"The sound of Klaus's voice came in to us; it sounded as if he were giving various orders; now it came nearer in the hall, then the steps retreated, and at last reëchoed the creaking of the front door.
"'He is going!' shrieked Anna Maria, 'he is going, and I have not seen him, and he has not asked for me!'
"'No, no, my child,' I sought to calm her, 'he is not going away, he cannot go; whither should he? Only be calm; he wants to speak to the bailiff, or to see about his baggage. Let me go, I will find out; and you—come, sit down quietly in your place. I will bring Klaus to you, I promise you.'
"It was an easy thing for me to lead her back from the door and push her to the sofa; the tall, strong girl seemed stunned by anxiety and weariness.
"I kissed her forehead and hurried out; Brockelmann was in the hall, coming toward me with rapid steps. She looked heated, and her white cap was all awry on her gray hair. She carried a lighted candle in one hand, and with the other quickly unfastened her great bunch of keys from her belt. The housemaid followed her with a basket of fire-wood.
"'Great heavens, gracious Fräulein,' said the old woman, when I asked, in surprise, the meaning of her haste; 'if I knew myself! The hall is to be heated and lighted; in an hour everything must be ready, and the dust-covers haven't been taken off for a whole year in there. I think the master has lost his head!' And with trembling hands she unlocked the folding-doors which led to the two rooms which, under the names of the 'Hall' and the 'Red Room,' had been, from my earliest youth, opened only on particularly important occasions. Here was formerly assembled, several times a year, a very aristocratic company, who, after a fine, stiff dinner-party, would close the evening with a dance; here had been held, for generations, the christening and wedding feasts of the Hegewitzes; here, too, had many a coffin stood, before it was carried out to the vault in the garden below.
"What did Klaus mean to do to-day? Involuntarily I followed Brockelmann into the hall; the candle lighted the great room but faintly; its feeble light made here and there a prismatic drop among the pendants of the crystal chandelier sparkle, and the gray-covered pieces of furniture stood about like ghosts. The old woman began to arrange things in the greatest haste, and under the hands of the maid the first feeble flame was soon flickering up in the fire-place. I beheld it as in a dream.
"'What, for God's sake, does this mean?' I asked again, oppressed.
"Brockelmann did not reply at once; she wanted to spread out the rug in front of the great sofa. 'Go, Sophie, the fire is burning now; Christopher may come in a quarter of an hour to light the candles.—They will surely last,' she added, with a glance at the half-burned candles in the chandelier and sconces.
"The girl went; the old woman stopped taking off the dust-covers. 'One experiences a great deal when one is old and gray, and nowhere are there stranger goings on than in this world!' said she, excitedly; 'but that anything like this should happen! Do you know, Fräulein, where he has gone, the master, without even having said "Good-day" to his sister? To Pastor Grüne. And there up-stairs sits the old Isa, and has cut bare the little myrtle-tree which you gave to the—the strange young lady, so that it looks like a rod to beat naughty children with. And the young thing lies on the sofa, playing with her cat, and laughs out of her red eyes, and she laughs with all her white teeth, because things have gone so far at last. Gracious Fräulein, they have wept and lamented. If the master has lost his reason, I can understand it. Not an hour longer will they stay here in the house, the little one cried, where they were trodden under foot and scolded. And when the master sent for me he was holding her in his arms, and looked as pale as the plaster on the walls. I must put things in order here as well as possible, said he, but quickly—in an hour, Fräulein; there will be no more disturbance to be made about it. And though the king himself were to come, in an hour they will be man and wife.'