The Freiherr started up. "Why were we not told this?" he cried. "It was unjust, unkind of Johanna. Why did she not stay with us, if stronger inducements did not lead her elsewhere?"
"That I do not know," Ludwig replied. "I only know that out of a false regard for you the reason why Johanna broke off her engagement has been concealed from you. This she hinted to me by word of mouth, and she now tells me so plainly by letter, and refuses me any further explanation, declaring that not to spare her former betrothed, but to save you, Herr von Dönninghausen, from pain, the matter must never be explained. And Fräulein Thekla, who knows everything, desired that you should never be told the real cause of the break between the betrothed pair——"
"What!" shouted the Freiherr, rising from his chair. "Am I a foolish child, that others decide what may be told me and what not? I must know everything this moment. Out with it, Thekla!"
The old lady, who had risen from table with the rest, trembled so violently that she was obliged to sit down again.
"Do not be angry, my dear brother," she began, timidly.
The Freiherr advanced towards her: "Without more ado, sister, what was the difficulty between Otto and Johanna? Answer me briefly, and to the point!"
"Johanna learned——" Aunt Thekla began hesitatingly, "Johanna learned that Otto loved Magelone, and that she loved him. The note you took from Leo was written to Magelone——"
"That is not true!" thundered the Freiherr. "No Dönninghausen could lie so! And Magelone, Johann Leopold's betrothed——"
"Had tender rendezvous with Otto for weeks," Johann Leopold interposed, while, as if to support his aunt, he advanced and laid his hand upon the back of her chair.
"Nonsense! Scandal! Who told you such stuff?" cried the Freiherr.