for I have wished to protect you from recollections which poisoned my
life. Your youth at least should be free, I said. But I have not been
able to carry out that plan, I see, so now you must learn the truth."

The father paused a moment. To a man of his sensitive feelings it was
torture to discuss this subject with his son, but there was no option
now, he must speak farther.

"When I was a young man I loved your mother devotedly, and married her
against the wishes of my parents, who saw only unhappiness for me in a
union with a woman from a foreign land. They were right, the marriage
was a most unhappy one, and was finally dissolved by my desire. My son
was awarded to me unconditionally, for it was my absolute right. More I
will not tell you, for I cannot denounce a mother to her own son, so let
that be enough for you."

Short and bitter as this declaration was, it made a singular impression
upon Hartmut. His father would not denounce his mother to him, to him,
who heard daily the bitterest accusations and invectives against his
father from her lips.

Zalika had, as might be supposed, cast all the blame of the separation
upon her husband and his countless tyrannies, and her son, who had
suffered so much from his father's austerity, gave a willing ear to all
her tirades. And yet these few short, earnest words had more effect than
all Zalika's passionate outbreaks. Hartmut felt instinctively on which
side the truth lay.

"And now, to the main point," Falkenried went on. "What was the tenor of
your daily interviews?"