Zalika drew back.
"From your father? And he knows—?"
"All!"
"So he is at Burgsdorf? Since when? who told him?"
The young man related in a few words all that had happened, but he had not finished when a bitter laugh from his mother interrupted him.
"Of course, they are all in the plot together to keep me from my child. And your father? He has threatened and punished you again as if you were a criminal, because you have been in your mother's arms?"
Hartmut shook his head. The memory of the moment when his father drew him to his breast was yet before him, despite all the bitterness with which the scene had ended.
"No," he said sadly, "but he has forbidden me to see you again, and sternly commanded me to part from you."
"And in spite of all, you are here? O, I knew it!"
Her words had a joyful sound.