Frau von Eschenhagen and her son were to remain also, to have an opportunity of “viewing these Court people close at hand.”  The head forester, in view of the prospective hunting which was his especial care, had daily interviews with the under foresters and their subordinates, and kept them all pretty well on their legs, that nothing might be neglected.  Life at the castle just at present was anything but monotonous.  In Fraeulein von Schoenau’s room, this bright morning, there were sounds of gay chatter, and many a clear, good-natured laugh.  Marietta Volkmar had come for a little gossip with her old friend, and as usual during such visits, the laughter and the babble knew no end.  Toni sat in the window-seat, and near her stood Willibald, who, by his mother’s special orders, was to play the role of sentinel.

Frau von Eschenhagen had not yet been able to accomplish her purpose concerning the opera singer.  Her brother-in-law had remained obdurate, and even from her future daughter, whom she imagined so pliant, she had met with decided resistance when she demanded that all intercourse should be broken off between the two.  “I cannot do that, dear auntie.  You ask too much,” Toni had answered.  “Marietta is so noble and good.  I could not wound her so deeply.”

“Noble and good!” Frau Regine shrugged her shoulders over the inexperience of this girl whose eyes she might not open; but she was diplomatic enough to let the subject drop for the present and bide her time.  Willibald, accustomed to confide in his mother, had told her of his meeting with Fraeulein Volkmar, and how he had enacted the part of porter at her suggestion.  Frau von Eschenhagen was, naturally enough, incensed at the thought that her son, the heir of Burgsdorf, should act as lackey for a “theatrical hussy.”  She drew, for his benefit, a picture of this child of the devil, and explained how it would be an impossibility for her to follow such a shameless life without being thoroughly bad.  Willibald, of course, was horror stricken at what he heard, and agreed fully with his mother that his future wife must be protected from so contaminating an influence.

He received orders never to let the young girls be alone, and to watch carefully how this Marietta behaved.  At the very first intimation of a disgraceful word or action, Regine would go to her brother-in-law and demand that he should no longer permit his daughter to associate with such an one; then she would call her son as witness, and the incubus would be expelled at once and forever from their presence.  Willibald had been on guard when Marietta paid her first visit to Fuerstenstein, had accompanied Toni to Waldhofen when she went to the old doctor’s to see her friend, and he was now at his post again, to-day, in Antonie’s boudoir.

Antonie and Marietta were chatting over the approaching arrival of the Court at Fuerstenstein, and the former, who possessed little taste in the matter of dress, was asking her friend’s advice about some details of the toilette, and Marietta was giving it eagerly.