d see that he was agitated, I did not ask him the reason. I had
been obliged to accustom myself to allow him to speak when it suited
him, and to avoid any advances on my part until it pleased him to seek
them.

We were just about to rise from the dinner-table when he said to us in
a hurried manner, "Before you hear it from others, I must announce it
to you myself:--I am engaged to be married."

We looked at each other in silence. Not a sound was heard, save the
ticking of the two Black Forest clocks in our room. At last my wife
asked: "And with whom?"

I could tell by the tone of her voice how many heavy thoughts had
preceded these words.

"With a healthy girl. I--I know all about selection in breeding,"
answered Ernst, while he lit his cigar.

I reprimanded him severely for his tone. Without changing a feature, he
allowed me to finish my remarks. After that he arose, threw his rifle
over his shoulder, put on his green hat, and left the house. I wanted
to call him back, but my wife prevented me. I reproached myself for the
violent manner in which I had spoken to him. Now he will rush into
misfortune--who knows what he may do next? With mild words, I might
have been able to direct him on the right path; but now he may,
perhaps, not return, and will even persuade himself to hate me.

My wife consoled me with the words: "He will return before nightfall."

And it was so. In the evening he returned, and addressing me with a
voice full of emotion, said: "Father, forgive me!"

Rothfuss was in the room at the time, and I beckoned to him to leave;
but Ernst requested that he should remain, and continued:

"I have done wrong. I am heartily sorry for it. I have also done wrong
to Martella. I should not have acted as I have done, but ought to
have brought her to you first of all. She deserves quite different
treatment--better indeed than I do. I beg of you, give back the words
that I uttered! Forgive me! and, above all things, do not make Martella
suffer for what I have said."

He uttered these words with a trembling voice. Rothfuss had left the
room. I held out my hand to Ernst, and he continued firmly:

"You have so often told me, and as I am always forgetting it, you will
have to tell it to me many a time again, that there is something in me
which causes me at times to express myself quite differently from the
way in which I intended to. I also know, dear father, that such a word
lingers in your memory like a smould