Johanna declared her willingness for the task. Magelone took up her embroidery with a yawn; really this eternal stitching in all the heat was insufferable! She seated herself at the piano and began a nocturne of Chopin's; but the idea of playing when there was no admiring audience! Her hands dropped wearily upon the keys, which sent forth an echoing chord, and the elfish eyes were veiled. "Oh, to have to stay here when they are so happy in Vienna" sighed Magelone. "And all for the sake of Johann Leopold, who cares as little for me as I do for him! And, of all places, in this horrid Dönninghausen, where there never is the slightest diversion!" Her thoughts were interrupted by a slight noise; the door was cautiously opened, and a tall figure appeared on the threshold. "Otto!" she exclaimed. And the next moment he clasped her in his arms and kissed her. "But, Otto," she said, reproachfully, as she extricated herself from his embrace, "what is the matter with you? what brings you here? It must be something very extraordinary," she added, startled by the dark fire in his eyes and the strange rigid look about his mouth. He laughed bitterly. "You would ridicule me if I told you that a desire for a reconciliation with you brought me hither, and more still when you hear that I have other reasons to give other people. But all the same it is a fact that the breach between us grows more intolerable to me every day." "Why did you not write?" asked Magelone. "Because you made Johanna your go-between. She wrote me so cold and stiff a note. The wind at Dönninghausen seems to blow from a quarter strangely unfavourable to me." Magelone knew only too well what had influenced the tone of Johanna's letter; she blushed slightly and turned away her eyes, but before she could reply Aunt Thekla and Johanna entered the room. "You came to escort your grandfather?" the old lady said, after salutations had been exchanged. "Unfortunately, he left this morning." "So they told me in Thalrode," the young man replied. "But I am not going to Vienna. I have come to you, dear Aunt Thekla. You must help me. Come, sit down, and let me make my confession. Please stay; you must hear it too," he added, as Johanna and Magelone were about to leave the room. Aunt Thekla sat up stiffly. "Confession?" she repeated, in a troubled tone. "Otto, you have not been----" she hesitated. "Playing again?" He completed her sentence, as he took a chair opposite her. "Yes, dear aunt; unfortunately, I have broken my promise and played, and have lost. Do not reproach me, I entreat; I do that myself. Rather let us consult how I can be extricated from my embarrassments; nay, even more than that,--how I can be relieved in my extremity." "Otto, how could you?" Magelone exclaimed, reproachfully. Aunt Thekla stared at him in dismay, and Johanna was mute with terror.