"It will hardly be necessary. I can tell you the latest news of the affair without having seen Sastrow. You must pardon me for not letting you know before what I heard from a friend in Berlin, who accompanied me to the railway-station when I was last there. I was so preoccupied with my own affairs that I quite forgot Fräulein von Massenburg's. However, I told Fräulein Bertha herself soon after my arrival that there was no longer any doubt of the death of Herr von Ernau, his body has been recovered from the Spree."
Herr and Frau von Osternau uttered an exclamation of surprised dismay. Lieschen was not at all surprised. "Now I understand," she said, "Bertha's excited manner on the evening of her conversation with Cousin Albrecht in the window-recess, and her great amiability towards Herr von Wangen after it. As Herr von Ernau is certainly dead, Herr von Wangen is to take his place."
"How can you speak so unkindly, child?" said her father.
"I only speak the truth. I know that she would have preferred the millionaire, but since she must give up all hopes of him, Herr von Wangen will do."
"Not another word, Lieschen!" Herr von Osternau exclaimed. "Hush! If you cannot conquer your childish, unfounded dislike for Bertha, at least do not give it utterance. Go on, Albrecht, tell me what else you heard."
"Nothing else, except that the body of the unfortunate man had been found in the Spree. Whether Herr von Ernau was murdered or had drowned himself my friend did not know. The chief of police, from whom he had his information, did not know either, but suspected he had been murdered, since none of the money which he had drawn from his father's bank on the morning of his disappearance was found upon the body. Doubtless all this has tended to increase the talk about Fräulein von Massenburg, so it is scarcely necessary for me to go to inquire of Herr von Sastrow."
"You will, however, oblige me greatly by doing so, and by letting me know what he says."
"Your wish shall be my law, Cousin Fritz. My first visit to-morrow morning shall be to Herr von Sastrow. I shall leave, then, immediately after dinner, and I must ask you to advance me five hundred or a thousand marks. I dislike to ask this favour, but if I am to make any settlement of the matter I spoke of to you I must have some cash in hand."
Herr von Osternau frowned. He would fain have refused the young man's request. He suspected that the money would be used to attempt to recover his losses at play, but he did not wish to expose the Lieutenant before Lieschen and her mother, and he could not explain to them his reason for wishing to refuse a demand apparently so reasonable.
He rose slowly and went to his secretary. It was usually opened with great ease, but now something seemed the matter with the lock, he was several moments in unlocking it, and he had the same difficulty with the money-box. "Strange!" he said, trying to turn the key in the last; "either I am very awkward today or these keys are growing rusty." As he spoke the lock yielded and the lid of the box opened. One glance showed him to his dismay the reason why he had found so much difficulty in turning his keys. His secretary had been forced in the night by means of false keys, and the money had been stolen from the iron-bound box. The bundle of bank-notes which Herr von Osternau had returned to it on the previous day, after giving the note of hand to the Candidate, was gone.