"I heard from the servants of your unexpected arrival, dear aunt--I am so glad to see you."
Instead of any answer or word of greeting from her aunt the same question from both sides sounded in her ears.
"Where is Willibald?"
"He"ll be here in a few minutes, he waited to give some direction to the castle gardener; he does not know his mother is here."
"To the castle-gardener! Doubtless he wants some more roses," Frau von Eschenhagen broke out afresh, while the father held out both his arms to Toni and said, in a trembling voice:
"My child, my poor, deceived child, come to me. Come to your father"s arms."
He would have drawn his daughter into his arms, but Regine stepped before him and said in a husky voice:
"Be composed, Toni, you will have a fearful blow from your false lover; you will despise him and his deceptions from your very soul."
This sudden sympathy had in it something alarming, but fortunately Toni had never been troubled with weak nerves; she released herself now from this double embrace, and drew back from them both as she said, with quiet decision:
"I could not do that, for Will is beginning to please me better now than he has ever pleased me before in his life."
"So much the worse," interrupted her father. "Poor child, you know nothing, suspect nothing. Your lover has fought a duel, and for a woman, too."
"I know it, papa."
"For Marietta," screamed her aunt.
"I know it, dear aunt."
"But he loves Marietta," they both cried out with one voice.
"I know it all," declared Toni in her quiet, drawling tone. "Have known it for a week."
The effect of this declaration was so depressing that the two angry parents were dumb, and looked at one another stupefied. In the meantime Toni continued with the utmost composure:
"Will told me all about it just as soon as he got here; and he spoke so simply and with such true heartedness that he made me weep from very sympathy; then a letter came from Marietta begging my pardon, and it was so loving and penitent in its tone that I was deeply moved. There was nothing for me to do but to give back my lover his freedom."
"Without asking us?" interposed her aunt.
"No questions were necessary in this case," Antonie answered, quietly.
"I cannot marry a man who declares to me that he loves another woman. So we dissolved our engagement without any further discussion."
"Indeed, and I learn it now for the first time. You two have become very independent, all at once," cried the head forester, enraged.
"Will meant to explain to you the next day, papa, but after such an explanation he felt he could not remain here longer, and just then Marietta was called home by her grandfather"s illness. She was nearly broken hearted when she thought he would die, and Will felt he could not leave her until he knew what would be the result of the illness. So I said to keep silence until the danger was over, and then speak. We have both gone daily to the cottage to cheer poor Marietta. They are so grateful to me and call me the guardian angel of their love."
The young girl seemed quite affected by this thought, and took her handkerchief to wipe the tears which were welling up in her eyes.
Frau von Eschenhagen stood stark and stiff as a statue.
Schonau had folded his arms, and said with a deep sigh:
"Well, G.o.d bless you for your magnanimity, my dear child. So everything is as if it had never been. But you have been very generous in your statements, one must acknowledge that. You have taken it very quietly, and seen your betrothed make love to another girl before your very eyes."
Antonie nodded her head. She was greatly pleased to play the _role_ of guardian angel, and she found no difficulty in so doing for her affection for Willibald had been very mild from the beginning.
"There was no talk of love making, papa. Dr. Volkmar was far too ill,"
she explained. "We had all we could do to comfort poor Marietta, who was dreadfully alarmed. You can see for yourself now that I have not been deceived and that Will has been outspoken and honorable throughout. It was I who advised him to be silent for a few days, particularly as it was a matter which only concerned us two, and--"
"Oh, that is what you thought. Then it does not concern us at all?" the head forester interrupted angrily.
"No papa, and Will thought with me that in such a case there was no use in troubling the parents--"
"What did Will think ?" asked Frau Regine, who at this unheard of a.s.sertion thought it was time to take part in the conversation again.
"That one should love before one marries, and Will is right," Toni declared with unwonted vivacity. "When he and I were engaged, there was no talk of love. It was all settled for us, but that"ll never happen to me a second time. I see now for myself what it means when two people love one another with their whole hearts, and how greatly it has changed and improved Will. Now when I marry I must be loved as Will loves Marietta, and if I can"t find a man who will love me devotedly, I"ll remain single all my life."
And with this declaration and with a decisiveness in which nothing was lacking, Fraulein Antonie von Schonau tossed her head back, and walked out of the room leaving her father and aunt in anything but an enviable state.
Herr von Schonau turned to his sister-in-law and said in a subdued but angry tone:
"Your son has been going ahead beautifully, Regine. Now Toni declares she will be loved devotedly, too; this is the beginning of fine, romantic ideas in her head, and Will seems to have them all down fine by this time. I verily believe he has done his own proposing this time."
Frau von Eschenhagen did not heed his ironical remarks; she sat gazing vacantly into s.p.a.ce, but the look on her face was not pleasant to see.
"I"m glad you can see the comical side," she said after a pause. "I confess I look another way."
"That won"t help you much," Herr von Schonau answered. "When a model son begins to rebel, that"s the end of it. It"s hopeless trying to change him, particularly when he"s in love. But I am very curious to see Will genuinely in love, and to hear what this paragon has to say for himself."
His curiosity was to be gratified at once, for just at that moment Willibald put in an appearance.
It could be seen at a glance that he had heard of his mother"s arrival and was prepared to face her. The young heir did not hang back diffidently this time, as he had done when he hid the roses in his pocket two months before. There was something in his bearing which told he was prepared for combat.
"There is your mother, Will," began the head forester. "You must be greatly surprised to see her."
"No, uncle, I am not," the young man answered, but he made no attempt to approach his mother, who stood like a threatening cloud, and whose voice was an angry growl as she asked:
"Perhaps you know, then, why I came?"
"I imagine why, mother, even though I do not know where you obtained your information."
"The newspapers keep us advised--there, read that," and his mother handed him the newspaper from the table. "But Toni has been here and told us all--do you hear--all!"
She spoke the last words in a tone of annihilation, but Willibald did not seem at all disturbed by them, and answered very quietly:
"Well, then, in that case, there"s no need for my saying anything.
Otherwise I should have spoken to my uncle this afternoon."
That was too much. Now the cloud broke with thunder and lightning, and the storm descended with such violence upon the head of the sinning son that there seemed nothing less for him to do than to sink into the ground as a creature too debased to live; but he did not sink; he bent his head before the driving tempest, and when his mother stopped a moment--she had to take breath--he looked up quietly and said:
"Mother--will you allow me to speak now?"