"You will learn nothing from Doctor Fabian; he is more reserved even than our young landlord himself," interrupted Gretchen, feeling bound to come to the rescue of her accomplice, who was no actor and could not play his part properly. A sense of guilt almost choked him; he could not banish the thought that the assessor was to be deceived, and that he was to aid in deceiving him. Gretchen, however, took the matter less seriously, and marched straight on to her purpose.
"Will you take tea with us, Herr Assessor?" she asked. "You undoubtedly have business over at Janowo?"
"Not that I know of. Why just there?"
"Well, I only meant--We have heard so much of the proceedings over there for some days past, that I thought perhaps you had been commissioned to make a search in that place."
The assessor was fully aroused. "Conceal nothing from me, I beseech you!" he said, eagerly. "Tell me all you know about Janowo."
The doctor pushed back his chair unobserved. In his own eyes he was the blackest of conspirators, while his pupil showed a surprising talent for intrigue. She allowed herself to be questioned, and little by little she revealed all she had learned in the last few days, but with one important variation--she changed the field of operations from Villica to Janowo, the adjoining estate. Her plan succeeded far beyond her expectations. The assessor bit eagerly at the bate, and when Margaret had told all she knew, he sprang to his feet in feverish excitement.
"Excuse me, Fräulein Frank," he said, "for not awaiting your father's coming. I must return to E---- at once."
"But not on foot; it is half an hour's walk."
"I must go incognito," whispered Hubert, mysteriously. "I will leave my carriage here, so that it may appear as if I were still at your house. Do not expect me to supper. Good-bye, Fräulein Margaret." So saying, he hurried away.
"He is going to E----," said Gretchen, exultingly, "in search of the two gendarmes stationed there; he will hasten with them to Janowo, and all three will pry about there until late at night. Villica is well rid of them."