"'It was my father's word, whispered in my ear in his last moments," the girl went on. "'Watch over Fritz,' he said; 'protect him from the thief and incendiary.' Go back to Herr von Osternau, Herr Storting, and tell him what you have heard; tell him the mere thought of him inspires me with aversion, and that I would rather die in misery than sell myself to him. You have carried his message faithfully, do the same by mine.'
"You know, Herr von Ernau, that I was never at any time able to resist Fräulein Lieschen's requests, and I did not fail her in this the darkest hour of her life. I promised to report her decision to the Lieutenant. She thanked me with a look, and Frau von Osternau said, with a sigh, 'I must submit. Lieschen has inherited her father's strength of will in matters of conscience. The foolish child is destroying her future; it is sad, but I cannot prevent it. I must yield to her resolve. Since it must be so, it is, perhaps, better not to postpone acquainting Albrecht with her decision.'
"I left them with a far lighter heart than I brought to them. The commission with which I was charged could hardly be considered an agreeable one, especially as Fräulein Lieschen begged me to repeat to the Lieutenant everything that she had said concerning him; but the sense of relief in knowing that she was in no wise to belong to that villain outweighed every other consideration in my mind.
"The Lieutenant had probably foreseen the answer he should receive. He calmly listened while I repeated, as far as I could recall it, all that Frau von Osternau and her daughter had said, only omitting to mention that Fräulein Lieschen had called him thief and incendiary. An evil smile played about his lips, but he only glanced at my face from time to time, seeming unwilling to meet my eye.
"'I meant well,' he declared, when I had finished, and then he went on to explain his regret that his relatives should be so limited as to means, that he would gladly have shared his wealth with them, and that, in view of Lieschen's youth and inexperience, he should continue to hope that with time she might be brought to regard his suit favourably. Meanwhile, he offered Frau von Osternau and her daughter a home in the castle so soon as it should be rebuilt. If they refused to avail themselves of this offer, he should, of course, confine himself to the payment to the widow of the yearly sum allowed her by law. It would weary you, Herr von Ernau, to recount to you all the details of our conversation. I thanked God when it was ended.
"Of course Frau von Osternau refused to live beneath his roof, dependent upon his bounty. There was no need of Fräulein Lieschen's indignant rejection of any such idea to influence her mother's decision. The two went to Berlin, where it was easier than in any country town to find some employment wherewith to eke out their scanty income. They left the village of Osternau two weeks after the Lieutenant's arrival, without having seen him, and on the day of their departure I too bade farewell to the place where I had spent such happy years.
"Herr von Osternau offered me a large salary if I would continue to occupy my position as superintendent of the estate, but I could not bring myself to serve the man who could never be to me anything save a thief and an incendiary. I procured another situation not nearly so profitable in a pecuniary point of view.
"I corresponded at first very frequently with Frau von Osternau, and although of late our letters have been fewer, I have never lost sight of her. She has had a weary, anxious time of it. Too proud to ask help from her wealthy relatives, she had no resources save her paltry yearly pittance of three hundred thalers and the untiring industry of Fräulein Lieschen, who furnished embroidery for one of the large Berlin firms. Frau von Osternau wrote with positive enthusiasm of her daughter, who, in spite of her constant labour at her embroidery, found time to study and to complete her defective education, so that last spring she passed a brilliant examination as governess. My last letter was received from Frau von Osternau between three and four months ago, when this examination was just passed; and while the mother spoke of it with pardonable pride, she mourned over the probability of a coming separation from her daughter, who was about to accept a situation as governess, thereby greatly increasing her mother's means of support. Of Cousin Albrecht she had heard only through Herr von Sastrow. He lived for a short time the life of a hermit in his gorgeous new-built castle, avoided by all families of his own rank in the neighbourhood; for the report that he had set fire to the castle was rife in the country around, and he was virtually sent to Coventry. He therefore spent most of the year in Berlin, where he associated with needy members of the aristocracy and doubtful characters whose good will he could purchase with his money. The doors of the first people in society were closed against him. His large income he wasted in all sorts of extravagant dissipation, and it was reported in Berlin that he had contracted enormous debts.
"For herself Frau von Osternau wrote that, if her daughter accepted a situation as governess away from Berlin, she too should leave the city and go to some Silesian village, where her small income would suffice for her modest wants."