"Oh, you always have to work," Käthchen complained.
"Yes, you school-children have the best time, with nothing to do but laugh and play, while I have all the studying. Go now, and when the Fräulein comes in from the garden, come and call me."
"Yes, I'll call you. Good-by. But promise me that you won't tell that the Fräulein kissed me. They would all scold and laugh at me."
"Oh, no,--not for the world. Where's the use of telling everything? But you mustn't love the Fräulein better than you do me, or I must tell your mother."
"Oh, no. I love you best of all the world!" cried Käthchen, shutting the door behind her with emphasis. She had been but a few moments with Gretchen and Frau Brigitta when Ernestine entered with Leonhardt. Both looked agitated, and Ernestine's eyes showed traces of tears.
Käthchen would have gone to call Walter, as she had been told to do.
"Stay, Käthchen," said Ernestine, "I will go up to Herr Leonhardt myself and see what he is doing."
And she took Father Leonhardt's arm, and with him ascended the narrow staircase.
Walter sprang up, with flushed cheeks, when Ernestine and his father entered his room.
"Have you come all the way up here?" he exclaimed, "you, before whom I stand humbly as a mere pupil,--revering you almost as the very personification of Science?"