"Now we are quits. If Toni knows nothing about all this I am sorry, but I shall stay away for the future rather than expose myself to fresh insults. I pray she may be happy, though I should certainly not be so in her place. I am only a poor girl, but I would never marry a man who was afraid to speak without his mother's permission. No, not if he were heir to Burgsdorf ten times over."
With this she turned her back upon the heir, and a second later left the room.
"Will, what does this mean?" sounded the voice of Frau von Eschenhagen, who stood in the half-open door. As she received no answer, she crossed the room to her son's side with a step and manner which prophesied no good for that young man.
"That was a most remarkable scene which I have just witnessed. Will you be good enough to explain to me what it signifies? That little insignificant thing, bubbling over with passion and anger, telling you the most disgraceful things to your very face, and you standing there like a sheep, taking them all."
"Because she had the right to say them," said Will, still looking down at the scattered rose leaves.
"She had what?" asked the mother, who could not believe she heard aright.
The young heir raised his head and looked at her; his face wore a new and singular expression.
"She had the right of it, mother. It is true you have always treated me like a school-boy, so how could I defend myself against such an accusation?"
"Boy, I believe you have lost your senses," said Frau Regine.
Willibald was roused now. He continued: "I am no boy, I am the heir of Burgsdorf, and twenty-seven years old. You have always forgotten that, mother, and so have I, for that matter, but I remember it to-day."