"What does she know? What does she know?" he asked himself. "Shall her mother's disgrace fall on her young shoulders as a wedding gift from me? No, no, no!"
Again the girl spoke: "I am beginning life all over again; from to-day," she said.
"Ah, that is right!" murmured Von Barwig.
"We were going to spend our honeymoon in Paris," said Hélène in a curiously strained voice, for it was all she could do to keep back her tears; "but now we have changed our plans! We are going to the little town where I was born."
Von Barwig drew a deep breath and nodded. "So?"
"We are going to Leipsic," and Hélène Cruger looked closely, anxiously, into the old man's face. No sign of recognition was there.
"Shall we go?" she asked after a pause. He shook his head.
"Don't go!" he said simply.
"Why not?" asked Hélène, as if his answer meant a great deal to her.
"Leipsic is not a—a pleasant place for honeymoons," he replied evasively.