It was a delight indeed to Egon to make these expeditions through field and forest with the sister and brother. Lieschen assumed all the gravity of age as she held forth to the Herr Candidate upon the mysteries of agriculture, now and then praising the progress made by her pupil, and she was no less charming when she laughed at him for his ignorance. Herr Storting was right when he prophesied that Egon would, like all the other inmates of the castle, shortly yield Fräulein Lieschen a willing obedience. Egon smiled at his own folly, but none the less did he succumb to her charm, even putting a bridle upon his tongue when habit would have led him to utter some sneering remark. One word of admonition from Lieschen was enough to put him upon his guard.
The life he led at Castle Osternau, in utter contradiction as it was to everything that he had known hitherto, threw a strange spell around him, made him calm and content, filled him with a satisfaction which forbade for the time all idea of change.
At the noonday meal he no longer listened mutely to the agricultural discourse of the lord of the castle. His awakened interest found utterance in inquiry and discussion which afforded Herr von Osternau genuine pleasure. Frau von Osternau also would give the young man a kindly nod as she marked his growing interest in such topics. The Lieutenant alone was discontent; he never let slip an opportunity for a covert sneer at the Candidate. Egon paid no attention to his insulting words, but they called forth at times a sharp reproof from Herr von Osternau, which but served to embitter Albrecht still further against its cause.
And the evenings around the tea-table, from which Egon would rise to take his seat at the piano, were perhaps the most enjoyed of all this pleasant existence. What matter was it to the young fellow if the Lieutenant hated him? He felt that every other member of the family regarded him with kindness, that Fritz positively worshipped him, that Frau von Osternau had confidence in him, that her husband treated him as his equal in rank, as a friend of the family. And Lieschen? She was as frank and merry as upon their first meeting. She even teased him now and then about his old coat, in which she still insisted he looked like a scarecrow, but at intervals, in the midst of her girlish merriment, her eyes would meet his own with a look which, he could hardly have told why, filled him with intense, unreasoning joy.
CHAPTER XI.
[GOOD ADVICE].
"Bertha will arrive to-morrow," said Herr von Osternau, looking up from the letter which he had just received by the evening mail.
Egon alone of all the little circle had had no letter, and he had therefore been looking over the paper, which he now dropped in dismay. Two weeks previously he had taken Herr von Osternau's letter to Breslau, and for a few days afterwards he had thought with a kind of dread of the threatened visit from Fräulein von Massenburg, but as the invitation remained unanswered, and as there was no mention made by any of the family of Bertha, he had forgotten that the peaceful life at Castle Osternau might be disturbed by the intrusion of a foreign element. His dismay was shared by Frau von Osternau and Lieschen, as was evident from their faces as they looked up from their letters.
"Indeed!" said Frau von Osternau. "I hoped that Bertha would refuse our invitation, since she has left it so long unanswered. Has she written herself?"
"No; Sastrow tells me that she is to leave Berlin early to-morrow morning, and so she will be here towards evening. You can read his letter, or I will read it to you. Albrecht and Herr Pigglewitch heard his first, and this is simply a conclusion of it." And the old Herr began: