Part 35 (2/2)
Once more aunt and niece embraced. ”Bid grandpapa a thousand, thousand farewells for me. Try to persuade him to forgive me. Think kindly of me,” Johanna sobbed.
Then she hurried out into the corridor, past her grandfather's door, where Leo arose in surprise, and seemed to ask if he might accompany her.
Johanna signed to him to lie down, and, with her handkerchief pressed to her lips, hurried down the stairs, and threw herself into a corner of the carriage; the door was closed, the horses started. Her dream of love and happiness was at an end.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE FREIHERR a.s.sERTS HIS AUTHORITY.
When the Freiherr heard of Johanna's departure, he had for the moment no thought save of the insult it offered to his authority. But when his first anger had pa.s.sed away, he said to himself that it might mean something more than merely anxiety for her little sister. Johanna's absence from meals on the previous day, Otto's conduct, Thekla's distressed face, all taken together suggested to the Freiherr some disagreement between the lovers. He determined to question Otto himself upon the subject, and made Tannhagen the goal of his morning ride.
When half-way there, he met Otto. Aunt Thekla had sent him Johanna's note, and he was betaking himself to consult with her as to what was to be done. He was startled when at a turn of the road he perceived the tall figure of the Freiherr upon his gray gelding. He could not avoid him, so, summoning all his courage, he rode towards him.
”Do you know that Johanna has gone off?” his grandfather asked him after their first salutations, and as he spoke his gaze seemed to pierce the young man's very soul.
”So she writes me,” he replied, trying in vain to appear indifferent under the Freiherr's gaze.
”Indeed! I should like to know something more about it. Ride back with me to Donninghausen,” said the Freiherr, turning his horse that way.
”And now, frankly, what has occurred between you?”
”Really, sir, I do not know. I should not like to accuse----” Otto stammered.
”Have I asked you to?” the Freiherr exclaimed, impatiently. ”I only wish to know whether the silly child's flight is your fault; and if it is, you will go after her and bring your foolish lady fair back again.”
Otto was startled. ”Indeed, sir----” he began, hesitatingly.
The Freiherr interrupted him: ”Deuce take you, lad, what kind of a face is that to wear? You look as if I were sending you after the devil's grandmother instead of in pursuit of a silly child who has wellnigh lost, on your account, the atom of woman's wit that she possessed!” Then he added, more seriously, ”You can tell her that this time mercy shall wait on justice, but there must be no more escapades. Of course you must have your quarrels,--lovers cannot live without them,--but you will please to keep them to yourselves. I beg you to arrange them so that I and the peace of my household shall not be implicated.”
For a while they rode along silently side by side. Otto, who had been too self-occupied to have any correct idea of Johanna's state of mind, had read her note with mingled astonishment and indignation. He did not divine the pain concealed beneath the apparent calm of her words; he only saw that she could give him up. He thought her conduct hard, cold, and selfish, and he held himself absolved by the scandal she had caused from all duties towards her, and entirely justified in exculpating himself as best he might. She had expressly required that he should give their grandfather a credible explanation of their separation. He would do so.
”My dear grandfather,” he said, after he had taken time for reflection, ”as matters stand, I find to my regret that I must acquaint you somewhat with the cause of the present disagreement between Johanna and myself.”
”Be brief, then!” the Freiherr exclaimed. ”Give me the princ.i.p.al facts.
I cannot stand childish bickerings.”
”Just as you please,” Otto replied, his task thus made more easy. ”The first as well as the last cause is Johanna's position with regard to her step-mother's unfortunate second marriage. I require her to break at once and forever with the family of the 'equestrian artist.' She refuses to do so, and takes the first opportunity that offers to bid defiance to my wishes and requests.”
”Nonsense!” the Freiherr cried, angrily. ”I ought to have been told this. But she can be brought to reason. You can go for her----”
”To the house of a circus-rider! Never!” Otto declared, with an amount of resolution that the next moment surprised himself.
His grandfather's eyes flashed, but he seemed to reflect before saying, ”There is something in that.” And then, after another pause, he added, ”We will write. I will give her the choice between Donninghausen and these people, and you can tell her whatever seems to you just and kind.
If she should then perceive her folly, let the whole stupid affair be forgotten.”
<script>