and Berthold
Pfinzing entered with his older niece.

He was holding Els by the hand, and it was evident that some sorrowful
thought occupied the minds of both.

"Has any new horror happened?" fell in tones of anxious enquiry from
Eva's lips before she even greeted her dearest relative.

"Think of something very bad," was her sister's reply, in a tone so
dejected and mournful, that Eva, with a low cry--"My father!"--pressed
her hand upon her heart.

"Not dead, darling," said the magistrate, stroking her head soothingly
with his short, broad hand, "by all the saints, not even wounded or ill.
Yet the daughter has guessed aright, and I have kept the 'Honourables'
waiting, that I might tell you the news myself; for what may not such
tidings become whilst passing from lip to lip! It is a toad, a very ugly
toad, and I would not permit a dragon to be brought into the house to
you poor things in its place."

He poured all this forth very rapidly, for, notwithstanding the intense
heat, and the burden of business at the Town Hall, he had left it,
though only to do his dear Es a kindness, lie and his worthy wife
Christine, the sister of Herr Ernst Ortlieb and of the abbess, had long
been familiar with all the tales which slander had called to life, and
had striven zealously enough to refute them. What he had now to relate
filled him with honest indignation against the evil tongues, and he
knew how deeply it would excite and grieve Eva, his godchild, who stood
especially near his heart. He would gladly have said a few kind words to
her before beginning his story, but he was obliged to return to the Town
Hall immediately to open the important conference concerning the fate of
the Eysvogel business.

His appearance showed how rapidly he had hurried to the house through
the burning sunshine, for drops of perspiration were trickling down his
broad, low forehead over his plump, smoothshaven cheeks and thick red
neck, in which his small chin vanished as if it were a cushion. Besides,
he constantly raised a large linen handkerchief to his face, and his
huge chest laboured for breath as he hastily repeated to Eva and the
abbess what he had just announced to Els in a few rapid words.

Herr Ernst Ortlieb had gone to the Town Hall, where he attended an
examination in his character as magistrate, and had entered the
court yard to enjoy the cool air for a short time with a few other
"Honourables," in the shady walk near the main gate.