Thus all turned their faces towards home. Celia wished the road were miles long. She went first with Kurt, and Lucie and her father with the Assessor followed them. The lovers paused at the gate of the court-yard; Kurt could go no farther. As Celia was looking back for Anna, her attention was diverted by the noise of a vehicle, and through an opposite entrance came a carriage that drew up before the steps leading into the castle hall. Two gentlemen descended from it,--one was Werner, the other an entire stranger to Celia "Anna," the girl said to her friend, who was still too far off to look into the interior of the court-yard, "Werner has come, and he is not alone,--there is a stranger with him." The intelligence did not startle Lucie; she had feared that the Finanzrath and Repuin would reach the castle before her, but in another instant she stood by Celia's side, and recognized in the stranger not Repuin, but her miserable husband. "Sorr is there himself; you will not now return to the castle?" her father, who instantly recognized his son-in-law, asked. Lucie did not reply; she was too much dismayed to appreciate at first the result which a meeting with her husband in Castle Hohenwald might bring about. "I yielded to your wish," said Herr Ahlborn, "when I supposed that Count Repuin would be the Finanzrath's companion; but since Sorr himself is here, doubtless with the intention of asserting a husband's rights, you must not lose a moment, but must follow me instantly." "Only let me say one word of farewell, father." "No, you must not expose yourself to such peril." "What will the Freiherr think of me if I fly thus without a word? Herr von Sorr will not venture to malign me if I confront him in the Baron's presence." "But he will demand his rights, and, in spite of his baseness, he has the law upon his side. You owe it to me, your father, as well as to yourself, to come with me. Fraeulein Cecilia will carry your farewell to her father, and you can soon write to him and explain everything." All that Celia, standing by in utter amazement at the words exchanged between father and daughter, could understand was, that the stranger with Werner, whom they called Sorr, threatened Anna with great danger, from which her father was entreating her to fly, and that her friend was unwilling to leave the castle without a word of farewell. Celia had often pondered the mystery of her friend's past, and was firmly convinced that whatever it might be Anna never could have been to blame. "What are you saying?" the girl exclaimed, in great agitation. "Are you talking of leaving Castle Hohenwald without one word of farewell to dear papa and Arno? Oh, no, Anna! Indeed, you must not think of doing so. Whatever may be the evil intent of Werner and his companion, papa and Arno will know how to protect you." "Fraeulein Cecilia, do you really love my daughter?" Ahlborn asked, earnestly.