"Well, Moritz, am I still the most unreasonable, obstinate person?" she asked, offering her hand. But Schonan, who had not recovered from his jilting, kept his behind him, and muttered something incomprehensible. Then he turned to the young couple:
"So? And now you are to be married in hot haste. I met Dr. Volkmar just now and he told me about it; so I came to offer myself as best man. But perhaps that will not be acceptable, since the Frau Mamma is at her post."
"Oh, you are just as cordially welcome, uncle," cried Willibald.
"Well, yes, I can just be used as a secondary person in a marriage," grumbled the Chief Forester, with a reproachful glance at Regine. "And so there will be a marriage before the war? One must say, Willy, you have marched with seven-league boots from your practical Burgsdorf into romance, and I should never have looked for it in you. However, my Toni is just as intent upon romance. She and Waldorf would have liked best to marry like this in steaming haste before marching orders came, but I have vetoed that, for circumstances are different with us, and I do not care to already sit at home, lonely as an owl."
He glanced again with the very grimmest expression at Frau von Eschenhagen, but she approached him now, and said, cordially: "Do not bear malice, Moritz. So far we have always made up again. Let us forget this quarrel also. You see, at least, that I can say 'Yes' for once, when the whole happiness of my boy depends upon it."
The Chief Forester hesitated a moment longer, then grasped the offered hand and pressed it cordially. "I see it," he acknowledged, "and perhaps you will now forget altogether that blamed 'No,' Regine, about another point."
The Steward of Rodeck stood in the study of Prince Adelsberg's palace, in the Residenz. He had been called there to receive various orders and plans before the departure of his young lord.
Egon, who already wore the uniform of his regiment, had given him verbal instructions, and now dismissed the old man.
"Keep the old forest nook in good order for me as heretofore," he concluded. "It is just possible that I may go to Rodeck for a few hours before I leave, but I hardly believe so, for the order to march may come any day. How do I please you in my uniform?"