"You are right," she said, with a deep breath, passing her hand across her forehead and standing erect. "It is, besides, time that we returned to the other rooms. May I trouble you, Herr Waltenberg?"
He seemed hardly to agree with this, but nevertheless instantly offered his arm and conducted her to the ball-room, which was still full.
The court-councillor was sitting in a corner nursing his wrath with Fran von Lasberg, who seemed inclined to fan the flame. She had ascertained by questioning the servants that the cards on the table had really been changed, and her indignation was extreme. She harangued the unfortunate father of such a daughter in low but expressive tones, and concluded her discourse with the annihilating declaration, "In short, the conduct of Herr Gersdorf seems to me outrageous!"
"Yes, it is outrageous!" Ernsthausen murmured in a fury. "And, moreover, I have been looking for Molly for half an hour to take her home, and I cannot find her. She is a terrible child!"
"Under no circumstances should I have allowed her to attend this entertainment," the old lady began again. "When the Frau Baroness opened her heart to me about the affair, I urged it upon her to have recourse to vigorous measures."
"And so we have," Ernsthausen declared; "but it is of no use. My wife is ill with all this worry and vexation, and her indisposition may, probably will, last for days. I am occupied with my official duties. Who is to stand guard over the girl meanwhile and frustrate all her insane schemes?"
"Send Molly to the country to her granduncle," was Frau von Lasberg's advice. "There no personal intercourse with Gersdorf will be possible, and if I know the old Baron he will find a means of preventing any exchange of letters."
The councillor looked as if a ray of light had suddenly invaded the darkness of his soul; he adopted the suggestion with enthusiasm.
"That is an idea!" he cried. "You are right, madame, perfectly right! Molly shall go to my uncle immediately,--the day after to-morrow. He was beside himself at learning of the affair, and will certainly be the best of guardians. I will write to him early to-morrow morning."
He was so possessed with this thought that he hastily arose, and made a fresh attempt to find his daughter, but it was a difficult undertaking. He might as well have given chase to a butterfly, for Molly possessed a wonderful talent for disappearing just as her father was about to confront her. Ernst Waltenberg, who had been taken into council by the lovers twice, acted as a lightning-conductor on this occasion, in view of the approaching storm, which he diverted by his conversation. Meanwhile, the little Baroness would disappear among a crowd of her friends, to come to light again in an entirely different place. She seemed to regard the company as an assemblage of guardian-angels, to be used according to her good pleasure, and even the minister, her father's illustrious chief, who was present, was obliged to serve her purpose, for she finally took refuge with His Excellency, and complained in the most moving terms that her father was insisting upon driving home, when she wanted to stay so much. The old gentleman instantly espoused the cause of the charming child, and when the councillor appeared with a stern "Molly, the carriage is waiting," he kindly interposed with, "Let it wait, my dear councillor. Youth claims its rights, and I promised the Baroness to intercede for her. You will stay, will you not?"