"My dear Bertha, what do you mean? If I did not know how really kind and good you are, such words as these would make me doubt you; but I know you better. It was your proposal to engage Lieschen for Clara's governess, and to give her a salary so large as to enable her to support her poor mother. Your unwillingness to suffer the unfortunate girl to go among strangers bore testimony to your goodness of heart."
Bertha's expression of face, as her husband spoke thus, was not pleasant to see. "We'll say nothing more of Elise," she said. "She can remain here as my companion, but Clara must be sent to boarding-school."
"I told you that I could not break my promise. I must tell you now that by the conditions of my father's will I could not if I would. I did not wish to annoy you, and so I have hitherto refrained from explaining these conditions to you, but there is no help for it. You must know that it is impossible to send Clara away if we would retain possession of the estates."
"But how can this be? Explain to me exactly how your father's will is expressed."
"I should greatly prefer not doing so, but, since there is no help for it, you must know that in the last years of his life my father regarded you with a certain suspicion which I could not allay. He conceived an idea that when he was no longer here you would use your influence with me to induce me to remove to Berlin, and that you would find in Clara an obstacle to your schemes. I did all I could to disabuse him of his mistrust of you, dear, but in vain, and he gave it expression in his will, by which I am not the proprietor of the estates; their income is mine only so long as Clara is brought up beneath my roof. Upon the day of her marriage, if she lives until then with me, the estates become my own. My father had a horror of boarding-schools for girls, and expressly forbade my sending Clara to any such. Should I transgress the injunctions laid upon me by his will, Clara becomes his residuary legatee. The value of his property is legally appraised, and my share will be only that which the law allows me. The same result will ensue should Clara, through my own or my wife's unkindness, be forced to leave my house before she is of age; as to the sufficiency of her provocation the courts would decide. My father provided for all possible contingencies. The will is drawn up by an admirable lawyer, Councillor Herder, and I could not possibly evade its provisions, even should I be so lacking in filial respect as to endeavour to do so."
"Does Clara know of all this?"
"I believe Councillor Herder has informed her upon the subject. She is a great pet of his, as you know, and he is her godfather. You know, too, that he has always been somewhat prejudiced against you; indeed, dear, you have not treated him with quite the respect due to an old friend of the family. And now you see that I could not send Clara away from home if I would, and I frankly confess to you that even if I could I would not. Only try to win the child's affection and it will be given to you without reserve, and you will be glad to have her with us."
"I am, then, to kiss the hand that smites me?" Bertha rejoined, with bitterness. "It does not make me love the child any better to have her thus forced upon me. But you may rest easy, Hugo, I understand it all now, and you may be sure that I never shall give your sister an opportunity to use her power against us. She is quite aware of the extent of it, and would doubtless hail an occasion for exercising it. Be sure that I will so conduct myself that no court in Prussia would justify her in leaving your house and defrauding you of your inheritance."
Wangen was deeply grieved by his wife's words and her manner of speaking; for the first time he entertained suspicions as to the genuineness of her kindness of heart. All such he had hitherto banished, reproaching himself at her first kind word for even allowing their shadow to cross his mind. To-day he could not lay them to rest, he was so hurt by his wife's open expression of her dislike of his pet Clara.