A member of the Court theatre company! Willibald drew himself together,
as it were, when he heard the fatal words. The well trained son of his
mother, he had a great abhorrence for all actors and actresses. He
stepped unwittingly, three steps back, and stared in amazement at the
young lady who had just made so startling and so frightful an
announcement. She laughed out loud as he did so.

"Oh, you need not manifest so much respect for me, Herr von Eschenhagen,
I will permit you to stand by the piano. Has Toni never told you that I
belong to the theatre?"

"Toni? No!" stammered Willibald, greatly disconcerted. "But she is
waiting for me. I must go to Fürstenstein. I have stayed here much too
long already."

"How extremely polite," laughed the girl, with a good-natured sneer. "It
is not very polite to us, but where your bride is, there should you be
also."

"Yes, and with my mother, too," said Will, who had a feeling that
something dreadful was threatening him, and to whom his mother seemed a
protecting angel. "I beg your pardon, but I have been here much too long
already."

He stopped abruptly, remembering that he had said these words once
before, but as none better offered themselves to his disturbed brain he
repeated them for the third time.

Marietta was half dead from suppressed laughter. Dr. Volkmar declared,