"And now had we better hasten or retard the moment when Ernestine makes her choice?" asked the baroness.
"A very important question," said the baron.
"My advice would be to defer any decision upon this subject for six months," said the baroness.
"That is my opinion, too," exclaimed the baron, as if this statement of his wife's views had given him great inward satisfaction.
"I agree with you perfectly, my brother, and with you, my sister," said Helena, who had listened silently and with downcast eyes to every word of the conversation.
"Very well," said the baroness, evidently well pleased with this harmony of feeling. "And now there can be no doubt that we shall be able to conduct the affair to a successful termination, for we will all take a solemn oath, by all we hold most dear, to accept no suitor for Ernestine's hand, without warning and consulting one another."
"To act alone or secretly would be an act of infamous, shameless, and horrible treachery," exclaimed the baron, as if shocked at the mere idea of such an atrocity.
"Mon Dieu!" murmured Helena, clasping her hands. "Who could ever think of acting such a treacherous part?"
"It would be an infamous act," said the baroness, in her turn, "and worse,—it would be a fatal blunder. We shall be strong if we act in unison, but weak, if we act independently of one another."
"In union there is strength!" said the baron, sententiously.