Arno's attention was at once arrested upon hearing the familiar name. He had never yet encountered Kurt von Poseneck,--Von Säben's squadron had joined Count Schlichting's regiment only two days previously, Kurt reported that he had made a reconnoissance in all directions and had found no traces of the enemy. This information convinced the colonel that, for the present at least, there was no risk in enjoying to the full the repose and hospitality offered at Assais.
And this the young officers certainly did. The best possible understanding seemed to exist between the Prussians and Saxons, and the hall resounded with mirth and laughter from the various groups into which the large assembly soon divided.
One of these consisted but of three, Count Styrum, Arno von Hohenwald, and Kurt von Poseneck. They had withdrawn to a corner of the hall and were engaged in earnest conversation. How much there was to hear and to tell! Arno felt every trace of the foolish hereditary prejudice fade within him as he looked at the handsome young fellow, who showed in every word and glance his pleasure in thus meeting his Celia's brother. Only from Celia's letters had Arno heard of Kurt, who had written of his advancement to the old Freiherr. Now Kurt was not only begged for the story of his experience since the beginning of the war, but Arno drew from him the account of his first meeting with Celia, and of how Frau von Sorr--Arno felt the blood mount to his cheek at the name--had learned by accident of the intimacy between them.
To that noble woman, Frau von Sorr, Kurt declared, glad indeed to make a confidant of Celia's brother, did he owe it that his love for Celia was no longer a secret. He had faithfully kept his promise never to write to Celia, but he had written to Frau von Sorr two letters to be forwarded to the Freiherr. One of these he feared had miscarried, as Frau von Sorr had not alluded to it in her last letter to him.
Arno's heart beat furiously as he asked, with all the indifference he could assume, "You correspond, then, with Frau von Sorr?"
"Yes. Frau von Sorr permitted me to write to her, and promised to forward my letters to your father when there were any tidings of me to be transmitted to Castle Hohenwald."
"Then you know where Frau von Sorr is at present, and how she has been since leaving the castle?"
Kurt, all unmindful of the suppressed eagerness with which this question was put, replied by giving a detailed account of Frau von Sorr's departure from Grünhagen for Berlin, whence she had retired with her father to his beautiful estate, Kaltenborn, on the Rhine, not far from S----, where she had found a secure retreat from her husband's persecutions. On this score Herr Ahlborn was now quite easy, since Sorr and the Finanzrath had both been obliged to flee the country as proscribed traitors, and any return to Germany for them was impossible until the war should be ended. In her last letter Frau von Sorr had described her life with her father as all that she could desire, telling Kurt that she, with various other women of S----, had established a lazaretto for wounded soldiers, and that she had also prepared accommodations at Kaltenborn for some few, for whom pure country air might be specially desirable. She expressed a hope that Kurt never might be wounded, but prayed him if he were and could contrive it to be sure and be brought to her at Kaltenborn.
"And this," Kurt concluded, "I shall certainly do, if an unlucky bullet should chance to lay me up for a time. I honour that woman from my very soul; she is an angel!"
It was with difficulty that Arno restrained himself from chiming in with Kurt's enthusiastic admiration; his respect for his sister rose on the instant. What penetration and judgment she had shown in bestowing her heart upon this excellent young fellow! As a reward he allowed Kurt to read Celia's last letter,--a letter that transported the lover in thought to the Hohenwald forest, so vividly did it bring his love before him in all that makes girlhood bewitching.