Margaret did not move, she kept her hands over her face, the low sound of her weeping was heard throughout the room, whilst Fritz Deyke looked at her father in breathless suspense.
He gazed gravely before him. He did not look much surprised, perhaps he had expected something of the kind, but for a time he was silent and thoughtful.
"It is all right as far as I am concerned," he said at last, "I have grown very fond of you, and I can trust my daughter's happiness to you, but there are two persons to ask about it--in the first place, my daughter."
With one bound Fritz was by Margaret's side.
"Margaret," he cried, "will you go with me?" And putting his arm round her, he drew her gently to the table opposite to her father.
She let her hands glide down from her face; her eyes were full of tears, but they beamed with affection and confidence, and whilst she gazed at her young lover, she said in a loud firm voice:
"Yes!"
"Well, that is one person," said old Lohmeier, laughing, "but the consent of the second is a graver matter, I mean your father. These are sad times, and your father, a thorough-going Hanoverian, will scarcely welcome a Prussian daughter-in-law to his house; she is the daughter of a stiff true Prussian, and I would disinherit her if she ever forgot the love she owes her king."
Fritz Deyke was silent for a moment.
"Herr Lohmeier," he then said, "you know I am a Hanoverian with all my heart and soul, and that it is a great grief to me that we are now to be Prussian, but what can I do, or how can Margaret help it? We did not make the politics and we can't change them; would to God Prussia and Hanover could come to as good an understanding as we have done. However," he added more warmly, "I cannot complain, for if Prussia takes my country at least it gives me the best thing it has, and my annexation is a peaceful one, of heart to heart."