"Hermann! What have you done?"
His countenance lighted up with that expression which hitherto only she had seen, and under which the hard features seemed so strangely mild. In spite of her consternation there was an unspeakable amount of confession in her words, which he had hitherto not been able to tear from her; it was the first time she had called him by his name.
"I have bidden farewell to the past. Do not be frightened, I have all the future before me. I am not one of those natures who are able to vegetate from one year's end to another in the retirement of an estate, allowing the world to go its own way as it will, and neither are you suited for such a narrow sphere of life. Before the beginning of the year I was asked to enter into the service of the State in another country, but I then refused, because my connection and prospects gave me certain hopes of the first place in our principality. Directly after you left the offer was renewed. There are certainly some steps to mount in order to gain such a position as that I have renounced, and it may cost me more effort than hitherto, but I will rise, be sure of that."
He said all simply and calmly; but Gertrud nevertheless felt deeply what a sacrifice the ambitious man had made; her bosom heaved in joyful pride, she knew now what she was to him.
"All is settled now," continued he, after a moment's pause. "I shall enter upon my new office in B---- next month--but I shall not go there without my wife. Gertrud, will you come with me?"
His arms closed passionately round the no longer resisting girl; she leaned her head upon his shoulder.
"Do you think, Hermann, then, that there we--"
"We are strangers in B----. There no one knows of the crime and the unhappy remembrances connected with it, and if, in the future, anything should be heard--in the bustle and life of that great capital there will be no lasting place for dim, distant reports of a past generation. Besides this, I shall have no connection with the Court there; and if it does not choose to receive my bürgerliche wife, it will be easy for me to avoid it, and we shall find sufficient to make up for that in other circles. I will answer for the Gräfin Arnau's fitting reception and position in these."
A deep flush bathed Gertrud's cheeks at the last words; that name--once so hated, she heard it now for the first time as her future one.
"And your grandmother?" asked she softly.