"Then he meant to make me--us--but that is no less impossible."
She looked at him in astonishment.
"Impossible!" she said, "impossible!"
A strange, sad smile flitted over her pale face.
"Then everything can remain as it was," she said, "it is all right."
"Holloa!" cried Brandow, who had seen them both at the window, and now quickened his already hasty steps and eagerly waved his hand.
He entered the room immediately, after calling from the door: "Ah! so you have found her already! Isn't this a surprise, eh? What am I to get for it? Ah! a man must be cunning. Not a word to the wife, who would make all sorts of well-meant objections about old enmity and other long-forgotten follies; and then tell the friend she will be on tenter-hooks till I bring him home. That's the way to catch one's birds!"
He laughed loudly.
"You will wake Gretchen," said Cecilia.
"Yes, what is the matter with her?" asked Brandow, lowering his voice. "I hope it is nothing serious, a false alarm, as it was with Brownlock, or--where are you going, Cecilia?"