Don't put on such a face, Will; you look exactly as you did the first
day I saw you."
Her husband was gazing at her in boundless astonishment. He had never
dreamed of such a possibility as his mother marrying again, or his uncle
either, for that matter. It struck him now as a most excellent
arrangement.
"Marietta, how wise you are!" he said, looking with admiration at the
smiling girl, who was beaming with satisfaction at the manner in which
her news had been received.
"I'm wiser than you think," she declared triumphantly, "for I have set
the wheel going. I took occasion to let uncle Schoenau know that if he
stormed the fort again, a complete surrender might follow. He said he
had no intention of being refused again, but you'll see him sooner than
you think. In fact he's in the house now, came half an hour ago, but I
determined to say nothing about it before mamma--here he is now!"
The head forester stepped on the terrace just in time to hear the last
words.
"Yes, here I am," said Herr von Schoenau. "It's all your little wife's
fault, Will, that I am at Burgsdorf. I'm here at her suggestion, and if
that mother of your's is not obstinate and unreasonable and pig-headed
as usual--why I'll marry her."
"I pray to God you may, uncle," answered Will, to whom this summary of
his mother's wonted characteristics was very singular, to say the least.
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