tly.

"Father, you cannot, you must not believe that, it would be too
terrible. You must believe me when I tell you that I had not the
slightest premonition of such a disgrace. I believed that part of our
fortune was saved, I did indeed--you must believe that, father."

"No, you did not," responded Falkenried, more coldly than ever. Hartmut
threw himself upon his knees.

"Father, by all that is sacred in heaven and earth--oh, do not, do not
look at me that way--you will drive me mad. Father, I give you my word
of honor--"

A wild, hideous laugh from his father interrupted him.

"Your word of honor--you gave that at Burgsdorf. Let us end this comedy;
you cannot deceive me. You leave me with one lie, you return to me with
another. You have become the genuine son of your mother. Go your own
way, and I'll go mine. But one thing I tell you, I command you! Never
venture to connect the name of Falkenried with the dishonored name of
Rojanow. Never let the world know who you are. Remember this warning,
otherwise my blood be upon your head--for I will make an end of it all."

With a cry of despair, Hartmut sprang up and would have rushed to his
father, but the latter held him back with his hand.

"Perhaps you think that I love life. I have borne it because I must, and
I felt that it was my duty. But there is a point where duty ends, you
know it now--so act accordingly."

He turned his back to his son and stepped again to the window. Hartmut
spoke no word; in silence he turned and left the apartment.

The ante-chamber was not lighted, but the dim, distant light from the
northern sky fell upon the face of a woman, who stood pale as death near
the window, and whose eyes gazed with a look of indescribable anguish at
the face of the miserable man who entered the room. He saw her, and a
single glance told him that she knew all. His cup was full! The woman
whom he loved had been a witness to his terrible humiliation.

Hartmut never knew how he succeeded in leaving the castle; he only knew
that he was suffocating within four walls and must have air. But when he
realized where he was and who he was, he was lying in the deep snow at
the foot of an old fir tree. It was night in the forest, a cold, icy
night, the heavens were illuminated with a deep red glow which centered
in the north and sent up its long, gleaming sheet of flame.

* * * * *

It was summer again, the sultry July days were half ove