A shadow fell across the young heir's happy face, and his eyes sank to the floor.
"I am going at two this afternoon," he answered in a strange, depressed tone.
"O, then grant me one favor. Tell Toni everything--everything--you hear? She has cause to blame us both. I shall write to her to-day, at once, and tell her about this unfortunate affair, and you will explain just how it happened, too, will you not?"
Willibald raised his eyes slowly from the ground and looked at the speaker.
"You are right, Fräulein, Toni must hear all, the whole truth. I had decided on that before I came here--but it will be a trying hour for me."
"Oh, no indeed, it will not," Marietta said hastily. "Toni is good and full of confidence; she will know that what we tell her is the exact truth, and that we were both quite guiltless in the matter."
"But I am not guiltless, at least toward Toni," said Willibald very earnestly. "Do not look so frightened, you would hear all later, so it is, perhaps, as well to hear it from my lips. I am going to Fürstenstein to ask Toni"--he hesitated and sighed deeply--"to give me back my freedom."
"Heaven help us! and why?" cried the young maiden, seriously alarmed at this declaration.
"Why? Because, feeling as I do, knowing that Toni has no place in my heart, it would be wrong to lead her to the altar. Because I know now what is the one thing needful to make a happy marriage, because," he stopped and looked at Marietta so steadily and so expressively that she could not fail to understand him. Her face flushed painfully; she drew back and made a hasty motion as if to prevent further speech.
"I cannot help it," Willibald continued, almost defiantly. "I fought it over and over in my own mind when I was alone at Burgsdorf, and honestly tried to keep my word. I thought it might be possible; then I came here and saw you again--the other evening in 'Arivana'--and then I realized that all my struggling had been in vain. I had not forgotten you, Fräulein Marietta, no, not for an hour, even while I was trying to persuade myself you must be forgotten, and I should not have forgotten you my whole life long. I will tell Toni all this frankly, and my mother, too, when I see her again."