"Has Fräulein Müller any influence with Werner?"
"I do not know," Celia replied, thoughtfully. "I have sometimes thought so; at all events, the relations between them seem to me very odd and quite incomprehensible. She cannot endure him, and avoids him whenever she can, and yet he pays her devoted attention. I cannot understand it."
"It might be dangerous, then, to trust Fräulein Müller?"
"Now you are unkind, Kurt!" Celia exclaimed, indignantly. "You must not speak so of my Anna."
"But you yourself said----"
"I never said or thought anything that could imply a want of confidence in her. I trust her entirely. But you have told me nothing of these mysterious schemes of Werner's. I know nothing as yet."
"You shall know all that I know myself, although it may be wrong for me to acquaint a young girl of sixteen with political intrigues existing perhaps only in the diseased fancy of this garrulous Assessor."
Celia hastily withdrew the hand which Kurt had held in his own as he slowly walked along beside Pluto. "You are very disagreeable, Kurt," she said. "I am no longer a child; girls are far more precocious than boys, and at sixteen I may surely be trusted. And I am very much interested in politics: I read the papers daily; have we not often discussed them together? I continually scold papa and Arno for abusing Bismarck as they do."
Kurt could not but smile at her indignation. "Do not be angry with me, dearest Celia," he said. "I will tell you all I know, which, unfortunately, is not much; the Assessor's hints were rather vague and confused. Since you read the daily papers you know well how imminent is the danger of a war with France. At such a time it is the duty of every German to be true to the fatherland, and yet there is a large party in Germany who ignore this, and who, because they are opposed to the Prussian government, wish for a war with France and the overthrow of Germany and Prussia. To this party your brother Werner unfortunately belongs."
"Unfortunately!" Celia said in confirmation of his words.