"And I am going to the forest."
She would have passed him, but he still detained her. "Do you usually select this road for your afternoon ride?"
Celia blushed. What did he mean by the question? Did Arno know anything of her meetings with Kurt? With feminine evasion she hastily rejoined, "Why should I always choose this tiresome broad road?"
"Why, indeed? How long since you returned from your ride?"
"About a quarter of an hour ago," she answered, frankly.
"And did you ride on the broad road to-day?"
"What a foolish question! Let me go, Arno! How can it possibly interest you when or whore I ride?"
But Arno still held her hand fast, seeming not to notice her embarrassment. He gazed darkly down the forest road. If Celia pursued it she would meet Kurt and Anna together. Such a discovery would be but a merited punishment for Anna, but what impression would it produce upon his innocent sister? A second glance along the road reassured him,--Anna was slowly approaching the castle alone. He let go Celia's hand, relieved of an ugly dread lest Anna should have confided to her pupil her love-affair with Poseneck. That Celia knew nothing about it was clear from her replies to him; the "will-o'-the-wisp" was so frank a creature.
So soon as she found herself free, Celia ran towards Anna, bestowing not another thought upon Arno, who went his way. Throwing her arms around her friend, she whispered, as she caressed her tenderly, "At last you are come! My darling, darling Anna! Now all is well, and my conscience is once more clear."
"You ought to have had confidence in me," Anna said, in a tone of gentle reproof.