"It was high time for you to come, Egbert," said he. "The director in his present weak state of health is no longer equal to the duties of his office: months ago, he wanted to send in his resignation, and was only induced to remain until you should arrive and undertake the superintendence of the works. I am also very glad to have Cecilia in the house again, for I am not to keep Maia much longer. Victor is already talking of the wedding, being quite carried away with his happiness."
"But Maia herself does not look as happy as I should like to see her, under the circumstances. Did she give her consent gladly?"
"No, but of her own free will. And now that her promise has once been given, it will chase away the dark shadow that Oscar's love and death have cast over her life. Now a duty stands between her and that memory, she will overcome it."
"And Count Victor will make this easy for her," suggested Egbert. "Of that I am convinced; his is no nature on a grand scale like"--Dernburg cast a side-glance at his adopted son--"like another person of my acquaintance, whom I had selected for Maia at one time, but that other one, alas! would always go his own way and follow his own hard head, and thus he has done in love as in all things else."
"Truly you have so far had but little satisfaction in your son," said Egbert, with difficulty controlling his deep emotion--"he even stood in open opposition to you; but, believe me, father, I have been the severest sufferer from this cause, and now all my powers belong to you and your Odensburg."
"We can make good use of them," declared Dernburg. "At times I feel my age and the decline of strength--who knows how long it will last? Meanwhile, you stand by my side, and I think, upon the ground of common work, we shall find the accommodation for all that still divides us the one from the other. We talked over this, you remember, when you returned from America."
Fully and clearly Egbert's eye met that of the speaker. "Yes, and I recognized that I owed it to you to tell the entire truth, when you summoned me to the guidance of your works. I have forever renounced my former party, but not that which is great and true in that movement. This I cleave to still. This I shall stand up for and contend for so long as life shall last."
"I know it," said Dernburg, offering him his hand. "But I too have learned something during these days of trial. I am no longer the old blockhead who supposed that, alone, he could stem the tide of a new era. I cannot, indeed, welcome this new era with open arms; for the period of a whole generation I have stood on different ground and cannot be untrue to myself, but I can summon to my side a young, fresh force that is in sympathy with the present. When, hereafter, I give Odensburg entirely into your hands, then keep it up with the times, Egbert. I shall not oppose it! Until then, though, let there be for us all a clear track!"
FOOTNOTE:
[Footnote 1]: Caper-spurge.