t Wilhem only
smiled or spoke a few soothing words to her, she burst into tears and
sobbed out: "I am so used to you, Herr Doctor, I don't know how I am
going to live without you." She only composed herself a little when
Wilhelm told her that, for the present at any rate, he was going to
leave his books and other goods and chattels where they were, for he
might perhaps be allowed to return after a time, and meanwhile a young
man, whom she knew, and who was studying at Wilhelm's at Schrotter's
expense, should board and lodge with her, and she would receive the
same sum as Wilhelm had always paid.

With night came counsel. Wilhelm decided to go first to Hamburg, where
Paul lived during the winter, wait there till the spring, and then
arrange further plans. He visited the grave of his father and mother,
gave Stubbe orders as to the management of the house, took leave of a
few friends, visited one or two poor people whom he was in the habit of
looking after, and then had nothing further to keep him in Berlin. The
rest of the day he passed with Schrotter, who found the parting very
hard to bear. Bhani, whom they had acquainted with the matter, had
tears in her beautiful dark eyes--the last remnant of youth in the
withered face. And as he left the dear familiar house in the
Mittelstrasse she begged him--translating the Indian words plainly
enough by looks and gestures--to accept an amulet of cold green jade as
a remembrance of her.

That night at eleven o'clock a slow train bore Wilhelm away from Berlin.

At the station he caught sight of the face of his old friend Patke,
whom he had come across more than once during that day. The former
non-commissioned officer had apparently reached the goal of his
ambitions and become a private detective.

Schrotter had stood on the step of the carriage till the very last
moment, holding his friend's hand. Now Wilhelm leaned back in his
corner and closed his eyes, and while the train rattled along over the
snow-covered plain, he asked himself for the first time whether after
all Dorfling had been quite such a fool as most of them considered him
to have been?

CHAPTER IX.

RESULTS.

On alighting next morning at the station in Hamburg, Wilhelm found
himself clasped in a pair of strong arms and pressed to a magnificent
fur coat. Inside this warm garment there beat a still warmer heart,
that of Paul Haber, who had received a letter from Wilhelm the day
before, telling him of