He had risen at the last words, and walked up and down the room with his old vivacity. A short silence followed, which Ella at last interrupted--
"I want to beg something of you, dear uncle. Will you grant it me?"
Erlau stopped. "Gladly, my child. You know I cannot easily refuse you anything. What do you wish?"
Ella had fixed her eyes on the ground, and did not look up while she spoke.
"It is that Rein--that Reinhold's latest work is to be performed the day after to-morrow."
"Yes, to be sure, and then the adoration will become unendurable," growled Erlau. "You wish to escape from the first commotion about it--I understand that, perfectly; we will drive into the mountains for a week or a fortnight. Dr. Conti must give me leave of absence for so long."
"On the contrary. I wanted to beg you--to go to the opera with me."
The Consul looked at her with a countenance full of the most intense astonishment.
"What, Eleonore! I cannot have heard aright? You wish to go on that day to the theatre, which hitherto you have so decidedly avoided as soon as Rinaldo's name was connected with it?"
Notwithstanding the shielding hand, one could see plainly how the deep red which coloured her cheeks rose to her temples, as she replied almost inaudibly--