The gentleman now asked Leonore where she came from and where she lived.  She related that she had been living in a boarding school for several years, ever since the death of her great-aunt, with whom both she and her brother had found a home.

“Have you no other relations?” the gentleman asked, keenly observing her the while.

“No, none at all, except an uncle who has been living in Spain for many years.  My aunt told us that he won’t ever come back and that no one knows where he is.  If we knew where he is, we should have written to him long ago.  Salo would go to Spain as soon as he was allowed to and I should go to him in any case.”

“Why?” the gentleman asked.

“Because he is our father’s brother,” she replied, “and we could love him like a father, too.  He is the only person in the whole world to whom we could belong.  We have wished many and many a time a chance to look for him, because we might live with him.”

“No, you couldn’t do that.  I know him, I have been in Spain,” the Castle-Steward said curtly.

A light spread over Leonore’s face, as if her heart had been suddenly flooded with hope.

“Oh, do you really know our uncle?  Do you know where he is living?” she cried out, while her cheeks flushed with happiness.  “Oh, please tell me what you know about him.”

When she gazed up at the gentleman with such sparkling eyes, it seemed to him that he ought to consider his reply carefully.

Suddenly he said positively, “No, no, you can never seek him out.  Your uncle is an old, sick man, and no young people could possibly live with him.  He must remain alone in his old owl’s nest.  You could not go to him there.”

“But we should go to him so much more, if he is old and ill.  He needs us more then than if he had a family,” Leonore said eagerly.  “He could be our father and we his children and we could take care of him and love him.  If he only were not so dreadfully far away!  If you could only tell us where he lives, we could write to him and get his permission to go there.  Without him we can’t do anything at all, because Mr. von Stiele in Hanover wants Salo to study for years and years longer.  We have to do everything he says, unless our uncle should call us.  Oh, please tell me where he lives!”

“Just think of all the deprivations you would have to suffer with your old uncle!  Think how lonely it would be for you to live with a sick man in a wild nest among the rocks!  What do you say to that?” he said curtly.

“Oh, it would only be glorious for Salo and me to have a real home with an uncle we loved,” Leonore continued, showing that her longing could not be quenched.  “There is only one thing I should miss there, but I have to miss it in Hanover, too.  I shall never, never feel at home there!”

“Well, what is this?” the gentleman queried.

“That I can’t be together with Aunt Maxa and the children.”