"The baroness herself asked me not to speak of the affair," explained the count.
"Yes, but I did not forbid you to tell Marie, Herr Count," responded Katharina.
"'Baroness'—'Herr Count'?" repeated Marie, turning questioningly from her guardian to their fair neighbor. "Why don't you call each other by your Christian names?"
They were spared an explanation by Herr Bernat, who again observed:
"Robbers? I confess I should like to hear about this robbery?"
"I will tell you all about it," returned the baroness; "but first, I must beg the vice-palatine not to make any arrests. For," she added, with an enchanting smile, "had it not been for those valiant knights of the road I should not have become acquainted with my brave Ludwig."
"That is better!" applauded Marie, hurrying her "little mother" into the reception-room, where the wonderful story of the robbery was repeated.
And what an attentive listener was the fair young girl! Her lips were pressed tightly together; her eyes were opened to their widest extent—like those of a child who hears a wonderful fairy tale. Even the vice-palatine from time to time ejaculated:
"Darvalia!" "Beste karaffia!"—which, doubtless, were the proper terms to apply to marauding rascals.
But when the baroness came to that part of her story where Count Vavel, with his walking-stick, put to flight the four robbers, Marie's face glowed with pride. Surely there was not another brave man like her Ludwig in the whole world!