his dismissal from Berlin, and that he was
leaving for Hamburg by the last train before midnight, and whom neither
the cold and darkness nor the extreme earliness of the hour could
restrain from meeting his friend at the station.

Their greeting was short and affectionate.

"A hearty welcome to you!" cried Paul. "We will do our best to make a
new home for you here."

"You see, I thought of you at once when I had to look about me for some
resting-place in the wide world."

"I should have expected no less of you. Keep your ears stiff, and don't
let the horrid business worry you."

Wilhelm's bag was handed to an attendant servant, and the two friends
walked off arm in arm toward an elegant brougham lined with light blue,
with a conspicuously handsome long-limbed chestnut and a stout, bearded
coachman, which stood waiting for them.

Wilhelm mentioned the name of the hotel where he intended to stay, but
Paul cut him short. "Not a bit of it! Home, Hans, and look sharp about
it!" And before Wilhelm could offer any remonstrance, he found himself
pushed into the carriage, Paul at his side. The door banged, the
footman sprang on to the box, and off they went as fast as the long
legs of the chestnut would carry them.

For the last two years Paul had owned a villa on the Uhlenhorst, in the
Carlstrasse, and there the fast trotter drew up. Wilhelm had said but
little during the drive, and Paul had confined the expression of his
feeling of delight to clapping his friend on the shoulder from time to
time, and pressing his hand. Rather less than half an hour's drive
brought them to their destination. Paul would not hear of Wilhelm
making any alteration in his dress, but drew him as he was into the
smoking room on the ground floor, where Malvine came to meet him, and
received him in her hearty but quiet and uneffusive manner. She was the
picture of health, but had grown perhaps a little too stout for her
age. She wore a morning wrap of red velvet and gold lace, and looked,
in that costly attire, like a princess or a banker's wife.

"You must be very cold and tired," she said; "the coffee is ready, come
at once to breakfast--that will put some warmth into you--you can dress
afterward." She hurried before them into the next room, where they
found an amply spread table over which hovered the fragrant smell of
several steaming dishes. It was a lavish breakfast in the English
style; beside tea and coffee there were eggs, soles, ham,