"You have returned already, Willy?" she asked. "I thought--but what is it? Has anything happened?"
"Yes," answered Frau Regine, grasping the reins, as usual, decisively. "We have just received a communication from Burgsdorf which forces us to depart to-morrow morning. You need not be frightened, my child, it is nothing dangerous--only a foolishness"--she laid sharp emphasis on the word--"a foolishness which has been committed, but which will be removed just as speedily by quick interference. I will tell you all about it later, but for the present nothing can be done but by our departure."
Curiosity was not one of Antonie's faults, and even this quite unexpected news was not able to ruffle her composure. The statement that nothing serious was concerned satisfied her entirely.
"Must Willy leave also?" she asked without particular enthusiasm. "Cannot he at least remain?"
"Answer your fiancée yourself, Willy," said Frau von Eschenhagen, fixing her sharp, gray eyes upon her son. "You know best what the circumstances are. Can you really consent to stay here?"
A short pause. Willibald's glance met his mother's; then he turned away and said in a suppressed voice, "No, Toni, I must go home--nothing else is possible."
Toni accepted the decision, which would have pained another girl deeply, with moderate regret, and began to inquire directly where the travelers would dine to-morrow, since the fast train had no stoppage anywhere. This seemed to grieve her as much as the separation, but she finally concluded that it would be best for them to take a lunch along to eat on the train.
Frau von Eschenhagen felt triumphant when she went to her brother-in-law to notify him of their departure, for which she had already found a pretext.
Many a thing could happen on the large estates to afford an explanation.
Naturally, the Chief Forester must not learn the truth any more than his daughter, although he had caused the whole trouble in his blindness.