go back. I have given my word to be at Burgsdorf
again in two hours."

"Really?" asked Zalika, sharply and scornfully. "I thought as much. I
see he treats you like a child, marks out your every step for you and
gives you your allotted time, as if you had no judgment or mind of your
own; but the time has gone by to treat you thus, you are old enough to
assume the prerogatives of a man. The day has come when you must show
that you are a man in action as well as word. A promise wrung from one
is valueless; tear asunder this invisible chain by which you are held,
and set yourself free."

"No--no," murmured Hartmut, with another effort to free himself, but his
mother held him fast in her arms. He turned his face away and looked
with hot eyes into the dark night, upon the desolate blackness of the
wood and across at the will-o'-the-wisp, still pursuing its erratic
course, now rising with convulsive, trembling flame, now sinking into
the ground beneath, only to come up again quivering and glimmering.
There was something ghostly and horrible, and withal strangely
fascinating in the ceaseless dance of this imp of night.

"Come with me, my son," Zalika begged, in those dulcet tones which were
hers, as well as her son's. "I have long since prepared all for your
coming; I knew of a certainty that this day would surely come. My
carriage is waiting a short distance from here. We can soon reach the
railway station and will be far on our way before they are any the wiser
at Burgsdorf. With me lies freedom, life, happiness! I will take you
away and show you the great world, and when you are once in it, you will
learn to breathe freely and enjoy life, as one redeemed from slavery. I
know what it is to be liberated from slavery. I, too, wore the chains
which, in an hour of foolish fascination, I forged for myself, but I
should have torn them apart in the first year had it not been for my
unborn child. O, freedom is sweet, as you will soon learn."

She knew only too well the words to choose to accomplish her purpose.
Freedom, life, happiness. They signified so much. They echoed and
re-echoed in the heart of the boy, whose longing for freedom had always
been repressed by a powerful hand. Now like a picture from a magician's
hand, the fairy-like visions of promised liberty stood before him. He
need but stretch out his hand and it was his own.

"My word," he murmured with a last feeble attempt to rescue himself. "My
father will despise m