Thus it was that the Freiherr started on his journey accompanied only by old Christian. Aunt Thekla's preparations for it were sufficient for a voyage around the world. Now and then she reproached herself for saving herself all the inconveniences and fatigue of travel while thus sending her old brother into the world alone; but he would not listen to her.
"Don't behave as if I were too infirm to bear a railway journey," he said at last, rather impatiently. "Our Emperor is just my age, and he travels from one end of his kingdom to the other."
This example silenced the old lady's anxiety and helped her to undergo her brother's departure with dignity. But when, having accompanied him as far as Thalrode, she returned without him, and reflected that each flying minute bore him farther and farther from her, and that days and perhaps even weeks must pass before she should hear his step or see his dear handsome face again, it was all over with her, and she atoned by floods of tears for her previous fortitude.
"Dear aunt, do not cry any more," Magelone said to her in the course of the afternoon. "You behave as if grandpapa were going to his own funeral. Come, let us drive out, to Klausenburg, to Remmingen,—wherever you will,—it will divert your mind."
"I don't wish to have it diverted," sighed Aunt Thekla. "To think of my dear good Johann, or to do something for him, is the only consolation I can have. Come, Johanna, let us dust the archive-room thoroughly. You know grandpapa cannot endure to have a servant enter it."
Johanna declared her willingness for the task. Magelone took up her embroidery with a yawn; really this eternal stitching in all the heat was insufferable!
She seated herself at the piano and began a nocturne of Chopin's; but the idea of playing when there was no admiring audience! Her hands dropped wearily upon the keys, which sent forth an echoing chord, and the elfish eyes were veiled.
"Oh, to have to stay here when they are so happy in Vienna" sighed Magelone. "And all for the sake of Johann Leopold, who cares as little for me as I do for him! And, of all places, in this horrid Dönninghausen, where there never is the slightest diversion!"
Her thoughts were interrupted by a slight noise; the door was cautiously opened, and a tall figure appeared on the threshold. "Otto!" she exclaimed. And the next moment he clasped her in his arms and kissed her.
"But, Otto," she said, reproachfully, as she extricated herself from his embrace, "what is the matter with you? what brings you here? It must be something very extraordinary," she added, startled by the dark fire in his eyes and the strange rigid look about his mouth.