an ambassador is a fine match, and it is
evident that Adelheid von Wallmoden was born to marry such a man. She
has all the aristocratic airs and manners which are the one thing
needful in the diplomatic circle. Doubtless he's had her well trained to
take her place in the diplomatic school. Well, he's fared well in this
world, there's no doubt of that."

His eyes followed the young wife, who had just reached the foot of the
hill, and a deep scowl settled on his brow.

"If I meet Wallmoden here, and perhaps I won't be able to avoid it,
he'll recognize me without a doubt. Then he'll tell her all about it,
and if she ever sees me again, and gives me one of her contemptuous
glances, I'll--" He stamped his foot on the ground with fury at the
thought, and then gave a bitter laugh.

"Pah! What need I care? What does this pale, blue-eyed creature, with
her cold blood, know of freedom, of the throes of passion, of the storms
which come to some lives? Let her pronounce sentence on me. Why should I
shun a meeting? I will face her and bid her beware."

And with a haughty movement of his head he turned his back on the
slender figure, and strode back again into the woods.

CHAPTER V.

The betrothal festivities to which Baron von Wallmoden and his wife had
been bidden were carried out to the letter. Antonie von Schoenau plighted
her troth to her cousin, the heir of Burgsdorf.

The young people had known their parents' plan for years, and were fully
agreed as to its accomplishment. Willibald subscribed like a dutiful
son, to his mother's opinion that she was the suitable person to choose
his life's companion for him, and he had waited patiently her pleasure
as to the time when his betrothal should become an accomplished fact;
the thought of having his little cousin Toni for a wife was very
pleasant to him. He had known her since childhood, and she suited him
exactly. She was a girl absolutely bereft of romance, and Willibald knew
she would make no sentimental demands upon him, to which he, with the
best will in the world, had not the temperament to respond. Toni, for
her part, possessed that good taste for which Frau Regine had given her
credit. Will pleased her very well, and the prospect of being mistress
of Burgsdorf pleased her still better--in short, everything was as it
should be.

The newly betrothed pair were at the piano in the drawing-room, and Toni
was entertaining her lover with music, not voluntarily, howe