"She gives him her supper secretly, and runs about the garden with him on pitch-dark nights. I will not have such actions in my house, and know that Klaus would not approve of it either." The words sounded strangely from the young lips.
"Yes, Anna Maria "—Rosamond von Hegewitz smiled "if you will judge thus! These people have quite different sentiments from us, and—and you cannot know, I suppose, if their views are honest?"
"That is nothing to me!" replied Anna Maria. "They cannot marry, because they are both as poor as church mice. What is to come of it? The girl must leave; you surely see that, dear aunt?"
The old lady now laughed aloud. "One can see, Anna Maria, that you know nothing yet of a real attachment, or you would not proceed in so dictatorial a manner."
The slightest change came over the young face. "I will not know it, either!" she declared firmly, almost turning away.
"But, sweetheart," came from the old voice almost anxiously, "do you think that it will always be so with you? You are eighteen years old—do you think your heart will live on thus without ever feeling a passion? And do you expect the same of your brother, Anna Maria? Klaus is still so young——"
The little foot stopped on the treadle of the wheel, and the gray eyes looked in amazement at the speaker.
"Don't you know then, aunt, that it is a long-established matter that Klaus and I should always stay together? Klaus promised our mother on her death-bed that he would never leave me. And I go away from Klaus? Oh, sooner—sooner may the sky fall! Don't speak of such possibilities, Aunt Rosamond. It is absurd even to think of."
"Pardon me, Anna Maria"—the words sounded almost solemn—"I was present when your dying mother took from Klaus his promise never to leave you, always to protect you. But at the same time to forbid him to love another woman, a woman whom his heart might choose, she surely did not intend!"
"Aunt Rosamond!" cried the girl, almost threateningly.