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.