so as frankly--so
does my husband. He says I am foolish and fanciful; but I confess to
feeling a kind of dislike to the place that I cannot explain. Perhaps
there is thunder in the air--that always affects my nerves--but I just
feel that I _cannot_ agree to your staying on here."

"Very well, I am quite willing to go back to Seeberg to-morrow," I
replied meekly. "Of course we can't judge of the place by what we have
seen of it to-night, but no doubt, as far as the inn is concerned,
Seeberg is much nicer. I daresay we can see all we want by noon
to-morrow, and get back to Seeberg in the afternoon."

Kind Frau von Walden kissed me rapturously on both cheeks.

"You don't _know_, my dear, the relief to my mind of hearing you say so!
And now I think the best thing we can do is to go to bed. For we _must_
start at six."

"So early!" I exclaimed, with a fresh feeling of dismay.

"Yes, indeed; and I must bid you good-bye to-night, for after all I am
not to sleep in your room, which is much better, as I should have had to
disturb you so early. My husband has found a tidy room next door in a
cottage, and we shall do very well there."

What sort of a place she euphemistically described as "a tidy room" I
never discovered. But it would have been useless to remonstrate, the
kind creature was so afraid of incommoding us that she would have
listened to no objections.

Herr von Walden came in just as we were about to wish each other
good-night.

"So!" he said, with a tone of amiable indulgence, "so! And what do you
think of Silberbach? My wife feels sure you will not like it after all."

"I think I shall see as much as I care to see of it in an hour or two
to-morrow morning," I replied quietly. "And by the afternoon the
children and I will go back to our comfortable quarters at Seeberg."

"Ah, indeed! Yes, I daresay it will be as well," he said airily, as
if he had nothing at all to do with decoying us to the place. "Then
good-night and pleasant dreams, and----"

"But," I interrupted, "I want to know _how_ we are to get back to
Seeberg. Can I get an _Einspaenner_ here?"

"To be sure, to be sure. You have only to speak to the landlord in
the morning, and tell him at what hour you want it," he answered so
confidently that I felt no sort of misgiving, and I turned with a smile
to finish my good-nights.

The young men were standing close beside us. I shook hands with
Trachenfels and Lutz, the latter of whom, though he repl