“He was a physician, the same as grandfather,” answered Marietta, more amused than annoyed by this examination, the object of which she did not suspect.  “And my mother was a physician’s daughter, so we might well be called a medical family, might we not?  I’m the only one who has branched off into another profession.”

“Ah—­what a pity,” said Frau von Eschenhagen, impressively.  The young girl looked at her puzzled.  Was she joking?  No, there was no expression of pleasantry on the lady’s face as she continued:  “You will agree with me, my child, that the descendant of an honorable and respected race should show herself worthy of her family.  And you should have thought of that in choosing your vocation.”

“Good heavens, but I couldn’t study medicine like my father and grandfather,” cried Marietta, laughing outright.  The matter seemed a joke to her, but her merriment displeased her severe questioner, who said, sharply: 

“There are, thank God, plenty of honorable positions for young girls.  You are a singer?”

“Yes, madame, at the Court theatre.”

“I know it, I know it!  Do you feel inclined to resign your position there?”

The question was put so suddenly and in such a domineering tone, that Marietta involuntarily drew back.  Since her first meeting with the son, when he had seemed so stupid and silent, and had run off so precipitately, she had decided within herself that he was not of sound mind.  Now the thought came to her that his weakness was an inherited disease from his mother; for certainly this woman could not be in her right mind.

“To resign my position?” she repeated.  “And why?”

“Upon moral grounds, altogether.  I am ready to offer you a helping hand.  If you will turn your back upon those paths of frivolity and vice, I pledge myself to obtain for you a respectable position as governess or companion.”

The young singer understood at last why the matron had been so concerned; she threw her head back with an angry, half spiteful movement.  “I thank you very much.  I love my profession dearly, and have no thought of exchanging it for any dependent position.  Besides, I fear my education has not fitted me to make an efficient upper housemaid.”

“I expected some such answer,” Frau von Eschenhagen replied, nodding her head darkly, “but I felt it my duty to make at least one appeal to your conscience.  You are very young, and, consequently, are not altogether responsible; the heavier blame falls upon Dr. Volkmar for allowing his son’s child to enter such a vicious career.”

“My dear madame, I must request you to leave my grandfather out of the play altogether,” Marietta spoke excitedly now.  “You are Toni’s future mother-in-law, otherwise I would not have allowed this questioning.  But an insult to my grandfather I will not permit from any human being.”

The two excited women had not heard a distant door open, and did not know that Willibald had entered.  He seemed frightened when he saw his mother, and slipped something which he carried carefully wrapped in paper, into his coat-pocket, but he kept his place by the door.