"If I were in your place I would decline such a service," she said; "you might do so, the time for your resignation being close at hand; I would not close my official career with the delivery of a poor, half-dead, hunted prisoner into the hands of his tormentors."
"I am government counsellor," returned Hubert, solemnly emphasizing the title, "and I must do my duty. My country commands--I obey. But I see that my carriage has passed the dangerous place safely. Farewell! Duty summons me." He bowed and withdrew.
"Did you hear, Emil?" asked the young wife, when they were again seated in the carriage. "Hubert has become government counsellor, and a week before resigning his police duties to enter upon the new position, he sets out on a fool's chase after another conspirator. He can never be a counsellor of the government except in name. I really believe he has bought the place with the money his uncle left him; but if he has only the title, he cannot do any more harm."
Gretchen dwelt at some length upon the details Hubert had given them concerning Count Morynski's flight, but she received only short and absent replies. Her father and husband had grown very reticent; the conversation would not flow back into its former channel. A malign influence had seemed to follow that accidental meeting with Hubert, and Gretchen was heartily glad when they at last reached Villica.
As the day passed, the "Frau Professorin" was every hour thrown into new surprise and vexation. Her father was perfectly incomprehensible. Upon meeting his children at the station he had embraced them fondly; he must be delighted with their present happiness and their future prospects; but still he seemed somewhat annoyed at their presence just now. He had a preoccupied air, and declared that he was overwhelmed with business. Immediately upon their arrival he had taken his son-in-law into his private office, and had remained alone with him for nearly an hour.
Gretchen was indignant at not being invited to this secret interview, and her indignation increased when she found that she could not learn anything of its purport from her husband. She kept her eyes and ears wide open; she recalled several incidental remarks which had been made by her father and husband during the journey, and by combining them very skilfully, she at last arrived at a conclusion which was perfectly satisfactory to her own mind.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
[THE "FRAU PROFESSORIN."]
Dinner was over, and the married pair found themselves alone in the family sitting-room. The professor, quite contrary to his usual habit, was pacing uneasily up and down. He tried vainly to conceal his inward perturbation, and was so deeply absorbed in thought that he did not remark the silence of his usually talkative wife. Gretchen sat upon the sofa, and for a long time gazed intently at her husband. At length having studied her mode of attack, she advanced valiantly to the charge.
"Emil," she began, with a solemnity which Hubert himself had never equalled; "Emil, I am outrageously treated here!"