ver, but at
her father's request, for she herself considered music a wearisome and
superfluous accomplishment. But the head forester had insisted that his
daughter should show she was not educated in housewifery alone, but had
learned something at boarding-school as well. He was walking to and fro
on the terrace with his sister-in-law now; they had come there to listen
to the music, and discuss for the hundredth time the happiness and
prospects of their children. They had, as usual, soon drifted away from
pleasant topics and their contention was growing fiercer each moment.

"I really don't know what to think of you, Moritz," said Frau von
Eschenhagen, very red in the face. "You don't seem to comprehend the
impropriety of permitting such an intimacy. When I ask you who is the
school-girl friend of Toni's who is expected at Waldhofen, you answer me
coolly and complacently, that she is a singer who has been on the stage
of the Court theatre for some time. An actress, a theatrical star. One
of those wretched, frivolous creatures who--"

"But, Regine, don't fly into such a passion," interrupted her host
angrily. "You speak as though the poor soul had lost her character just
because she went on the stage."

"So she has, so she has!" Regine answered excitedly. "Who ever enters
that Sodom and Gomorrah goes down to the bottom at once and can never
rise again."

"That's flattering to the Court theatre company, at least," said Schoenau
dryly. "But we go to see them just the same."

"As spectators! That's quite a different thing, though, for my part, I'm
opposed to encouraging such people at all. Will goes to the theatre very
little, and never without me. But while I, in the performance of my duty
as a mother, have guarded him from any intercourse whatever with such
people, you permit his future wife to come within their poisonous
influence. It's enough to make the heavens cry out!"

She had raised her voice almost to a shriek at the last, partly from
excitement, and partly to be heard by her brother-in-law, for the
musical production was noisy now, and sent forth loud, discordant sounds
through the open glass door. Toni had good strong wrists, and her touch
on the piano reminded one of the stroke of an axe on hard wood. Her
three listeners had strong nerves, but low speech was certainly an
impossibility.

"Let me explain the matter to you," said the forester appeasingly. "I
have told you already that this was an exception