"
"The newspapers keep us advised--there, read that," and his mother
handed him the newspaper from the table. "But Toni has been here and
told us all--do you hear--all!"
She spoke the last words in a tone of annihilation, but Willibald did
not seem at all disturbed by them, and answered very quietly:
"Well, then, in that case, there's no need for my saying anything.
Otherwise I should have spoken to my uncle this afternoon."
That was too much. Now the cloud broke with thunder and lightning, and
the storm descended with such violence upon the head of the sinning son
that there seemed nothing less for him to do than to sink into the
ground as a creature too debased to live; but he did not sink; he bent
his head before the driving tempest, and when his mother stopped a
moment--she had to take breath--he looked up quietly and said:
"Mother--will you allow me to speak now?"
"Oh, you are ready to speak? That is really remarkable," Schoenau
interrupted with a sneer. He felt he had not been kindly used by his
daughter and her lover. Willibald began to speak, at first hesitatingly
and slowly, but, as he went on, his voice strengthened, and his courage
returned.
"I am very sorry to have grieved you, but I could do nothing else this
time. I was as innocent of any desire to fight a duel as was Marietta.
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