!"

"Do you hate her so much, then?" asked the boy reprovingly. "It was you
that sought the divorce, not my mother; she told me so herself."

Falkenried's lips trembled, and bitter words were on them; he felt like
telling his son, once for all, that his honor had demanded the
separation; but he looked in his child's dark, questioning eyes, and the
words died on his lips. He could not betray the mother to her son.

"Let that question rest," he said gloomily. "Perhaps later, you may
learn to appreciate my reasons. Now I cannot spare you the bitter
alternative; you can only belong to one of us, and must shun the other;
you must accept that as your fate."

Hartmut bowed his head; he felt that nothing more was to be said. That
all meetings with his mother must cease when he was again under the
rigid discipline of the institute, he knew full well; now he was at
least permitted to write to her, which was more than he had ventured to
hope.

"Well, I will tell my mother," he said, dejectedly. "Now that you know
all, you will not oppose my seeing her again?"

The Major was startled; he had not thought of such a possibility.

"When were you to see her again?" he asked.

"To-day, at this hour, at the lake in the wood. She is already waiting
for me there."

Falkenried had a fierce battle with himself; a voice within him warned
him not to permit this meeting, but he felt that it would seem cruel for
him to refuse.

"Will you be back in two hours?" he asked at last.

"Certainly father, or sooner, if you desire it."

"Well, go," said the Major with a deep sigh. It was only his sense of
justice which forced the permission from his lips. "As soon as you come
back, we will go home. It is nearly the end of your vacation anyway."

Hartmut, who was on the point of starting, turned back suddenly. The
words brought forcibly to his mind, what he had forgotten in the last
hour, the compulsion and severity of the hated regimen he would again
have to endure. He had never ventured openly to avow his aversion for
the army, but this hour, which took from him all shyness towards his
father, also removed the seal from his lips. After a moment's hesitation
he returned to his father, and putting his arm around his neck, said:

"I have a request, a most earnest request to make of you, which I know
you will grant, as a proof of your love for me."

The Major's brows contracted as he asked, reprovingly:

"Do you need any proof? Well, let's