never said a word.  She stayed in her son’s chamber till the physician who had been sent for had gone away again.  Then returning to us, she sat down beside Leonore and me and told us that we ought to know what had happened.  Apparently she was very calm, but I had never seen her face so pale.  She informed us that when she had spoken to her sons about their future plans, she had discovered that neither of them had ever spoken about it to the other.  Now they both declared to her that their full intention had been for years to come home after the completion of their studies and to live in Wildenstein with her and Leonore.  Bruno was quite beside himself when he found that Salo had apparently no intention to yield to him in the matter, so he challenged his brother to a duel in order to decide which of them was to remain at home.  Salo had been wounded and, losing consciousness, had fallen to the ground.  Bruno, fearing something worse, had disappeared.  The doctor had not found Sale’s wounds of a serious nature, but as he had a delicate constitution, great care had to be taken.  When I left the castle that day I felt that all the joy and happiness I had ever known on earth was shattered, and this feeling stayed with me a long while after.  Soon after that sad event the Baroness got ready for a journey to the south, where she meant to go with Salo and Leonore.  Salo had not recovered as quickly as she had hoped, and Leonore, instead of getting more robust in our vigorous mountain-air, only became thinner and frailer.  Only once Bruno sent his mother some news.  In extremely few words he let her know that he was going to Spain, and that she need not trouble more about him.  But the news of his brother’s survival reached him, nevertheless.  Now all those I had loved so passionately had gone away, and I felt it very deeply.  There the castle stood, sad and lifeless, and its lighted windows looked down no more upon us from the height.  All its eyes were closed and were to remain so.”

“Oh, oh, did they never come back?” cried out Kurt with regret.

“No, never,” the mother replied.  “At that time, too, apparently, all the reports which had long ago faded were revived as to a ghost who was supposed to wander about the castle.  There were many who asserted they had seen or heard him, and till to-day the ghost of Wildenstein is haunting people’s heads.”

“Look at him,” said Bruno dryly, pointing to the lower end of the table where Kurt was sitting.

“Finish, please, mother,” the latter quickly urged.  “Where did they all get to?  And where is the brother who disappeared?”