?" Egon quickly interrupted.
+
+The General stopped and looked at him searchingly.
+
+"You wish to do it yourself--why?"
+
+"To save time; the road which Tanner has to take leads by the
+Capellenberg; an hour would pass before he could get to headquarters
+and back."
+
+Nothing could be said against that, but the General seemed to feel that
+something important was hidden beneath this. An ordinary private would
+hardly undertake such peril, which drove him almost into death's
+embrace, but the old warrior did not inquire further. He only asked:
+
+"Do you stand for the man?"
+
+"Yes," returned the Prince, firmly and calmly.
+
+"Very well; then you can inform him yourself. But one thing more--he
+must have statements for the outposts on the other side, if indeed he
+reaches it, for every detention may prove fatal where moments count."
+
+He stepped to his desk and wrote a few lines upon a paper, which he
+handed to the Prince.
+
+"Here is the necessary passport, and here the dispatch to Falkenried.
+Will you bring me immediate news whether or not Tanner consents to go?"
+
+"Instantly, Your Excellency."
+
+Egon received the papers, took his leave, and hastened to his quarters,
+where he ordered his horse saddled at once. Five minutes later saw him
+on his way.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LVI.
+
+
+The Capellenberg, of Chapel Mountain, which had probably borne
+originally another name, but was so called by the Germans because it
+bore a chapel, was only a small height, partly covered with forests. It
+was the last outrunner of the mountains at this side, and formed here
+the border of the German troops. A company of the Seventh Regiment was
+stationed in the farms which lay scattered over its side. Their
+position was rightly considered very hard and most dangerous.
+
+The chapel lay desolate and lonely, half buried in the deep snow.
+Priests and choir had long since fled, and the little edifice bore
+traces of destruction everywhere, for hot battles had been fought
+around this height. Walls and roof still stood intact, but a part of
+the ceiling had fallen, and the wind whistled through the shattered
+windows. Behind it rose the forest, clad in ice and snow, and all this
+lay in the uncertain light of the half-moon which was now visible in
+the heavily clouded sky, shedding her ghostly light upon the
+surroundings, only to again quickly disappear.
+
+It was an icy winter night, as at that time at Rodeck, and, as then,
+the horizon was lit up by a dark reddish glow; but no aurora beamed
+here in gorgeous beauty; the glow which flared here in the north bore
+witness of battles fought all around; it had its origin in burning
+villages and farms; the awful signs of the flame of war, which were
+reflected in the skies.
+
+A lonely sentinel stood here with gun on shoulder--Hartmut von
+Falkenried.
+
+His eyes hung on the flaming horizon, the dark masses of cloud shone
+there blood-red, and from time to time a shower of fiery sparks burst
+from the seething smoke which rested over the earth.
+
+Glow and flame there; ice and night here! The cold, which had been
+intense already during the day, now grew to the breath of ice, in which
+all life seemed to become stark, and which chilled the lonely sentinel
+to the very marrow.
+
+Although he was not the only one who had to do this hard duty, his
+comrades had not been spoiled by years of life in the Orient and the
+balmy air of Sicily. Hartmut had not lived through a northern winter
+since his boyhood; this cold grew disastrous to him, for it seemed to
+change the blood in his veins into ice.
+
+Slowly the deadly sleepiness, which is not sleep, crept upon him; it
+made the limbs heavy as lead, and drooped the eyelids forcibly. He who
+was so terribly threatened, struggled against it with all his
+will-power; he tried to collect himself and move about; he succeeded
+for a moment, but exhaustion again approached, the end of which he
+knew.
+
+Was it not even to be granted him to fall by a bullet?
+
+Hartmut's glance turned to the half-destroyed house of God, as if
+beseeching help; but what were church and altar to him? He had cast
+faith from him long ago; only night with death stared him in the face,
+and life would have given him so much when the atonement should have
+been completed--possession of his love, the fame of a poet, and perhaps
+even reconciliation with his father.
+
+But it was not to be. He must stand to his post and wait for the
+ignominous death which was creeping upon him from the icy darkness.
+Duty commanded and he--obeyed.
+
+But in the distance sounded steps and voices which came nearer and
+nearer. They tore Hartmut from the semi-unconsciousness which had
+already begun to veil his senses.
+
+He roused himself with an effort and made his gun ready, but it was his
+comrades who drew near. What did it mean? The hour for relief had not
+yet come; but in a moment a sergeant stood before him.
+
+"Relief--command from headquarters brought by an officer," came the
+order.
+
+The change was made and a sturdy peasant, who did not seem to mind the
+cold much, took Hartmut's place. As Hartmut was about to join the
+sergeant an officer approached him from the other side.
+
+"Let the sergeant go on. I wish to speak to you, Tanner; follow me."
+
+Prince Adelsberg, who did not wish the sentinel to witness the
+conversation, entered the chapel, into which Hartmut followed him.
+
+The pale moonlight falling through the windows revealed all the
+dismantled and destroyed interior. The fallen ceiling had shattered
+some of the pews; the altar alone stood undemolished.
+
+Egon had walked to the middle of the room, where he stopped and turned.
+
+"Hartmut."
+
+"Herr Lieutenant."
+
+"Stop that, we are alone," said the Prince. "I did not think, that we
+should meet like this."
+
+"And I hoped I should be spared it," said Hartmut hoarsely, "You have
+come----"
+
+"From headquarters. I heard that you had been ordered to sentinel duty
+on the Capellenberg. That is awful duty for such a night as this."
+
+Hartmut was silent; he knew that without this interruption it would
+have been his last duty.
+
+Egon looked at him with concern. In spite of the uncertain light he saw
+how rigid and exhausted was the man who leaned against one of the
+pillars as if he needed support.
+
+"I came to bring you an order, but it is left to your own free will to
+accept it or not. The matter is considered almost impossible, and it
+would be, perhaps, to any one else. You have courage for it, I know,
+but the question is, have you the strength after all these exertions?"
+
+"Fifteen minutes' rest and warmth will give me the strength. But what
+does it concern?"
+
+"A ride for life or death. You are to take a message through the midst
+of the enemy--to R----"
+
+"To the fortress?" cried Hartmut with a start. "There stands----"
+
+"General Falkenried with his brigade; he is lost if the message does
+not reach him. We lay his safety in the hands of his son."
+
+Again Hartmut started. Gone were frost and exhaustion. With feverish
+excitement he grasped the Prince's arm.
+
+"I am to save my father? I? What has happened? What must I do?"
+
+"Listen. The prisoner whom you reported to me to-day has given us a
+terrible disclosure; it concerns a betrayal. The fortress is to be
+blown up as soon as their troops are in safety and ours have taken
+possession. The General sent warnings instantly, but they will not
+reach them in time, as they have to take a circuitous route. Your
+father thinks of taking possession to-morrow. He must be warned before
+that, and there is only one possibility. The messenger must go over the
+mountain passes, which are held by the enemy. If successful, the news
+will reach there to-morrow before noon, but the way----"
+
+"I know it," interrupted Hartmut. "Our regiment took it only fourteen
+days ago coming here. The passes were free then."
+
+"So much the better! Of course you must take off your uniform, which
+would betray you."
+
+"I shall change only cloak and helmet. If I am held up at all, my fate
+is sealed--so it is only important that I be not recognized in flying
+past. If only a good capable horse can be found!"
+
+"It is at hand. I brought my Arab--my Saladin--with me. You know him
+and have often ridden him. He flies like a bird, and must do his master
+achievement this night."
+
+The conversation had been conducted with flying haste, and now the
+Prince drew out the papers which he had received at headquarters.
+
+"Here is the order of the Commanding General, which puts everything at
+your disposal when you reach our outposts--and here the dispatch. Give
+yourself half an hour's rest, for your strength might not hold out, and
+you will break down on the way."
+
+"Do you think that I need rest and recreation now," cried Hartmut,
+flashing up. "I shall surely not break down now; it will have to be
+under the fire of the enemy if I do. I thank you, Egon, for this hour,
+in which you at last--at last--speak to me free from that base
+suspicion."
+
+"And in which I send you out into death," said the Prince softly. "We
+will not shun the truth. It will be a miracle if you get through
+safely."
+
+"A miracle."
+
+Hartmut's glance wandered to the altar, upon which rested the pale
+light of the moon. He had forgotten long ago how to pray, yet at this
+moment he sent up a silent, fervent prayer to the heavens--to the power
+which could do miracles.
+
+"Only until I have saved my father and his men--only so long guide and
+keep me!"
+
+In the next second he drew himself up. It was as if Egon had poured
+glowing life power into the veins of the man who so shortly since was
+threatened with death through cold and exhaustion.
+
+"And now let us say good-by," whispered Egon. "Farewell, Hartmut."
+
+He opened wide his arms and Hartmut fell upon his breast.
+
+All that had stood between them was buried in this embrace. The old
+glowing love burst forth powerfully again for the last time, for both
+felt that they would not meet again--that this was a final farewell.
+
+Scarce fifteen minutes later a horseman dashed away; the slender Arab
+flying so that his hoof seemed not to touch the ground. In furious
+gallop he flew along over the snow through ice-covered forests, over
+frozen brooks on and on into the mountain passes!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LVII.
+
+
+The next day brought clear, frosty weather, but the sun shone brightly
+and the cold had somewhat abated.
+
+In Prince Adelsberg's quarters were Eugene Stahlberg and Waldorf, the
+latter being off duty today on account of a fall upon the ice,
+resulting in an injury to his hand, which prevented him from marching
+with his company as Egon had done.
+
+The gentlemen were awaiting their princely comrade, who was expected
+soon, and entertained themselves in the meantime by teasing Peter
+Stadinger, who had, as in duty bound, appeared at his young master's
+this morning, and who also awaited him now.
+
+The young officers knew nothing as yet of the news which had
+been obtained at headquarters yesterday, and were in the best of
+spirits--taking all possible pains to call forth in Stadinger the
+far-famed churlishness. But it was not successful today. The old man
+remained laconic and reticent. He would only repeat his question: When
+would His Highness return? and if it would be a serious skirmish to
+which His Highness had marched? until finally Waldorf lost all
+patience.
+
+"Stadinger, I believe you would like best to pack up your Prince and
+take him back with you to your Rodeck, which is safe from bombs," he
+asserted. "You must get over this anxiety in the war--remember that."
+
+"And, besides, the Prince has only marched out to reconnoitre," added
+Eugene. "He is just taking a little walk with his people from the
+Capellenberg into the neighboring dales and ravines, to ascertain how
+it really looks there. They will probably exchange a few compliments
+with the French gentlemen, and then retreat politely; the more impolite
+attacks will follow in a few days."
+
+"But is there shooting with it all?" asked Stadinger, with such anxious
+mien that the two officers laughed aloud.
+
+"Yes, shots are being exchanged, too," confirmed Waldorf. "You seem to
+have great fear of them, yet you are at a safe distance."
+
+"I?" The old man drew himself up, deeply offended.
+
+"I wish I could be in the midst of it also."
+
+"Perhaps to protect your much loved Highness. The Prince would decline
+that. You would hold on to his coat tails and cry continually, 'Take
+care, Your Highness, there comes a ball.' That would look fine!"
+
+"Herr Lieutenant," said the old man, so seriously that the gay tease
+was silenced, "you should not do that to an old hunter who has often
+climbed after the chamois, and has fired his gun when he had scarcely a
+foot's breadth of ground to stand on; I feel so depressed and anxious
+to-day. I wish the day would end."
+
+"Well, it was not meant so seriously," said Eugene, soothingly. "We
+believe you, Stadinger; you do not look like a man who is afraid. But
+you must not speak to us about your depressing presentiments. One does
+not think of them after one has stood so many times in the shower of
+bullets. When we are happily at home again, I will come to my sister at
+Ostwalden, and we will then be good neighbors with Rodeck. The Prince
+loves his old forest nook so well. And now abandon your anxiety, for
+there he comes already."
+
+Rapid steps were heard on the stairs outside; the old man sighed with
+relief. But it was only Egon's attendant who appeared in the open door.
+
+"Well, has His Highness arrived?" asked Waldorf; but Stadinger did not
+allow the man time to answer. He had cast one glance at his face--only
+a single one--then suddenly grasped his hand with a convulsive clutch.
+
+"What is it? Where--where is my master?"
+
+The man shook his head sadly and pointed silently to the window, to
+which both officers hastened with fear and dread. But Stadinger lost no
+time. He dashed out down the stairs, into the little garden which lay
+before the house, and with a loud, bitter cry sank upon his knees at
+the side of a stretcher, upon which there lay a slender, youthful
+figure.
+
+"Quietly," said the physician who had accompanied the sad group.
+"Control yourself--the Prince is seriously wounded."
+
+"I see it," gasped the faithful old servant; "but not fatally--oh, say
+not fatally. Only tell me that, Herr Doctor!"
+
+He looked up to the surgeon with such despairing entreaty that the
+latter had not courage to tell him the truth, but turned to the two
+officers who now hastened near and overwhelmed him with low, anxious
+questioning.
+
+"A ball in the breast," he explained, in the same tone. "The Prince
+begged to be brought to his quarters, and we have used all possible
+care in the moving; but it will bring the end more quickly than I
+thought."
+
+"Fatal?" asked Waldorf.
+
+"Beyond a doubt."
+
+The surgeon gave the bearers who prepared to take their charge into the
+house, a sign to desist.
+
+"Stop, the Prince seems to have something to say to his old servant,
+and there are no moments to lose."
+
+Stadinger saw and heard nothing of what happened at his side. He looked
+only upon his master.
+
+Egon seemed to be unconscious. The light hair had become disheveled,
+the eyes were closed, and beneath the cloak with which he had been
+covered, and which had partly fallen open, the blood-stained uniform
+could be seen.
+
+"Your Highness," besought Stadinger, softly, according to the doctor's
+warning, but with heartbreaking accents, "only look at me! Speak to me!
+It is I--Stadinger."
+
+The well-known voice found its way to the ear of the desperately
+wounded man. Slowly his eyes opened, and a slight smile flitted over
+his features as he recognized the old man who knelt at his side.
+
+"My old Waldgeist," he whispered, "did you have to come--to see this?"
+
+"But you will not die, Your Highness," murmured Stadinger, his whole
+body a-tremble, but never removing his eyes from his dying master;
+"no--do not die--surely not!"
+
+"Do you think that it is hard?" said Egon, calmly. "Yesterday--you saw
+quite correctly--my heart felt heavy; but now it is light. Give my love
+to Rodeck--and to my forests and--to her, too, the mistress of
+Ostwalden."
+
+"Whom? Frau Wallmoden?" asked Stadinger, almost terrified at this turn.
+
+"Yes--take her my last greeting--tell her to think of me sometimes."
+
+The words came painfully--brokenly--from the lips which seemed to
+almost refuse their duty; but they left no doubt as to the meaning of
+the last greeting.
+
+Eugene had started when he heard the name of his sister, and now bent
+low over the dying man, who saw the brother of Adelaide--recognized the
+features which resembled hers so much--and again a smile passed over
+his face. Then he leaned his fair head quietly and calmly on the breast
+of his old Waldgeist, and the beautiful blue eyes closed forever.
+
+It had been a short, painless struggle--almost a falling asleep.
+Stadinger had not moved--had not uttered a sound, for he knew it would
+hurt his young master, whom he had borne in his arms as a child, and
+who now drew his last breath in those arms. But, when all was over, the
+composure of the old man gave way. He threw himself despairingly upon
+the body and wept like a child.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LVIII.
+
+
+Over on the other side of the mountain passes also the winter sun shone
+clear and bright upon the new achievements which the victorious German
+troops had acquired.
+
+The negotiations with the commander of R---- had been brought to an
+end, and the fortress had surrendered. The captive garrison moved out,
+while a portion of the victors had already marched in.
+
+General Falkenried stood in the main square of the lower town with his
+staff, about to move also into the fortress. The helmets and arms of
+the troops who were on their way into the citadel glittered in the
+sunshine. Falkenried issued various orders, then took his stand at the
+head of his staff and gave the signal to march.
+
+But now there came a horseman in furious haste over the main road; the
+noble animal he rode was covered with sweat and foam, and his sides
+bled from the cruel spurs which had hurried him on and on when his
+strength threatened to desert him. The face also of the rider was
+disfigured by the blood trickling from beneath the cloth that had been
+wound around the forehead.
+
+He came flying, as if driven by a tornado, and everything fled from
+before him until he reached the open square, dashed through the midst
+of the officers straight up to the General. A few steps from the end of
+the journey the strength of the noble horse failed, he broke down
+completely; but at the same moment the rider sprang from the saddle and
+hastened toward the commander.
+
+"From the Commanding General."
+
+Falkenried started at the first word. He had not recognized the
+blood-covered face; he only saw that the man who dashed up as if for
+life or death must bring an important message. But at the sound of that
+voice, an idea of the truth flashed upon him.
+
+Hartmut swayed and laid his hand for a moment on his brow; it seemed as
+if he were about to break down, too, like his horse. But he recovered
+with an effort.
+
+"The General sends word to be cautious--betrayal is planned--the
+fortress will be blown up as soon as its garrison has moved off. Here
+is the dispatch."
+
+He tore a paper from his breast and gave it to Falkenried. The officers
+had become violently excited at the awful news, and pressed around
+their chief as if expecting to hear from him confirmation of the
+incredible report. But they had a strange sight before them.
+
+The General, whose iron composure they all knew--who never lost control
+of himself--had turned deathly pale, and stared at the speaker as if a
+spirit had risen before him from the ground, while he held the paper
+unopened in his hand.
+
+"Herr General--the dispatch!"
+
+One of the adjutants who understood the proceedings as little as the
+others, gently reminded him; but it was enough to bring Falkenried back
+to consciousness. He tore the dispatch open and glanced it over, and
+was now again the soldier who knew nothing but his duty.
+
+With full, firm voice he gave his orders. The officers galloped right
+and left; signals and commands resounded in all directions, and in a
+few moments the last detachment of soldiers came to a standstill. Upon
+the fortress sounded the signal of alarm. Neither friend nor foe knew
+what it meant. Did it not appear as if the so recently conquered place
+was to be vacated at once? But the orders were executed with the usual
+alacrity and dispatch; the movements were completed with perfect
+composure, in spite of the haste, and the troops turned back into the
+town.
+
+Falkenried was still in the open square, giving orders, receiving
+reports, watching and guiding everything with his eyes. But still he
+found a moment's time to turn to his son, to whom he had not as yet
+given any sign of recognition.
+
+"You are bleeding--let it be bandaged."
+
+Hartmut shook his head hastily.
+
+"Later--I must first see the retreat--the rescue."
+
+The awful excitement sustained him; he did not falter again, but
+followed with feverish attention every movement of the troops.
+
+Falkenried looked at him and then asked:
+
+"Which way did you come?"
+
+"Over the mountain passes."
+
+"Over the passes! The enemy stands there."
+
+"Yes, there they stand."
+
+"And you came over that way?"
+
+"I had to, otherwise the news would not have reached here in time. I
+started only last night."
+
+"But that is an heroic deed without an equal! Man, how could you
+accomplish it?" exclaimed one of the higher officers, who had just
+brought a report and heard the last words.
+
+Hartmut was silent; only he slowly raised his eyes to his father. He no
+longer feared the eyes he had feared so long, and what he read in them
+now told him that here, too, he was free from that awful suspicion.
+
+But even the greatest will power has its limits, and this was reached
+with the man who had rendered almost superhuman assistance. The face of
+his father was the last thing he saw--then it disappeared as behind a
+bloody veil; something hot and wet flowed over his forehead--all became
+night around him, and he sank to the ground.
+
+And now resounded a crash, under the appalling force of which the whole
+town trembled and quaked. The citadel, whose outlines had just stood
+out sharp and clear against the blue sky, was suddenly transformed into
+a crater, vomiting forth fire and destruction. In those walls a hell
+seemed to open; showers of rocks and stones rose high in the air, only
+to come down with thunderous clatter, and immediately there leaped and
+flickered over all the huge pile of debris a giant pillar of fire and
+smoke which rose up to the heavens--a terrible sign of flame!
+
+The warning had arrived at the last possible moment. But, in spite of
+it, there was a sacrifice of life, for whoever had been still in the
+neighborhood of the citadel had been crushed or severely injured. Still
+the loss was small in comparison with the incalculable disaster which
+would surely have taken place had not the warning been brought.
+
+The General, with his officers and nearly all his troops, had been
+saved. Falkenried had made all the arrangements required by the
+dreadful catastrophe with his usual promptitude and circumspection. He
+was everywhere, and his activity and example succeeded in giving back
+to the men who had been betrayed in the height of victory their
+equilibrium. Only when the commander had done his duty did the father
+seek his natural rights.
+
+Hartmut still lay unconscious in one of the neighboring houses, into
+which he had been carried when he sank to the ground. He neither saw
+nor heard the father, who stood at his bedside with one of the
+physicians.
+
+Falkenried silently gazed down upon the pale face and closed eyes, then
+turned to the physician.
+
+"You do not consider the wound fatal?"
+
+The doctor sadly shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Not the wound in itself, but the great overexertion of that life and
+death ride--the heavy loss of blood, the bitter cold of the night. I
+fear, Herr General, you must be prepared for the worst."
+
+"I am prepared for it," said Falkenried, solemnly. Then he knelt down
+and kissed the son whom perhaps he had found only to lose again; and
+hot, burning tears fell upon the deathly white face.
+
+But it was not granted the father to remain with his child for any
+length of time; he was forced to leave after a few moments, requesting
+the doctor once more to give his greatest care and skill to the
+patient.
+
+At the open square were collected the General's staff and other
+officers, awaiting their chief. They knew he was at present with the
+wounded man who had brought the warning, and whom nobody knew.
+
+It had become known that he had come over the mountain passes, through
+the midst of the foe--that he had ventured upon a ride the like of
+which nobody in the army could imitate--and when the General at last
+appeared, everybody gathered around him, questioningly.
+
+Falkenried was deeply serious, but the rigid, gloomy look which his
+face was accustomed to bear had disappeared and given place to an
+expression which the attendant officers saw now for the first time. In
+his eyes tears still glistened, but his voice sounded firm and clear as
+he answered:
+
+"Yes, gentlemen, he is desperately injured, and perhaps it was his last
+ride that brought rescue to us. But he has done his duty as a man and a
+soldier, and if you want to know his name--he is my son, Hartmut von
+Falkenried!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LIX.
+
+
+The old mansion of Burgsdorf lay peaceful and cosy in the brightest
+sunlight. It had but recently received back its lord, who had been
+absent nearly a year, and who returned now after the war was over, to
+his home and his young wife.
+
+The large estate, with its extensive work, had not suffered through his
+long absence, for it had been under safe guidance. The master's mother
+had stepped into her old place, and held the reins with her usual firm
+hand, until the return of her son; but now she laid those reins
+solemnly into his hands again and insisted, in spite of all prayers and
+entreaties, upon leaving Burgsdorf and returning to her city home.
+
+At present Frau von Eschenhagen was standing upon the terrace, the
+broad stone steps of which led into the garden, talking with Willibald,
+who stood beside her.
+
+Her glance rested with undeniable satisfaction upon the powerful, manly
+form of her son, who appeared even more stately now because of the
+acquired military bearing. Perhaps she felt that something different
+and better had been made of the young country squire than she could
+have done with her education. But she would not have confessed it at
+any price.
+
+"And so you wish to build," she was saying; "I thought about as much.
+The plain old house in which your father and I lived so many years is,
+of course, not good enough for your little princess. She must be
+surrounded by every available splendor. Well, I don't mind; you have
+the money for it, and can allow yourself that pleasure. I am glad to
+say I have not the responsibility of it any longer."
+
+"Do not act so grim, mamma," laughed Willibald. "If any one should hear
+you, they would think you the worst of mothers-in-law, whereas if I did
+not know it from Marietta's letters, I see it daily now, how you spoil
+her and carry her upon your hands."
+
+"Oh, well, one likes to play with pretty dolls sometimes, even in old
+age," replied Regine, dryly; "and your wife is such a delicate little
+doll, who is only good for play. Do not imagine that she will ever get
+to be a competent farm manager. I saw that from the first moment, and
+have not allowed her to do it at all."
+
+"And you were right in that," joined in the young lord. "Work and
+management are my part. My Marietta shall not be worried with it. But,
+believe me, mamma, one can live and work quite differently when such a
+sweet little _singvogel_ sings courage and love of work into one's
+heart."
+
+"Boy, I believe you are crazy still," said Frau von Eschenhagen, with
+her old grim manner. "Has it ever been known that a _sensible_ man--a
+husband and estate owner--speaks so of his wife--'sweet little
+_singvogel_'! Perhaps you get that from your bosom friend, Hartmut, who
+is considered by you all as such a great poet. You always did imitate
+him as a boy."
+
+"No, mamma, it is really my own. I have composed poetry but once in my
+life, on the night when I saw Marietta in Hartmut's 'Arivana.' The poem
+fell into my hands the other day, when I was putting my desk in order,
+and I gave it to Hartmut, begging him to change it a little, for,
+strange to say, the rhymes would not fit, and I had not done very well
+with the meter. Do you know what he said? 'My dear Willy, your poem is
+very beautiful as far as sentiment is concerned, but I advise you to
+abandon poetry. Such verse is not to be tolerated, and your wife will
+seek a divorce if you sing to her in this style.' That is how my 'bosom
+friend' judges my poetical talent."
+
+"It serves you right, too. What does an estate owner have to do with
+poetry?" said Regine, caustically.
+
+The door of the dining room was opened and a small head, running over
+with dark curls, peeped out.
+
+"Is it permitted to disturb the assembly in their important business
+discourse?"
+
+"Come along, you small elf," said Frau von Eschenhagen. But the
+permission was superfluous, for the young wife had already flown into
+her husband's open arms. He bent over her affectionately and whispered
+something in her ear.
+
+"Are you commencing again?" scolded the mother. "It is really
+unbearable in your presence nowadays."
+
+Marietta only turned her head, without freeing herself from the embrace
+which held her so closely, and said, roguishly: "We are celebrating our
+honeymoon after the long separation, and you must know from your own
+experience how people act then, _nicht wahr_, mamma?"
+
+Regine shrugged her shoulders. Her honeymoon with the late Eschenhagen
+had been of a different kind.
+
+"You received a letter from your grandfather, Marietta," she said,
+changing the subject; "was it good news?"
+
+"The very best. Grandpapa is quite well and anticipating much pleasure
+in his visit to Burgsdorf next month. But he writes that everything is
+very quiet around Waldhofen since Rodeck has lost its master.
+Everything is closed and desolate since the death of the young Prince.
+Ostwalden is lonely, and Furstenstein will be deserted, too, after
+Toni's marriage, which occurs in two weeks. Poor Uncle Schonan will be
+all alone then."
+
+The last words were spoken with a certain emphasis as the young wife
+threw a peculiar glance at her mother-in-law.
+
+That upright lady did not pay any attention to it, but only remarked:
+"Yes, it is a strange notion of Hartmut and Adelaide to live here in
+the pine forest in a small, rented villa during the first weeks of
+their married life, while the large castle of Ostwalden and all of the
+Stahlberg country seats are at their disposal."
+
+"They probably wished to remain with their father a little longer,"
+said Willibald.
+
+"Well, Falkenried could have taken a vacation in this case and gone
+with them. Thank God that the man has really come back to life, since
+that terrible bitterness has fallen from him, and he has his son again.
+I knew well how very hard the flight of the boy struck him. He secretly
+idolized him, while showing him only severity and requiring in turn
+nothing but obedience. Of course, what Hartmut accomplished with that
+night's ride, by which he saved his father with his troops, erases even
+more than a senseless boy's escapade, for which the mother was really
+to blame."
+
+"But we are cheated out of all the wedding festivities in the family,"
+pouted Marietta. "Willy and I had to be married quietly because the war
+broke out, and now, after the war has happily ceased, Hartmut and
+Adelaide do just like it."
+
+"My child, when one has gone through such things as Hartmut has, all
+pleasure in festivities is lost," said Frau Eschenhagen, gravely. "And,
+besides, he has not fully recuperated yet. You saw how pale he was at
+the wedding. Adelaide's first marriage was, indeed, celebrated with
+more pomp. Her father insisted upon it, in spite of his low state of
+health, and the bride was really a queenly, if cold, apparition in her
+satin train and her laces and diamonds. But, truly, she looked
+different when she drew near the altar with her Hartmut, in the simple
+white silk dress and the dainty veil. I never in my life saw her so
+lovely. Poor Herbert! He never possessed the love of his wife."
+
+"But how could one love such an old Excellency in his diplomatic frock
+coat? I could not have done it, either," said Marietta, pertly.
+
+But she had touched a weak point; her mother-in-law held the
+remembrance of her brother in high esteem.
+
+"The necessity would never have come to you," she remarked, with pique.
+"A man like Herbert von Wallmoden would hardly have wooed you--you
+little saucy----"
+
+But she got no further, for the saucy little sprite already hung around
+her neck coaxingly.
+
+"Please don't get angry, mamma. How can I help it that my most
+undiplomatic Willy is dearer to me than all the Excellencies in the
+whole world, and he is that to you, too; eh, mamma?"
+
+"You little flatterer!" Regine tried in vain to keep up her severe
+mien. "You know very well that nobody can get angry with you. A regime
+will now probably commence here at Burgsdorf which has had no
+precedent. Willy is ashamed before me now, but after I am gone, he will
+surrender to you upon grace or displeasure."
+
+"Mamma, do you still cling to that idea?" asked Willibald,
+reproachfully. "Will you go now, when everything is love and peace
+between us?"
+
+"Just because of that I shall go, so that it may remain. Do not oppose
+it, my son. I have to be first where I live and work. You want to be
+that now; therefore it is best we are not together; and your little
+princess must not get angry about it. We have heretofore had great
+anxiety about you, and people do not quarrel when they have to tremble
+anew each day for husband and son. But that is over now, and I am still
+too much of the old kind to fit myself to your youth. Do whatever you
+like, but things must go as I like in my house, and therefore I go."
+
+She turned and went into the house, while the young lord looked after
+her with a half-suppressed sigh.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LX.
+
+
+"She is right, perhaps," Willibald said, half aloud, as his
+mother vanished; "but she will be unhappy alone, and without the
+long-accustomed activity. I know that she will not be able to bear the
+enforced rest. You ought to have begged her to remain, too, Marietta."
+
+The young wife laid her curly head upon her husband's shoulder and
+looked at him roguishly.
+
+"Oh, no; I shall do something better. I shall see to it that mamma does
+not get unhappy when she leaves us."
+
+"You? How will you do that?"
+
+"Quite easily. I shall marry mamma off."
+
+"But, Marietta, what are you thinking of?"
+
+"Oh, you wise Willy; have you really not noticed anything?" laughed
+Marietta, and it was the old, silvery laugh with which she had
+bewitched him at Waldhofen. "And you do not know why Uncle Schonan was
+in such a grim temper when we saw him in Berlin three days ago? And why
+he did not want to come to Burgsdorf at all, although we begged him so
+much? Mamma did not ask him, because she feared a renewed proposal. He
+understood it, and consequently he was so angry. I have known all about
+it ever so long; even at the time when mamma came to us at Waldhofen,
+and he told her so fiercely that she would only use him as a secondary
+person at a wedding. I saw then that he would like to be one of the
+principals. Willy, you are making a superb face now! You look exactly
+as you did at the beginning of our acquaintance."
+
+The young lord did not, indeed, look very intellectual in his boundless
+surprise. He had never considered the possibility of his mother
+marrying again, and to her brother-in-law, besides! But it broke upon
+him that this was an excellent solution of the difficulty.
+
+"Marietta, you are surpassingly clever!" he cried, looking with the
+greatest admiration at his wife, who accepted the homage with much
+satisfaction.
+
+"I am even more clever than you think," she said, triumphantly, "for I
+have put the matter to rights. I got behind Uncle Schonan and gave him
+to understand that if he would storm once more now, the fortress would
+probably surrender. He grumbled mightily and said that he had had
+enough of it and did not want to be made a fool of again; but at last
+he reconsidered the matter. He arrived fifteen minutes ago. I did not
+dare tell mamma anything about it, and--here he is!"
+
+She nodded to the Chief Forester, who emerged upon the terrace and
+heard the last words.
+
+"Yes, here I am; but take care, little woman, if you have 'led me
+behind the light,' for"--to Willibald--"I have come solely at her
+request. She has probably given you the details about how it stands
+with us--that is, with me, for your Frau Mamma is probably again
+unreasonable, obstinate and self-willed as she usually is--but I will
+marry her yet!"
+
+"All right, uncle, if she will only have you," laughed Willibald, who
+could not help thinking this description of his mother from a wooer
+very peculiar.
+
+"Yes, that is the question," said Schonan, doubtfully; "but your wife
+thinks----"
+
+"That we dare not lose another minute!" interrupted Marietta. "Mamma is
+in her room, and has no conception of the attack. Willy and I will
+remain in the background, and join in the battle if the worst should
+happen. Forward, march, uncle; forward, Willy!"
+
+And Frau Marietta von Eschenhagen, with her little, delicate hands
+pushed the stately Chief Forester and her huge husband forward, without
+more ado. They patiently submitted, although Schonan muttered:
+
+"Strange how they all understand how to order one about--little ones as
+well as big ones. It must be born in them."
+
+Regine von Eschenhagen stood at the window of her room, looking out
+upon her beloved Burgsdorf, which she intended to leave in a few days.
+
+Much as she was convinced of the wisdom of this decision, it was yet
+not easy to execute it. The strong, restlessly active woman, who had
+stood thirty years at the head of a large work, felt a shudder at the
+rest and inactivity which awaited her. She had been made acquainted
+with the city life during her first separation from her son, and had
+been very unhappy in it.
+
+The door opened and the Chief Forester entered.
+
+"Moritz, you here!" Regine started with surprise. "This is sensible of
+you to come."
+
+"Yes, I am always sensible," remarked Herr von Schonan, very pointedly.
+"Although you did not have the grace to invite me, I came to get your
+consent to attend Toni's wedding. Of course, you will come to
+Furstenstein with your children?"
+
+"Yes, certainly we will come; but we were all much surprised at this
+haste. Did you not intend to buy an estate first? And that is not
+usually accomplished so quickly."
+
+"No, but they want to get married. Our victors have become very
+assuming since their heroic deeds. Waldorf simply declared upon his
+return, 'Papa, you said when I left, First win in war and then marry;
+now we have won and now I want to marry. I'll not wait any longer. The
+estate has time to wait, but not the wedding, for that is the most
+important.' So, since Toni is also convinced of this importance,
+nothing was left for me to do but to name the wedding day."
+
+Frau von Eschenhagen laughed.
+
+"Yes, young people are quick to marry, and they have so much time to
+wait."
+
+"But it is not so with older folks," said Schonan, who had only been
+looking for this opportunity and speedily made use of it. "Have you
+considered the question at last, Regine?"
+
+"What question?"
+
+"Our marrying. I hope you are now in the 'humor' for it?"
+
+Regine turned away, somewhat offended.
+
+"You like to be abrupt, Moritz. How did you get into the notion so
+suddenly?"
+
+"What! you call that sudden?" the Chief Forester cried, indignantly. "I
+made my first proposal to you five years ago; the second one last year,
+and now I come for the third time, and yet you have not had sufficient
+time to consider. Yes or no? If you send me away this time, I shall not
+come back--depend upon that--and the whole courtship can go where it
+wants to."
+
+Regine did not answer, but it was not indecision which made her
+hesitate. Even this strange, original nature had a spice of deep
+romance in her heart--love for the man who was once to be her husband,
+Hartmut von Falkenried. When he had married another, she too had
+pledged her hand, for she was not the kind to mourn her life away
+uselessly; but the same bitter pain which had stung the young girl when
+she approached the altar, awoke now again in the aging woman and closed
+her lips; but it lasted only a few moments, then she threw the dream
+from her with decision, and stretched out her hand to von Schonan.
+
+"Well, then, yes, Moritz. I will be a good and true wife to you."
+
+"Thank God!" cried Schonan, with a deep sigh of relief, for he had
+taken the hesitation as a preliminary to a third refusal. "You should
+have said that five years ago, Regine, but better late than never. At
+last we have gotten so far."
+
+And with that the persistent wooer enclosed the finally won life
+companion in a hearty embrace.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LXI.
+
+
+It was a hot summer day. Even in the forest one felt something of the
+intense heat which flickered upon meadows and fields. Upon the forest
+path a little group walked beneath the tall firs. It was General
+Falkenried, with his son and daughter, who were accompanying him a part
+of the way to Burgsdorf, where he intended making a visit.
+
+Falkenried had indeed become another person.
+
+The war which had been fatal to so many, and made others old before
+their time, in spite of the victories and triumphs won, appeared to
+have been a source of rejuvenation to him. Although the white hair and
+deep furrows in the face remained, witnesses not to be erased of a
+painful time, yet the face had life in it again; the eyes had regained
+their old fire, and one saw now at the first glance that the man was
+not so old, but stood yet in the fulness and power of life.
+
+Hartmut had not yet entirely recovered, as his appearance proved. The
+campaign had not made him younger. He looked older and graver, and the
+still pale face, with the broad red scar upon the forehead, spoke of a
+time of heavy suffering.
+
+The wound in itself had not been serious, but had become so through the
+severe loss of blood, and the overexertion of the ride in the night of
+the severe cold, so that at first all hope had been abandoned, and it
+required months of careful nursing to give Hartmut back to life.
+
+But the old Hartmut, the son of Zalika, with his wild blood and
+unbridled desire for freedom, had also died in this time of suffering.
+It seemed as if with the name Rojanow, which he had cast forever from
+him, the unfortunate inheritance from the mother had also been lost.
+The heavy, dark curls were just beginning to grow again, and the high,
+powerful forehead appeared more striking in its resemblance to his
+father.
+
+But the young wife at his side bloomed in the fullest beauty of youth
+and happiness. Whoever had seen her in her cold hauteur--her icy,
+unapproachable manner, would hardly have recognized her in this bright,
+slender woman, in her light summer costume, with fresh forest flowers
+in her hand.
+
+The smile and tone with which she spoke to her husband and father had
+never been known to Frau von Wallmoden; they had been learned only by
+Adelaide von Falkenried.
+
+"Not any farther, now," said the General, pausing in their walk. "You
+have to take the return walk, and Hartmut must still be careful. The
+physicians request that he be very prudent."
+
+"Father, if you only knew how depressing it feels to be considered an
+invalid still, when I already feel full of life and power! I am really
+well."
+
+"Do not place in jeopardy again what has been so hardly won," continued
+the father. "You have not yet learned patience, but fortunately I know
+you are under Ada's supervision, and she is strict on this subject."
+
+"Yes, had it not been for Ada, there probably would not have been
+anything to take care of," said Hartmut, with a look of deepest
+affection upon his wife. "I believe I was in rather a hopeless
+condition when she came to me."
+
+"The physicians, at least, gave me no hope when I sent off the dispatch
+which called Ada to your side. You called for her in your first
+conscious moment, to my boundless surprise, for I did not dream that
+you ever knew each other."
+
+"Was it not right to you, Papa?" asked the young wife, looking
+smilingly up to the father, who drew her to his breast and pressed a
+kiss upon her brow.
+
+"You know best what you are to Hartmut and me, my child. I thanked God
+that I could leave him under your nursing when I had to march on. And
+you were right, too, when you persuaded him to remain here, although
+the doctors wished to send him away. He has to learn to feel at home
+first in the fatherland--must learn to understand and love again that
+from which he has so long been estranged."
+
+"_Has_ to learn it?" said Ada reproachfully. "What he read to you and
+me to-day I should think would show that he has learned it already, and
+that this new work bears another language from the wild, glowing
+Arivana."
+
+"Yes, Hartmut, your new work is of great merit," said Falkenried,
+giving his hand to his son. "I believe the fatherland will be proud of
+my boy, even in times of peace."
+
+Hartmut's eyes sparkled as he returned the pressure of the hand. He
+knew what praise from his father's lips was worth.
+
+"And now, good-by." The General kissed his daughter-in-law again, "I
+will drive from Burgsdorf directly to town, but we shall see each other
+in a few days again. Farewell, children!"
+
+When he had disappeared behind the trees, Hartmut and Adelaide turned
+on their homeward way, which led them by the Burgsdorf pond.
+Involuntarily they paused beside it, and gazed upon the calm sheet of
+water which lay so shiningly in the sun with its wreath of rushes and
+water lilies.
+
+"I have played boys' games here so often with Willy," said Hartmut
+softly, "and here my future was decided on that fatal night. I realize
+only now what I did to my father in that unfortunate hour."
+
+"But you have atoned for it fully," returned Ada, leaning her head on
+her husband's shoulder. "It has been wiped out before the world, too,
+which overwhelmed you and father on all sides with admiration and
+appreciation when it was known who had done that heroic deed."
+
+Hartmut shook his head gravely.
+
+"It was a deed of despair, not heroism. I did not believe that it would
+succeed--nobody believed it; but even if I had fallen I should have
+regained my lost honor by that ride through the enemy. Egon knew that,
+and for that reason he put the rescue into my hands. When we said
+farewell that icy winter night in the shattered walls of the little
+chapel, we both felt that it was a final farewell, but we thought, too,
+that I should be the victim, for I went into almost certain death. Fate
+decreed differently. I was borne as by spirit hands through the dangers
+to the accomplishment of my aim, and almost at the same hour Egon fell.
+You need not hide your tears from me, Ada; I am not jealous of the
+dead, for I loved him just as--he loved you."
+
+"Eugene brought me his last greeting," said the young wife, in whose
+eyes shone the tears she had wished to conceal from her husband. "And
+Stadinger, too, wrote me to fulfill his dying master's last request. I
+fear the old man will not live much longer; his letter sounded as if he
+were utterly crushed."
+
+"Poor Egon!" In Hartmut's voice sounded the deep pain he felt for his
+friend. "He was so full of sunny happiness and joy; he was created for
+it and to give it. Perhaps you would have been happier at his side,
+Ada, than with your wild, passionate Hartmut, who will trouble you
+often enough with the dark side of his nature."
+
+Ada smiled up at him with the tears still in her eyes. "But I love this
+wild, stormy Hartmut, and do not desire any greater happiness than to
+be his wife."
+
+The forest lake lay in dreamy noonday stillness; grave and dark stood
+the old firs over it; the rushes at its border whispered low, and
+thousands of bright sparkles danced upon its surface.
+
+Above it curved the blue sky into which the boy had once wished to soar
+like the falcon of which his race bore the name, higher and higher to
+the sun. It beamed, too, now up there in shining splendor the powerful,
+eternal sign of flame in the heavens!
+
+
+
+                               [THE END.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sign of Flame, by E. Werner
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