he absent
Anton, she had seemed to begin a new life. Her mother mourned and
despaired, but the daughter's young heart beat high against the storm,
and the excitement was to her a wild enjoyment, to which she gave
herself up, heart and soul. She was out of doors the whole day long,
whatever the weather, and at the tavern door as often as the worst
drunkard in the village, for each day the landlord and his wife had
something new to tell her. Ever since Karl had mounted his hussar coat,
she treated him with the familiarity of a comrade, and when he held a
consultation with the forester, her fair head was put together with
theirs. The three spent many an hour in council of war in Karl's room or
in the farm-yard, the men listening with reverence to her courageous
suggestions, and requesting her opinion as to whether Ignatz, Gottlieb,
or Blasius from the village deserved to be trusted with a gun. It was in
vain that the baroness remonstrated with her martial daughter; in vain
that Anton tried to check her ardor; for, the greater his own, the more
the mood displeased him in the young lady. Again, she struck him as too
vehement and bold; nor did he disguise his views. Upon that she subsided
a little, and tried to conceal her warlike tendencies from him, but they
did not really abate. She would have dearly liked to go with him to
Neudorf and Kunau, to play at soldiers there, but Anton, once made so
happy by her company, protested so strongly against the step that the
young lady had to turn back at the end of the village.

However, on the day when the first drill of the men belonging to the
estate was to take place, Lenore came out with a soldier's cap and a
light sword, took her pony out of the stable, and said to Anton, "I
shall exercise with you."

"Pray do nothing of the kind," replied he.

"Indeed I will," replied Lenore, saucily. "You want men, and I can do as
good service as if I were one."

"But, dear young lady, it is so singular!"

"It is indifferent to me whether people think it singular or not. I am
strong; I can go through a good deal; I shall not be tired."

"But before the servants," remonstrated Anton. "You are letting yourself
down before the servants and the country people."

"That is my own concern," replied Lenore, doggedly; "do not oppose me; I
am determined, and that is enough."

Anton shrugged his shoulders, and was obliged to acquiesce. Lenore rode
next to Karl, and went through all the exercises