se, he has not heard the truth."

"That is what I feared, so I didn't lose a moment in communicating with
you after I discovered the thing. And what will you do?"

"I'll have to think that over," responded the Major with enforced quiet.
"I thank you, Regine. I suspected mischief when your letter came urging
me to come over at once. Herbert was right, I should not have allowed
Hartmut to leave my side for an hour, under any circumstances. But I
believed him to be so safe from every approach here at Burgsdorf. And he
was so rejoiced at the thought of spending his little vacation here, had
so set his heart upon it, that I had not the strength to refuse
him;--and then he is seldom happy except when away from me."

A hidden pain lay in the last words, but his listener only shrugged his
shoulders.

"That's not altogether the boy's fault," she answered, outspokenly. "I
keep my Will under pretty sharp discipline, but he knows well enough, in
spite of all that, that he lives in his mother's heart. Hartmut has
never learned as much of his father; he only knows his severe,
unapproachable side. If he imagined that you almost adored--"'

"He would at once misuse the knowledge and leave me weaponless with his
flattery and caresses. He'd rule over me as he does over every one else
who comes near him. His comrades follow him blindly, and are as often
punished as he for his misdoings. He has your Willibald completely under
his control, and his teachers treat him with especial indulgence. I am
the only one whom he fears, and, as a natural consequence, the only one
whom he respects."

"And you believe fear to be the only weapon to use against him? just
now, too, when his mother is, without doubt, overwhelming him with
lavish caresses? Do not turn away, old friend, you know I have never
mentioned that name before you, but now that it is brought unavoidably
to the front again I must speak plainly. I must admit we could expect
nothing less from Frau Zalika, than that she would appear again. Nothing
would have been gained even if you had not allowed him to leave your
side, for you could not guard a lad of seventeen like a little child.
The mother would have found some way to see her child, and that is her
right--I should do the same."

"Her right?" interrupted the Major violently. "And you say that to me,
Regine?"

"I say it, because I know what it is to have an only son. It was right
for you to take your child, for such a mother was