rantz, your
old friend Krantz, whom you have not seen since we were all at Bonn
together: so I will drink with you as well as he did three years
since, when we reveled in Rhenish."

Dumiger seized the extended hand, a gleam shot across his mind: the
three years of abstraction and thought appeared to be swept away; he
only beheld his two boon companions; his countenance was lightened of
a dozen years.

"Marguerite, these are two friends of mine," he said; "it is getting
late and cold. See, the lights on the fountains are burning very dim,
and the benches are deserted. You will not grudge me this one night
for acquaintance sake, dear Marguerite? I shall not he late, but I
must grant myself one bottle to-night to drink to my success. What,
angry, my Marguerite!"

She was not angry, but she thought that love in life is of rare
fulfillment. Again another night of loneliness: yesterday it was a
disagreeable necessity, now an agreeable excitement, but both alike
led to a lonely room and a lonely heart. But in the shade Dumiger
pressed her hand, and assured her with many kisses that he would
return within two hours, and she tried to feel satisfied and assured.
The three friends sat down; a larger table replaced the small stand
which had been exclusively devoted to ices; three bottles of huge
dimensions were brought from the cellar; pledge after pledge was
received and given. Dumiger became a different man, save that at
moments, in the midst of some burst of louder hilarity, the cloud of
ambition would cross his brow and seem to furrow it, and then he would
fold his arms across his breast, as if to repress the outbreak of
his soul. It was during one of these moments of abstraction that Carl
turned suddenly round.

"Why, Dumiger," he exclaimed, "you do not fill your glass! In former
days, man, you were of a very different mood. Has marriage so tamed
you? Won't Marguerite allow it!"

Krantz and the two friends made the place ring with their rude
students' laugh. "Ha! ha! I, why I am in excellent spirits," said
Dumiger, filling a bumper with the strongest of the wines upon the
table. "I ought to be in good spirits, for I have everything to make
me so."

"Ay, the most beautiful girl in Dantzic for a wife," said Carl.

"With a large fortune?" said Krantz, laughing.

"That will come," replied Dumiger, heated by wine.

"Large fortune!" they both exclaimed; "where are you to get it,
student? Have you found an old cave in th