Falkenried now drew nearer.
"You will not speak? Has a command from that side, perhaps, made you silent? Never mind, your silence says more than words. I see how much estranged from me you have become, and you would become lost entirely to me if I should leave you longer under that influence. These meetings with your mother must be ended. I forbid them. You will accompany me home to-day and remain under my supervision. Whether it seems cruel to you or not, it must be so, and you will obey."
But the Major was mistaken when he thought to bow his son to his will by a simple command.
Hartmut had been in a school during these last days where defiance against the father had been taught him in the most effectual manner.
"Father, you will not--you cannot command that," he burst forth now with overpowering vehemence. "It is my mother who is found again; the only one in the whole world who loves me. I shall not let her be taken from me again as she has already been taken. I shall not allow myself to be forced to hate her because you hate her. Threaten--punish me do whatever you will with me, but I do not obey this time. I will not obey."
The whole unruly, passionate nature of the young man was in these words; the uncanny fire flamed again in his eyes; the hands were clenched; every fibre throbbed in wild rebellion. He was apparently decided to do battle against the long-feared father.
But the burst of anger which he so confidently expected did not come. Falkenried only looked at him silently, but with a glance of grave, deep reproach.
"The only one in the whole world who loves you!" he repeated slowly. "You have, perhaps, forgotten that you still have a father."
"Who does not love me, though," cried Hartmut in overwhelming bitterness. "Only since I have found my mother have I known what love is."
"Hartmut!"