"I would have interrupted him to tell him that he was mistaken, but he exclaimed, 'Hush! I will listen to no excuse from you. If you were my equal in rank I should require from you the satisfaction of a gentleman; as it is, you cannot insult me. Tell Frau von Osternau that every tie of kindred is broken between us forever.'
"'Frau von Osternau knows nothing----' I began.
"'Spare me all falsehood,' he interrupted me. 'I do not believe you. I know that Frau von Osternau and Lieschen are my mortal enemies, and I shall not forget that they are so.'
"He turned on his heel and went out of the house, leaving me in a state of mortification and depression quite indescribable. I gathered myself together, however, and went again to the parsonage, feeling it my duty to confess what I had done to Herr von Osternau. This, however, I could not do: Herr von Osternau had died a few minutes after our interview had ended.
"I cannot describe to you, Herr von Ernau, the utter wretchedness of his poor wife. She had loved her husband with her whole heart; in her eyes he was the wisest and best of men, and at first she could find no consolation even in her children.
"Indeed, she was an object of compassion in every respect, for after Herr von Osternau's death his affairs were found to be in by no means so prosperous a condition as had been supposed. In former years he had devoted all his surplus income to the improvement of his estate, and when he began to save, in order to leave his wife and daughter independent, his own generous, kindly nature, which led him to pay Lieutenant Albrecht's debts repeatedly, and into other similar acts, was a bar to the fulfilment of his purpose. Only very lately had he succeeded in accumulating the sixty thousand thalers which was to purchase Wernewitz and Rudersdorf for Fräulein Lieschen, and this money--the only independent fortune which he had to bequeath--was either destroyed in the fire, or the prey of a scoundrel. There was no solution of this last question, for nothing came to light to confirm the suspicion which Herr von Osternau had confided to me.
"The Lieutenant had gone to Berlin immediately after being treated in the disgraceful way of which I told you, and did not return to Osternau, for, as he explained in a letter to Frau von Osternau, not even his cousin's death could obliterate from his mind the insult offered him, which must henceforth estrange him from his kindred. He lived in Berlin, as he had done formerly,--not more expensively, but on a scale of such luxury as to make a certain income indispensable. I was quite sure that I knew its source, but my conviction was useless in the matter. Popular opinion in the country round regarded the Lieutenant as the incendiary, but no proof of his guilt was forthcoming. Since, however, it was the common talk of the country, the courts took the matter up, and there was an investigation of the cause of the fire. It was without result, however; the only suspicious circumstance with regard to it being the state in which the fire-engine was found, after having been thoroughly examined and pronounced in good order a few days previously by the Lieutenant at Herr von Osternau's request.
"I thought it my duty to acquaint Herr von Sastrow, Fritzchen's guardian, with what the boy's father had confided to me, but I could not gainsay the good old man when he advised me to dismiss from my mind such apparently groundless suspicions.
"Frau von Osternau, after her husband's death, could not bring herself to leave the place which she so dearly loved. Herr von Sastrow tried to persuade her to remove to Berlin, where it would be much easier to educate Fritzchen; but she preferred to remain, for a while at least, in a modest little cottage which she rented in the village of Osternau. The allowance made her from the estate for the education of its heir sufficed amply for her wants. Herr von Sastrow confided the management of Osternau to me, and this rendered it possible for me to fulfil the promise made to his father to keep watch over Fritzchen.
"Three sad months passed after Herr von Osternau's death, and then the widow was called upon to sustain another terrible blow, in the loss of her prop and stay, her darling Fritz."