“Showed it?” cried the young girl.  “She took it away from us—­did not she, Mary?”

“Well, we had taken it without her leave,” replied the child.

“And she wants our children to appear in a court of justice to bear witness for her highness?” asked Neforis indignantly.

“Certainly,” replied Orion.  “But Mary’s evidence is of no value in law.”

“And even if it were,” replied his mother, “the child should not be mixed up with this disgraceful business under any circumstances.”

“Because I should speak for Paula!” cried Mary, springing up in great excitement.

“You will just hold your tongue,” her grandmother exclaimed.

“And as for Katharina,” said the widow, “I do not at all like the notion of her offering herself to be stared at by all those gentlemen.”

“Gentlemen!” observed the girl.  “Men—­household officials and such like.  They may wait long enough for me!”

“You must nevertheless do their bidding, haughty rosebud,” said Orion laughing.  “For you, thank God, are no longer a child, and a court of justice has the right of requiring the presence of every grown person as a witness.  No harm will come to you, for you are under my protection.  Come with me.  We must learn every lesson in life.  Resistance is vain.  Besides, all you will have to do will be to state what you have seen, and then, if I possibly can, I will bring you back under the tender escort of this arm, to your mother once more.  You must entrust your jewel to me to-day, Susannah, and this trustworthy witness shall tell you afterwards how she fared under my care.”

Katharina was quite capable of reading the implied meaning of these words, and she was not ill-pleased to be obliged to go off alone with the governor’s handsome son, the first man for whom her little heart had beat quicker; she sprang up eagerly; but Mary clung to her arm, and insisted so vehemently and obstinately on being taken with them to bear witness in Paula’s behalf, that her governess and Dame Neforis had the greatest difficulty in reducing her to obedience and letting the pair go off without her.  Both mothers looked after them with great satisfaction, and the governor’s wife whispered to Susannah:  “Before the judges to-day, but ere long, please God, before the altar at Church!”

To reach the hall of judgment they could go either through the house or round it.  If the more circuitous route were chosen, it lay first through the garden; and this was the course taken by Orion.  He had made a very great effort in the presence of the ladies to remain master of the agitation that possessed him; he saw that the battle he had begun, and from which he, at any rate, could not and would not now retire, was raging more and more fiercely, obliging him to drag the young creature who must become his wife—­the die was already cast—­into the course of crime he had started on.