Part 5 (1/2)

”Are you going back there again?” asked Johanna, trying to find something to say.

”Not now,” he replied. ”My regiment is stationed on the Rhine, and I am returning to it after having a.s.sisted last week in the celebration of my grandfather's birthday, on which occasion we are all wont to a.s.semble at Donninghausen.”

”Who are all?” asked Johanna. ”I know little, almost nothing, of my mother's family; she had become estranged from her kindred.”

”Unfortunately,” her cousin interposed, ”I have but a faint remembrance of my aunt Agnes. I am the eldest son of her second brother, who was attached to our emba.s.sy in London.”

”Was he not called Waldemar?” asked Johanna.

”You are right,” the young man replied. ”Grandpapa's eldest son, Johann Georg, was already dead when Aunt Agnes left her home. He left only one child, a son, Johann Leopold, who has been brought up in Donninghausen, and lives there now. He has pursued various studies, and is the heir. I have a younger brother, named for our father, Waldemar; he has entered upon a diplomatic career. My two sisters, Hedwig and Hildegard, are married to two distant cousins belonging to the Wildenhayn-Oderbuchs.

Finally, grandpapa's youngest son, Major Karl Anton, also dead, left one child, a daughter, young and beautiful and a widow of two years'

standing. Her name is Magelone; her husband, Lieutenant von der Aue, who lived only eighteen months after their marriage, contrived in that time to run through all her property, and she now lives at Donninghausen, under the chaperonage of our grand-aunt Thekla, grandpapa's unmarried sister. Let me add that Magelone is as clever as she is beautiful, as accomplished as she is amiable, and that she is especially desirous of welcoming Cousin Johanna to Donninghausen.”

”Me?” Johanna asked, blus.h.i.+ng. ”I cannot understand----”

”I will read the riddle for you,” Otto interposed. ”Do you not remember meeting two years ago, among the guests at Lindenbad, a certain Frau von Werth? She visits at Donninghausen, and has told wonderful tales of you.

I will spare your modesty further details.”

He bowed with a smile, and again his sparkling eyes scanned her. Johanna coloured: she felt cheered and comforted. None among her father's friends had ever accorded her any degree of attention.

”I should like to know something of my grandfather,” she began, after a pause; but, before she could go on, the door opened and Lisbeth came in.

”Johanna!” she exclaimed, startled, and stood still; but Johanna held out her hand, and the child flew to her side.

”My sister,” she said, tenderly stroking the little one's fair curls.

”Sister?” Otto repeated, in a tone of surprise. ”Oh, yes, I remember.

Come, my little beauty, give me your hand,” he said, with his winning smile.

But the child held Johanna's arm tight and looked at him with a little air of defiance. ”No, I do not know you, and I do not want to know you,”

she said in a wayward tone.

”Darling, don't be naughty,” Johanna whispered.

”Never mind,” said her cousin; ”the child is shy, and, besides, I must go.” And he glanced at the clock as he arose.

Johanna also arose. ”I am sorry,” she said; ”I had so much to ask----”

”And I, too, seem to have a thousand things to say,” the young man rejoined. ”I thought I should have seen much more of you, but when I arrived yesterday I found that the funeral had not yet taken place, and the hours were wasted which I hoped to have spent with you. I wish that I could at least have followed to the grave the man whom I so admired, but I was detained by pressing business.”

How cordial was the tone in which he spoke! Johanna's eyes filled; how could she know that his 'pressing business' was a breakfast with some gay companions? Much moved, she held out her hand to her cousin. Otto pressed it to his lips.

”_Au revoir_ in Donninghausen!” he said, and went.

”_Au revoir_,” she rejoined, half involuntarily; and, as the door closed behind his tall figure, she all but asked herself whether the events of the last half-hour had not been a dream. How could she feel thus nearly related to a man of whose existence she had been so short a time before unconscious? 'Strange force of kins.h.i.+p!' she said to herself.