race, and drew back from them both as she said, with
quiet decision:

"I could not do that, for Will is beginning to please me better now than
he has ever pleased me before in his life."

"So much the worse," interrupted her father. "Poor child, you know
nothing, suspect nothing. Your lover has fought a duel, and for a woman,
too."

"I know it, papa."

"For Marietta," screamed her aunt.

"I know it, dear aunt."

"But he loves Marietta," they both cried out with one voice.

"I know it all," declared Toni in her quiet, drawling tone. "Have known
it for a week."

The effect of this declaration was so depressing that the two angry
parents were dumb, and looked at one another stupefied. In the meantime
Toni continued with the utmost composure:

"Will told me all about it just as soon as he got here; and he spoke so
simply and with such true heartedness that he made me weep from very
sympathy; then a letter came from Marietta begging my pardon, and it was
so loving and penitent in its tone that I was deeply moved. There was
nothing for me to do but to give back my lover his freedom."

"Without asking us?" interposed her aunt.

"No questions were necessary in this case," Antonie answered, quietly.
"I cannot marry a man who declares to me that he loves another woman. So
we dissolved our engagement without any further discussion."

"Indeed, and I learn it now for the first time. You two have become very
independent, all at once," cried the head forester, enraged.

"Will meant to explain to you the next day, papa, but after such an
explanation he felt he could not remain here longer, and just then
Marietta was called home by her grandfather's illness. She was nearly
broken hearted when she thought he would die, and Will felt he could
not leave her until he knew what would be the result of the illness. So
I said to keep silence until the danger was over, and then speak. We
have both gone daily to the cottage to cheer poor Marietta. They are so
grateful to me and call me the guardian angel of their love."

The young girl seemed quite affected by this thought, and took her
handkerchief to wipe the tears which were welling up in her eyes.

Frau von Eschenhagen stood stark and stiff as a statue.

Schoenau had folded his arms, and said with a deep sigh:

"Well, God bless you for your magnanimity, my dear child. So everything
is as if it had never been. But you have been very generous in your
statements, one must ac