"Because, as Flora says, you would not have Henriette left alone," she replied, with frank decision, born of a determination to leave no point unexplained. "You see how fond I am of my poor invalid sister, how gladly I undertake the care of her, and you would like to have her future home and comfort secured by my becoming—the wife of the councillor."
"And you believe me to be at the head of this family scheme? You seriously believe this? Have you forgotten how I protested long ago against your sacrificing yourself and remaining longer in Römer’s house?"
"Since then much has been changed," she replied, bitterly. "In September you will leave M—— forever; it will then be a matter of indifference to you who rules in the villa; your comfort will no longer be disturbed by an unsympathetic presence there——"
"Herr Doctor?" She calmly met, with head proudly erect, his glance of fire. "The excellence of such an arrangement is plain, and no one who was not as dull of comprehension as myself could have been blind to it for so long," she added, with apparent composure, and with a gravity of tone and manner that seemed to come of suddenly-added years of knowledge and experience. "Then no strange element would intrude upon the family circle; every domestic arrangement could remain as it is; the habits of all in the villa, as well as in the tower, need not be disturbed; nothing, not even my iron safe in Moritz’s ’treasure-chamber,’ would have to be moved from its place. Oh, it is all so sensibly contrived——"
"And is so natural, that you have not hesitated for a moment to remain," he completed her sentence, breathing quickly, and with a look which in its impatience seemed to chide the lips that delayed confirmation of his words.
"No, Herr Doctor, you exult too soon," she cried, with a kind of triumph in her tone. "The obstinate heiress refuses to be led in chains. I am going, going this very day. I came here only to take my leave of your aunt, and should have laughed at your decree of exile awhile ago, if it had not pained me. My sisters have at length opened my blinded eyes, and revealed to me in a dazzling vista the ’happiness’ to which I have been destined. At the moment of revelation I felt as if there were but one path open to me from the Frau President’s drawing-room,—the road leading directly to the railroad depot,—and I should have pursued it immediately, had I not remembered the duties here which I had undertaken to fulfil. I am not going to stay away longer than will suffice to convince Moritz that he can never be more to me than my legal guardian, and that he arouses my dislike as soon as he attempts to assume any tone towards me except that of a fatherly friend and adviser."