d the
Herr Direktor are not the best friends, but _sehn Sie wohl, Fraeulein_,
the Herr Direktor is well off, settled, provided for; Herr Courvoisier
has his way to make yet, and the world before him; and what sort of a
story it may be with the child, I don't know, but this I will say, let
those dare to doubt it or question it who will, he is a good father--I
know it. And the other young man with Herr Courvoisier--his friend, I
suppose--he is a musiker too. I hear them practicing a good deal
sometimes--things without any air or tune to them; for my part I wonder
how they can go on with it. Give me a good song with a tune in
it--'Drunten im Unterland,' or 'In Berlin, sagt er,' or something one
knows. _Na!_ I suppose the fiddling all lies in the way of business, and
perhaps they can fall asleep over it sometimes, as I do now and then
over my knitting, when I'm weary. The young man, Herr Courvoisier's
friend, looked ill when they first came; even now he is not to call a
robust-looking person--but formerly he looked as if he would go out of
the fugue altogether. _Entschuldigen_, Fraeulein, if I use a few
professional proverbs. My husband, the sainted man! was a piano-tuner by
calling, and I have picked up some of his musical expressions and use
them, more for his sake than any other reason--for I have heard too much
music to believe in it so much as ignorant people do. _Nun!_ I will send
Fraeulein her box up, and then I hope she will feel comfortable and at
home, and send for whatever she wants."

In a few moments my luggage had come upstairs, and when they who brought
it had finally disappeared, I went to the window again and looked out.
Opposite, on the same _etage_, were two windows, corresponding to my
two, wide open, letting me see into an empty room, in which there seemed
to be books and many sheets of white paper, a music-desk and a vase of
flowers. I also saw a piano in the clare-obscure, and another door, half
open, leading into the inner room. All the inhabitants of the rooms were
out. No tone came across to me--no movement of life. But the influence
of the absent ones was there. Strange concourse of circumstances which
had placed me as the opposite neighbor, in the same profession too, of
Eugen Courvoisier! Pure chance it certainly was, for von Francius had
certainly had no motive in bringing me hither.

"Kismet!" I murmured once again, and wondered what the future would
bring.

CHAPTER XV.

"He looks