"Erna, ah, do not keep me upon the rack!" Waltenberg exclaimed, with feverish impatience. "See! I kneel to implore you!" And he threw himself upon his knees before her and pressed her hand to his lips.
As she turned away her eyes as if entreating help, she suddenly started, and in a hurried whisper exclaimed, "For heaven's sake, rise, Ernst! We are not alone."
He sprang to his feet, and, following the direction of her eyes, perceived the president with his daughter and her betrothed just emerging in the distance from among the trees.
They had all been witnesses of the scene for a few seconds, but Nordheim divined that the decisive word had not been spoken, and that his self-willed niece might thwart his plan at the last moment. He therefore made haste to render its fulfilment irrevocable, and, advancing quickly, exclaimed, with a laugh, "We ask a thousand pardons! Nothing was farther from our intention than to intrude, but, since we have done so, let me offer you my best wishes, my child, and, Waltenberg, I congratulate you from my heart! We are scarcely surprised, having seen for some time how matters stood with you, and upon my arrival I perceived a betrothal in the air. Come, Alice and Wolfgang, congratulate these lovers."
He bestowed a paternal embrace upon his niece, shook Waltenberg warmly by the hand, and so overwhelmed the pair with congratulations and good wishes that no denial on Erna's part was possible. She passively allowed it all,--allowed Alice to embrace her and Ernst to clasp her hand in his as his betrothed, only fully recovering her consciousness when Wolfgang approached her.
"Let me add my good wishes to the rest, Fräulein von Thurgau," he said. His voice was calm, too calm, and his immovable countenance betrayed no breath of the tempest raging within him. Only for one instant did his eye meet hers, and that instant told her that she was amply revenged upon the man who had sacrificed his love to ambition and the love of gold. Now that he saw her in the arms of another, he felt how pitiable had been his choice, felt that he had bartered away the happiness of his life.
"As I say, Wolf, I do not know what to think of it. I never applied for the position. I did not, in fact, know anything about it, and here it is offered to me,--to me in this secluded Oberstein at the other end of the kingdom. There, read for yourself."