Finally Hartmut asked in a low voice: "And--my mother?"
A shadow passed again over Falkenried's brow, but he did not release his son from his arms.
"Your mother will leave Germany as soon as she is convinced that she must in the future, as in the past, stay away from you," he said, this time without harshness, but with decision. "You may write to her. I will allow a correspondence with certain restrictions, but I cannot--I dare not permit a personal intercourse."
"Do you hate her, then, so very much?" asked the youth reproachfully. "You wished the separation--not my mother--I know it from herself."
Falkenried's lips quivered. He was about to speak the bitter words and tell his son that the separation had been at the command of honor; but he looked again in those dark, inquiring eyes, and the words died unspoken. He could not accuse the mother to the son.
"Let that question rest," he replied gloomily; "I cannot answer it to you. Perhaps you will learn my reasons later and will understand them. I cannot spare you the hard choice now. You can belong only to one--the other you must shun. Accept it as a doom."
Hartmut bowed his head; he might have felt that nothing further could be gained. That the meetings with his mother had to end when he returned to the strict discipline of the school, he knew; but now a correspondence was permitted, which was more than he had dared to hope for.
"Then I will tell mamma so," he said in a crestfallen way. "Now, since you know everything, I may see her openly, may I not?"
The Major started; he had not considered this possibility.
"When were you to see her again?" he asked.
"To-day, at this hour, at the Burgsdorf pond. She is surely awaiting me there now."
Falkenried seemed to battle with himself. A warning voice arose in him not to allow this leave-taking, yet he felt that to refuse would be cruel.
"Will you be back in two hours?" he asked finally.
"Certainly, father; even earlier if you desire it."
"Go, then," said the Major, with a deep breath. One could hear how reluctant was the permission which his sense of duty forced from him. "We shall drive home as soon as you return. Your vacation ends shortly, anyway."
Hartmut, who was just about to leave, came to a standstill. The words recalled to him what he had entirely forgotten in the last half hour: the discipline and severity of the service which was awaiting him. Heretofore he had not dared to betray his aversion to it openly, but this hour which banished the awe of his father broke also the seal from his lips. Obeying a sudden impulse, he turned and put his arms again around the neck of his father.