Hilda listened eagerly to her cousin's account of his error; and when he told of reaching the deserted tower-room by the narrow passage from the old kitchen, she was greatly amazed. She had never even heard of such a room; she had been no farther than into Melcher's kitchen, and had not gone even there since her return from school, for she could perfectly remember, as a child, making the old servant very angry by going once alone into his kitchen and looking about her. Why he should be so jealous of the solitude of his kitchen, and why he should make such a mystery of the tower-room, Hilda could not divine. Herr von Heydeck showed uneasiness at the continuation of the discussion with regard to Melcher and his tower-room, and he several times tried to change the subject of conversation; but Hilda's curiosity was excited, and she would recur to it. She was no less surprised by Melcher's outburst of insane fury than by the existence of the tower-room. She had always known the old servant as a good-humoured, harmless old fellow, ready to fulfil her every wish, and she asked so many questions about the attack he had made upon Leo, that her father, after fruitless efforts to change the subject, at last lost patience. "Do not tease Leo with any more questions, my dear," he said. "The disagreeable scene is over; do not let us discuss it further." "But I cannot imagine, papa, why Melcher, who never does harm to any one, should attack Leo with such fury just because he found him in his room." "Why should we try to imagine the motives that rule the actions of an idiot?" "But, papa, you know very well that Melcher is no idiot. He knows perfectly what to do and what not to do, and he certainly would not guard this tower-chamber, of which I never heard before, so jealously if he had not some reason for it." "Perhaps he hoards his savings there, and is afraid of being robbed; perhaps he keeps some articles of special value to him hidden there. Who can tell what fancies he may have in his feeble brain? If he is not entirely idiotic, he is certainly not a responsible person: he has not the usual amount of intellect. It would be impossible to conceive of the workings of his small amount of mind. But indeed we have wasted too much time upon him. I do not want to hear another word about him. We have far other things to talk of with our Leo than of old Melcher, and his deserted tower-chamber with which we certainly have nothing to do." Hilda could not gainsay so determined an expression of her father's will; she questioned Leo no further upon the forbidden topic, but listened attentively to the conversation which her father skilfully led to the subject which interested him most at the moment. Leo had to give an account of his life in K----, of his father the old colonel, and of his friends. It was a matter of course that Delmar's name occurred frequently in his discourse.