"Although everybody knows how perfectly untrustworthy are these romantic tales conceived in the brain of some newspaper reporter, everybody believes them, as I have, alas! seen only too clearly during the past day. In the course of it my wife has had more visits than she has received for weeks from friends and acquaintances of every degree of intimacy, and she is in despair over the expressions of commiseration and the curious inquiries concerning private family affairs to which she has been compelled to listen. These visits have so unnerved her that I have been forced to forbid the admission of visitors to the house for some days to come.
"This is only the beginning of the annoyance. The newspapers will all shortly have their various versions of the affair. Instead of pitying the poor girl, as people would have done a few days ago for being sacrificed to a roué, all now condemn her, and lavish their compassion on the poor fellow who was tormented into putting an end to a life so full of promise.
"Under these circumstances Bertha cannot remain in Berlin. Her stay here would be intolerable, both for her and for my poor wife. Neither can her aunt Massenburg recall her to Königsberg, where gossip would inevitably pursue her and be more rife in the provincial town than in the capital. Moreover, Aunt Massenburg is, as you know, a person of such very strict ideas that it is doubtful whether she will ever again receive beneath her roof a girl so talked about.
"In our need we have thought of you, dear Fritz. You are, through your wife, related to poor Bertha, and you must give her an asylum in your house until the storm has blown over. After a few weeks, at most after a few months, no one will remember that there ever was an Egon von Ernau. We live quickly, and forget as quickly, at the present day.
"So I entreat you to invite Bertha to pay a long visit to Castle Osternau. I know that I ask you to make a sacrifice in granting my request. Malicious gossip may follow Bertha even to the depths of the country and cause you annoyance, but I know you well enough to be sure that you will not on that account hesitate to do such a kindness. Nothing can so surely tend to re-establish Bertha's reputation in public opinion as the knowledge that she is the guest of a family so highly esteemed as your own.
"And now farewell. My warm regards to your excellent wife. Do not let her be vexed with her old uncle for asking so great a service at your hands. Write soon to yours faithfully,
"Sastrow."
A long silence followed upon the reading of this lengthy epistle. Herr von Osternau waited in vain for some expression of opinion from his wife. "Well, Emma," he asked, at last, "what do you think of this unfortunate story?"
"I pity the poor girl," Frau von Osternau replied. "The punishment of her folly is almost too hard."
"I cannot even see in what her folly has consisted," observed the Lieutenant. "What has she done to deserve such a reproach? She obeyed her father, consented to make a brilliant match, and did it gladly. She could not possibly foresee what would be the consequences of an engagement which seemed so advantageous both for herself and for her father."