our day, and we have found no cause of complaint. What do young people
know of such serious matters any way? But you have let your children
have their own way from the very start; any one could soon tell that
there was no mother in this house."

"Well, was that my fault?" asked Schönau, incensed. "Perhaps, I ought to
have given them a step-mother. I suggested it to you once, but you
wouldn't hear of it, Regine."

"No, I had been married once," was the dry answer, and it seemed to
increase the head forester's irritation. He shrugged his shoulders
spitefully.

"Well, I certainly think you had no cause for complaint against poor
Eschenhagen. He, and all his people at Burgsdorf danced when you piped.
With me you would not have ordered the regiment about so easily."

"In about four weeks," Frau Regine declared calmly, "you would all have
been under my command, Moritz."

"What! You say that to my face? Well, I'd just like to prove it for
once," retorted Schönau, full of wrath now.

"Thank you, I shouldn't care to marry a second time, so give yourself no
uneasiness."

"I can assure you I didn't mean an offer. I wouldn't think of such a
thing for a moment. One refusal was enough for me. So you need not
trouble giving me a second one."