"But you cherish such a suspicion, while your confidence in Pigglewitch, whom there are quite as many reasons for suspecting, is unshaken."
"I hope in a short time to bring you proof that the Candidate deserves my confidence; this is why I am going to Mirbach."
Frau von Osternau said no more, but accompanied her husband to the hall door, before which the light wagon was waiting.
As he drove off she followed him with anxious eyes, and then applied herself to waiting patiently for his return. Fortunately, she had not long to do so; hardly three-quarters of an hour had passed when the vehicle again drove up to the hall door, and her husband sprang from it with an elasticity and vigour which showed that he felt stronger than before his drive.
"I was not deceived," he whispered to his wife, who had come from the sitting-room to receive him. "I do not deny, Emma," he went on, when they were alone together, "that I could not help being somewhat doubtful as I drove to Mirbach. I thought of Lieschen, of her implicit trust in Pigglewitch, of her fearful disappointment if he should be discovered to be a scoundrel who might well be suspected of theft. My heart beat faster when I asked for my letters at the post-office, and when they handed me the envelope with five seals, I was delighted. Here it is. Pigglewitch is all right, he has executed his commission promptly and well. If he had committed the robbery, he would surely have added to his gains the ten thousand marks which he sends me here, that he might carry away in his flight everything he could get. This letter is the best proof of his innocence. Do you suspect him how?"
"No; but I cannot tell whether to rejoice that I do not, and I cannot see how you can be so glad. How can you look so happy when, as you cease to suspect a stranger, your next of kin takes his place in your suspicions?"
"I gave him up long ago," Heir von Osternau replied. "I keep him beneath my roof because my duty and the honour of our name link me to him, and because I owe him some indemnification for the annihilation of his hopes. The unhappy event which has just occurred does not relieve me of this duty, it must remain a secret between us two."
CHAPTER XVII.
[TWO LETTERS AGAIN].
The day was an eventful one for Herr von Osternau. Scarcely had he recovered from the effects of the robbery and of the hurried drive to Station Mirbach, when he was surprised by an unexpected visit.