"Are you commencing again?" scolded the mother. "It is really unbearable in your presence nowadays."
Marietta only turned her head, without freeing herself from the embrace which held her so closely, and said, roguishly: "We are celebrating our honeymoon after the long separation, and you must know from your own experience how people act then, nicht wahr, mamma?"
Regine shrugged her shoulders. Her honeymoon with the late Eschenhagen had been of a different kind.
"You received a letter from your grandfather, Marietta," she said, changing the subject; "was it good news?"
"The very best. Grandpapa is quite well and anticipating much pleasure in his visit to Burgsdorf next month. But he writes that everything is very quiet around Waldhofen since Rodeck has lost its master. Everything is closed and desolate since the death of the young Prince. Ostwalden is lonely, and Furstenstein will be deserted, too, after Toni's marriage, which occurs in two weeks. Poor Uncle Schonan will be all alone then."
The last words were spoken with a certain emphasis as the young wife threw a peculiar glance at her mother-in-law.
That upright lady did not pay any attention to it, but only remarked: "Yes, it is a strange notion of Hartmut and Adelaide to live here in the pine forest in a small, rented villa during the first weeks of their married life, while the large castle of Ostwalden and all of the Stahlberg country seats are at their disposal."
"They probably wished to remain with their father a little longer," said Willibald.
"Well, Falkenried could have taken a vacation in this case and gone with them. Thank God that the man has really come back to life, since that terrible bitterness has fallen from him, and he has his son again. I knew well how very hard the flight of the boy struck him. He secretly idolized him, while showing him only severity and requiring in turn nothing but obedience. Of course, what Hartmut accomplished with that night's ride, by which he saved his father with his troops, erases even more than a senseless boy's escapade, for which the mother was really to blame."
"But we are cheated out of all the wedding festivities in the family," pouted Marietta. "Willy and I had to be married quietly because the war broke out, and now, after the war has happily ceased, Hartmut and Adelaide do just like it."