"But if he were willing it would be a different matter."
"I have his word that he'll be back in a couple of hours," said the Major with emphasis.
Wallmoden shrugged his shoulders: "The word of a boy of seventeen!"
"Who has had a soldier's education and knows the significance of his word of honor. That gives me no anxiety; my fears are in another direction."
"Regine told me you and he understood one another at last," remarked Wallmoden, with a glance at his friend's dark, gloomy face.
"For a few minutes; then I had to be the stern, hard father again, and this last hour has shown me how hard a task it will be to conquer and direct this unruly, undisciplined nature, but for all that, I must and will subdue it."
His friend stepped to the window and looked out upon the garden.
"It is twilight already and the Burgsdorf fish-pond is half an hour's walk from here," he said, half aloud. "You could have this last meeting held in your presence if you saw fit."
"And see Zalika again? Impossible! I could and would not do that."
"If this farewell does not end as you anticipate—if Hartmut does not come back?"