helm found himself once more at the familiar spot which had so often
been the goal of his short walks with Willy. Scarcely ten months had
elapsed since he had looked at it for the last time, but his morbid
mental vision prolonged that time to an eternity. He felt like the
sultan of the Eastern legend, who fancied he had lived an entire
lifetime, while, in reality, he sank for one moment into his bath in
sight of his whole court. He overcame a strange attack of shyness, and
rang at the door in the Carlstrasse. The liveried servant opened it,
gave an exclamation of surprise, and hurried before him to the smoking
room. Wilhelm followed closely on his heels, and only left him time to
open the door and call loudly into the room:

"Herr Dr. Eyuhardt!"

"What! Is it you or your ghost? Well, I must say--" cried Paul,
overjoyed, receiving him with open arms.

The first tempestuous greetings over, he pressed him, down upon the
sofa, seated himself beside him, and rained down a torrent of questions
upon him--Where had he come from? How had he fared all this time? What
were his plans? And, above all things, where was his luggage?

"At the hotel," Wilhelm answered, a little nervously.

"At the hotel? Are you in your right senses? There is only one hotel
for you in Hamburg, and that is the hotel Haber. Were you so
uncomfortable there before that you have withdrawn your custom from it?"

"Don't try to persuade me, my good Paul. Believe me, it is best so.
Your hospitality oppresses me."

"Is that the remark of a friend?" grumbled Paul.

"It is a fault in me, I know, but I do beg of you to let me have my own
way."

"Just wait till I send Malvine to you--you will have to lay down your
arms before her."

"No, Paul, I really cannot live in your house again. I will come and
see you--so often that you will get tired of me--"

"Never!"

"But let me live here as I am accustomed to in Berlin, especially as it
will probably be for a long time."

"Then you are going to stay in Hamburg? That is splendid!"

"For the present at least. I see nothing else to be done."

"But in the summer you will surely come and spend some weeks at
Friesenmoor?"

"That is more likely."

The door opened and Malvine hurried in, and ran up to Wilhelm as he
rose to meet her.

"To think of you falling from the clouds like this!" she cried, and
shook both his hands warmly. "Not a letter, not a telegram, nothing!
Well, you knew, at any rate, that you