ter but a cloak for something worse, determined to take the matter
into her own hands.

Marietta had risen respectfully at the entrance of the elder woman, whom
she had met but once before, and whose inimical bearing toward herself
she had not perceived in the joy of her first meeting again with her
friends. She only noticed that Toni's future mother-in-law was not a
cordial woman. This morning Frau Regine looked her over from head to
foot with a critical eye. Marietta seemed to her like all other girls,
but she was pretty, very pretty--and that was bad. She had short curly
hair all over her head--and that was worse.

There was no mistaking Frau Regine's attitude toward the young singer,
whom she now begun to question. "You are a friend of my son's betrothed,
I believe?"

"Yes, my lady," was the unconcerned reply.

"A friend since childhood, I understand. You were brought up and
educated by Dr Volkmar?"

"Yes, I lost my parents when I was very young."

"So my brother-in-law was telling me. And what was your father's
calling?"

"He was a physician, the same as grandfather," answered Marietta, more
amused than annoyed by this examination, the object of which she did not
suspect. "And my mother was a physician's daughter, so we might well be
called a medical family, might we not? I'm the only one who has branched
off into another profession."

"Ah--what a pity," said Frau von Eschenhagen, impressively. The young
girl looked at her puzzled. Was she joking? No, there was no expression
of pleasantry on the lady's face as she continued: "You will agree with
me, my child, that the descendant of an honorable and respected race
should show herself worthy of her family. And you should have thought of
that in choosing your vocation."

"Good heavens, but I couldn't study medicine like my father and
grandfather," cried Marietta, laughing outright. The matter seemed a
joke to her, but her merriment displeased her severe questioner, who
said, sharply:

"There are, thank God, plenty of honorable positions for young girls.
You are a singer?"

"Yes, madame, at the Court theatre."

"I know it, I know it! Do you feel inclined to resign your position
there?"

The question was put so suddenly and in such a domineering tone, that
Marietta involuntarily drew back. Since her first meeting with the son,
when he had seemed so stupid and silent, and had run off so
precipitately, she had decided within herself that he was not of so