Quickly the children rushed to meet them.
"Where do you come from? Where did you stay so long? Where have you been
all this time," sounded from all sides.
"In the castle," was the answer.
The excitement only grew at this.
"How could you get there? Who opened the door? What did you do at the
castle?" The questions were poured out at such a rate that no answer
could possibly have been heard.
"I went to see the Castle-Steward before. I have been to see him quite
often," said Maezli loudly, for she was desirous of being heard.
Leonore had gone ahead with the mother's arm linked in hers, for she was
very anxious to deliver her message.
Kurt was too much interested in Maezli's expedition to the castle to be
frightened off by the first unintelligible account. He had to find out
how it had come about and what had happened, but the two did not get very
far in their dialogue.
As soon as Maezli began to talk first about Mr. Trius and then about the
Steward, Kurt always said quickly, "But this is all one and the same
person. Don't make two out of them, Maezli! All the world knows that Mr.
Trius is the Steward of Castle Wildenstein; he is one person and not
two."
Then Maezli answered, "Mr. Trius is one and the Castle-Steward is
another. They are two people and not one."
After they had repeated this about three times Bruno said, "Oh, Kurt,
leave her alone. Maezli thinks that there are two, when she calls him
first Mr.
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