"'I do not believe that Susanna will go away, will be allowed to go away,' I threw in, uncertainly, touched by her confidence.
"Her eyes shone. 'Leave that to me, Aunt Rosa,' she replied; 'she _shall_ go, take my word for it.'
"'And if you vex Klaus afresh by such a demand?'
"'Klaus desires Susanna's best good, and he will find some other place for her as soon as he learns that he is not an object of indifference to her. Klaus is a man of honor, and a glance will suffice.'
"'What, Anna Maria?' I groaned; 'you would inform him that--that----'
"'I beg you, Anna Maria, do not do it; do not pour oil on the fire, my child; be silent----'
"'Never, aunt; I have been silent too long already!' she said decidedly. 'I saw it coming on, it had to come, and I had not the courage to warn Klaus, and say: "Protect this child from the saddest thing that can come to a maiden's heart; do not let it awaken into a first love, which must then be renounced."'
"'Anna Maria, for Heaven's sake,' I implored, 'how do you know so certainly that Susanna no longer regards Klaus with indifference? You cannot take her feverish talk for anything positive. She talks about Stürmer as well as Klaus. I beg you, keep silent. It is only a conjecture of yours; Susanna may be in a state of uncertainty still, herself.'
"'A precocious, passionate nature, like that girl's?' she asked, and went to the door, about to leave; 'there is nothing uncertain there. I owe it to her.'
"'Anna Maria, let her get well first; it is over-hasty, and may make a dreadful jumble!'
"She did not answer, but gave me a nod that agreed with her earnest look, and then left me alone with my thoughts.
"How sorry I was for her, this young maiden with the heart of an old woman! How this firm confidence in Klaus touched me! I had expected a little jealousy from her, had supposed that Susanna's appearance seemed dangerous enough to her to rob her of her brother's heart; but nothing of all this--that she wished to preserve the girl's peace of mind. She believed in Klaus with a firm, unshaken trust. 'I know that I stand before all others in his heart, only our opinions about Susanna differ widely.' Klaus was a man of honor, Klaus could not marry Susanna; it lay beyond the reach of possibility! A love without this final end was not conceivable to her pure mind; of a passion which could outreach all bounds she seemed to have no foreboding. It did not occur to her to consider her brother's altered manner, his hasty vehemence of the day before, as anything but the expression of his lively anxiety about an orphaned child, as excessive chivalry, as a justified irritation at her energetic opposition; but if she had only first spoken----