them to choose this shorter way. Besides, Rossel's villa was a good
deal nearer than the Starnberg station, and Rosenbusch, who always had
his head full of adventures, was already dreaming of the improvised
quarters for the night, which should be prepared for the ladies in the
dining-room. He took very good care, however, not to give utterance to
these romantic projects, but merely urged a hasty departure, in order
that they might escape the rain.

When they reached the landing-place, they found Schnetz and his party
engaged in an annoying scene.

The young boatman who had rowed them over flatly refused to start on
the return trip, in view of the storm that threatened to break upon
them at any moment. The boat was too heavily loaded to get over the
water quickly, and his master had given him a bad pair of oars, the
good ones having been sent off with another boat early in the morning.
The gentlemen might offer him what they liked, but he would not make
the trip; he knew what he was saying, and what it meant "when the lake
and the sky came so near together."

One of the young gentlemen was addressing the lad--who was a
neatly-dressed young fellow, and wished, perhaps, to spare his Sunday
clothes--in rough and imperious tones, commanding him to obey without
further parley, and to leave the responsibility to them. The lake was
as smooth as a mirror, and there was so little wind that the storm
might very likely be an hour in reaching them. But when, upon the
boatman's remaining obstinate, he tried to wrench the oar from the
defiant fellow's hand, saying that, if a lout like him had no pluck, he
might at least get out of the way and take himself to the devil--all
the man's pent-up fury and insulted _amour propre_ burst out; with an
angry answer in the most forcible epithets of his country dialect, he
threw the oar at the young count's feet, took his jacket out of the
boat, and, with a malicious grin, wishing the company a pleasant
journey, started off toward the highway which winds along by the
lake-shore.

"The thunder-storm comes just right for him," said the waiter-girl, who
had been attracted to the spot by the quarrel, and who now stood gazing
after the angry fellow as he hurried away. "The ladies and gentlemen
mustn't think that Hiesl had started to run back to his father's on
foot; he knew well enough there was going to be a wedding celebrated in
Ambach, and had been impatient to get there for some time; for the