ing, and Willy exclaimed:

"My Spitz has caught a cold on the journey. We must give him some
black-currant tea, mother!"

The boy took a great delight in the dog, playing with him the whole
time of Wilhelm's visit, feeding him at dinner, and even wanted to make
him drink beer, which Fido steadfastly refused to do, and was much
disappointed when, at leaving, Wilhelm prepared to take the dog with
him.

"Didn't you bring him for me?" he asked with a pout.

Wilhelm consoled him by promising that he should see Fido every day,
and solemnly transferred to him all legal rights to the animal. On
these conditions Willy was content that Fido should go on living with
Wilhelm, and that he should come frequently on a starring tour, as it
were, to the Carlstrasse.

Wilhelm's first visit to his friends on the Uhlenhorst did not tend to
lighten his spirit. In their home he breathed a pure and wholesome
atmosphere, which, it seemed to him, he must contaminate by the heavy,
noxious perfume which still clung to him, and which he could not get
rid of. Their life was as transparent as crystal, every moment would
bear the scrutiny of the severest eye. He, on the other hand, had much
to conceal. His memory recalled many a scene; he saw himself again in
various situations, and thought--what would they say if they knew? Paul
and Malvine told him cheerfully of all that had occurred to them during
the last eight months; he was condemned to lock away his experiences in
the depths of his heart. His open and confiding nature was little used
to keeping a secret. It rose to his lips as often as he found himself
alone with his friend, and his longing to unburden himself was all the
more intense that he had himself formed no certain judgment on his
course of action, and yearned to hear from the mouth of an unprejudiced
person of sound moral tone and worldly experience, that he had done no
great harm. He carried in his own breast an accusing voice which called
him faithless and mean-spirited, and showed him Pilar as the victim of
his treachery; and he had need of an advocate, seeing that he was
himself unable to refute these accusations with any sort of confidence.

He was to receive the support he longed for. Soon after his arrival in
Hamburg he had written to Schrotter, telling him of his change of
residence, and expressing, at the same time, his intense desire to see
him again after their long separation, also, if it would not be asking
too much