3. III.
It was not the good fortune of Bertha to know
any thing of her father's concern in this matter,
until long after he had gravely considered it. But
one day there came a new wooer to the castle of
Staremberg. This was a bachelor baron, whom
Bertha had never seen before, and who dwelt in
a noble palace at some little distance. She, poor
girl, never dreamed of the object of his visit; but
Rodolph was a little more suspicious. He no
sooner heard of it than he set off, post haste, for Staremberg
castle. He came in a desperate hurry,
determined to put his affaire du cœur to a final
issue. His manner indicated no little excitement.
He thrust aside, one after another, the sluggish
retainers, in a most unaccustomed and most unbecoming
manner; and even the bachelor baron,
himself, Baron Brickelewacksikow, — whose name
the reader will please remember in future, without
requiring us to write it — happening to stand bolt
upright in the very passage through which the
youth was pushing his headlong way, was tumbled
incontinently against the wall, much to the detriment
of his knees and shoulders, and the discomfiture
of his spirit. Rodolph was evidently in a
hurry.
