Vavel then drew the letter from his pocket, and read the address:
"To our beautiful and kind-hearted neighbor."
The count looked up in surprise.
"You are writing to Baroness Landsknechtsschild!" he exclaimed, not
without some confusion.
"I did not know her name; that is why I addressed it so."
Vavel turned the letter in his hands, and saw that the seal had been
stamped with the crest which was familiar to all the world.
He hurriedly crushed it into bits, and, unfolding the letter, read:
"DEAR, BEAUTIFUL, AND GOOD LADY: I want you to love my Ludwig. Make
him happy. He is a good man. I am nothing at all to him.
"MARIE."
When he had read the touching epistle, he buried his face in his hands,
and a bitter sob burst from his tortured heart.
Marie looked sorrowfully at his quivering frame, and sighed heavily.
"Oh, Marie! To think you should write this! Nothing at all to me!"
murmured the young man, in a choking voice.
"'Nothing at all,'" in a low tone repeated Marie.
Vavel moved swiftly to her side, and, looking down upon her with his
burning eyes still filled with tears, asked in an unsteady voice:
"What do you want, Marie? Tell me what you wish me to do.
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