his hands in his
pockets and his legs stretched out. I begin to think I am in for it--the
old story of blighted hopes and angry denunciation and hypocritical
joy, and all the rest of it. But suddenly Charlie looks up with a
businesslike air and says:

"Who is that doctor fellow you were speaking about! Shall we see him
to-morrow?"

"You saw him to-night. It was he who passed us on the road with the two
beagles."

"What! that little fellow with the bandy legs and the spectacles?" he
cries, with a great laugh.

"That little fellow," I observe to him, "is a person of some importance,
I can tell you. He--"

"I suppose his sister married a Geheimer-Ober-under--what the dickens is
it?" says this disrespectful young man.

"Dr. Krumm has got the Iron Cross."

"That won't make his legs any the straighter."

"He was at Weissenburg."

"I suppose he got that cast in the eye there."

"He can play the zither in a way that would astonish you. He has got a
little money. Franziska and he would be able to live very comfortably
together."

"Franziska and that fellow?" says Charlie; and then he rises with a
sulky air, and proposes we should take our candles with us.

But he is not sulky very long; for Ziska, hearing our footsteps, comes
to the passage and bids us a friendly good-night.

"Good-night, Miss Fahler!" he says, in rather a shamefaced way; "and
I am so awfully sorry we have kept you up so late. We sha'n't do it
again."

You would have thought by his manner that it was two o'clock, whereas it
was only half-past eleven!

III--DR. KRUMM

There was no particular reason why Dr. Krumm should marry Franziska
Fahler, except that he was the most important young man in
Huferschingen, and she was the most important young woman. People
therefore thought they would make a good match, although Franziska
certainly had the most to give in the way of good looks. Dr. Krumm was
a short, bandy-legged, sturdy young man, with long, fair hair, a tanned
complexion, light-blue eyes not quite looking the same way, spectacles,
and a general air of industrious common sense about him, if one may use
such a phrase. There was certainly little of the lover in his manner
toward Ziska, and as little in hers toward him. They were very good
friends, though, and he called her Ziska, while she gave him his
nickname of Fidelio, his real name being Fidele.

Now on this, the first morning of our stay in Huferschingen, all the
population ha