will he bring along?"

"That was what worried him most after he had recovered himself. He
mentioned two or three noblemen of the vicinity, but dropped their
names, saying they were too old and too pious, and that he would
telegraph to Treptow for his friend Buddenbrook. Buddenbrook came and
is a capital man, at once resolute and childlike. He was unable to
calm himself, and paced back and forth in the greatest excitement. But
when I had told him all he said exactly as you and I: 'You are right,
it must be.'"

The coffee came. They lighted their cigars and Wuellersdorf again
sought to turn the conversation to more indifferent things. "I am
surprised that nobody from Kessin has come to greet you. I know you
were very popular. What is the matter with your friend Gieshuebler?"

Innstetten smiled. "You don't know the people here on the coast. They
are half Philistines and half wiseacres, not much to my taste. But
they have one virtue, they are all very mannerly, and none more so
than my old Gieshuebler. Everybody knows, of course, what it is about,
and for that very reason they take pains not to appear inquisitive."

At this moment there came into view to the left a chaise-like carriage
with the top down, which, as it was ahead of time, drove up very
slowly.

"Is that ours?" asked Innstetten.

"Presumably."

A moment later the carriage stopped in front of the hotel and
Innstetten and Wuellersdorf arose to their feet. Wuellersdorf stepped
over to the coachman and said: "To the mole."

The mole lay in the wrong direction of the beach, to the right instead
of the left, and the false orders were given merely to avoid any
possible interference. Besides, whether they intended to keep to the
right or to the left after they were beyond the city limits, they had
to pass through the "Plantation" in either case, and so their course
led unavoidably past Innstetten's old residence. The house seemed more
quiet than formerly. If the rooms on the ground floor looked rather
neglected, what must have been the state upstairs! The uncanny feeling
that Innstetten had so often combatted in Effi, or had at least
laughed at, now came over him, and he was glad when they had driven
past.

"That is where I used to live," he said to Wuellersdorf.

"It looks strange, rather deserted and abandoned."

"It may be. In the city it was called a haunted house and from the way
it stands there today I cannot blame people for thinking so."

"What