"Is there no one to take charge of the children to-day?" asked he suddenly, looking towards the little girls, who were chasing each other up and down the terrace, and becoming rather noisy. "No!" sighed the Baronin. "Mademoiselle Walter gave me the pleasure of excusing herself this morning on the plea of illness, just now, when we want to be off!" "Ah, so!" The Count's lips pressed themselves together in fierce anger, whilst the Baronin continued to complain of the great inconvenience of her _gouvernante's_ illness just now, which might possibly even put off their journey. "That is hardly to be feared, I think!" put in Antonie sarcastically. "I should imagine Mademoiselle Walter's evening walk yesterday has given her a cold, which cannot be of much importance." "What evening walk?" asked the Baronin, becoming attentive. "Well, she came back from the park pretty late yesterday evening, and a short time before a gentleman had left her. I could not recognize him, as it was already too dark, but from his appearance and walk I should not imagine that he was either a workman or a servant. Dear me, why not? All the gentlemen of the neighbourhood are unanimous in admiration of mademoiselle's beauty. It would be certainly no wonder if she listened to one of these inspired adorers, and consented to a little rendezvous--" The Praesidentin knitted her brow; in spite of her antipathy to Gertrud, she was strictly just, and would suffer no calumnies in her presence. "You ought first to prove that, Antonie," she interrupted in a grave, reproving tone, "as far as I can judge the girl, this accusation is the last that could be made against her, and hitherto Bertha has not found the slightest cause for complaint in her." "I should also advise you to wait for an explanation of the matter, _liebe Toni_," continued Hermann coldly. He still stood by his grandmother's chair, upon which he leaned with folded arms, and looked stedfastly at his cousin, with a peculiar expression. There was something half compassionate, half scornful in his look, and his lips already curled with the old, much feared sarcasm, which he poured unsparingly upon all around him, when irritated by some untoward circumstance. "It was only a supposition," said Antonie, throwing back her head pettishly at the reproof. "But I had intended some time ago to give Bertha a hint with regard to Mademoiselle Walter; what I have found out lately about her is decidedly not to her credit." Hermann smiled with unconcealed irony. "Something you have found out _lately_? Really!" Antonie looked questioningly at him. "What do you mean? I don't understand you." "Oh, I only meant, that what is not in the young lady's favour, namely, her outward appearance, you must have found out at the first moment." Antonie flushed deeply at this malice of Hermann's, which, unfortunately, was only too true, and she did not make any denial.