Now as Adelheid entered the room, fully equipped for her journey, he turned to her and offered his arm to escort her to the carriage.  After he had helped her in it, Wallmoden entered, and as the coachman cracked his whip, said: 

“We’ll be back to-morrow without fail—­good-bye.”

Falkenried bowed and stepped back.  It mattered little to him whether they came back to-morrow or not, all friendships were over for him.  But as he entered the house again, he said: 

“Poor Ada, she deserved a better fate.”

Everything was going on in the usual quiet fashion at Fuerstenstein.  Willibald had been there for a week.  He was two days later than he had expected to be; but he had met with a slight accident, and his hand was hurt, so he told his uncle; and this was perfectly satisfactory, and not at all alarming, as the hand was nearly healed now.  The head forester found his son-in-law changed since his last visit, and changed for the better, too.  He had become much more earnest and decided than formerly, and seemed so well satisfied with his daughter, von Schoenau thought.

“I believe Will will turn out to be a man, yet.  How much he improves without his mother to stand by to command and dictate.”

As for the rest, Herr von Schoenau had no time to trouble himself with the lovers.  The duke, during his stay at Fuerstenstein, had made many changes and innovations upon the established order of things in the forestry, and it required both zeal and watchfulness on the part of the head forester to set things straight again, and bring his subordinates back to the old regime.  He saw Antonie and Willibald daily, and noticed that they were much together and seemed to understand one another perfectly, so he did not concern himself much about them.

In the meantime there had been much anxiety and alarm in the house of Dr. Volkmar.

The doctor’s sickness, which had not at first been regarded as serious, had suddenly taken an alarming turn, and owing to his age the worst was feared.  His granddaughter was telegraphed for in hot haste, and she, after obtaining permission from her manager, who gave her part in “Arivana” to an understudy, hurried home at once.

It was at this time that Antonie showed her sincere, unobtrusive attachment to her childhood’s friend.  Day after day she went to the Volkmar cottage, to comfort and cheer Marietta, who hung in an agony of anguish and suspense over her grandfather’s bed.  Willibald found it necessary to go with his cousin and do what he could.  All this seemed natural enough to the head forester, who was sincerely attached to the Volkmars, and felt a great desire to show more than an ordinary amount of attention to “the poor little thing” who had been so cruelly insulted in his house.  He had it in for his sister-in-law when he should see her again.

At the end of three dreadful days the doctor’s strong constitution asserted itself, and hopes of his recovery were entertained.  Herr von Schoenau was as rejoiced as any of the family, and rubbed his hands with a satisfied air when Toni, on the fourth day, reported a marked amendment in the doctor’s condition.