"Cecilia, did you not wish me to come?"
"Yes, yes," she murmured, "I have longed to see you again--for years--always; but you ought not to have come; no, you ought not to have come!"
"Then I will go, Cecilia."
"No, no," she exclaimed, hastily raising her head, "I do not mean that. You are here--the mischief is done. And now you can stay--you must stay until--"
She paused suddenly. Gotthold, who was following the direction of her eyes, glanced through the open window and saw at the end of the court-yard Carl Brandow talking with Hinrich Scheel, whom he now left and came hurriedly towards the house.
"He has returned already," she murmured; "what will you say to him?"
"I don't understand you, Cecilia,"
"He hates you."
"Then I don't know why he sought me out and gave me such a pressing invitation to his home, which I certainly had never intended to enter."
"He sought you out--invited you--that is impossible."