relics.

"Is it true," he asked, "that you fought two highwaymen with this stick?
Master Desiderius wrote to say so."

"No, only one."

"And you knocked him down?"

"It was impossible for he ran away. Now I have done my walking, and give
back the stick with thanks."

But it was not the silver handle that delighted Marton so. He took the
returned stick into the shop, like some trophy, and related to the
assistants, how Master Lorand had, with that alone, knocked down three
highwaymen. He would not have surrendered that stick for a whole
Mecklenburg full of every kind of cane.

Old Grandmother Fromm, too, was still alive and counted it a great
triumph that she had just finished the hundredth pair of stockings for
Fanny's trousseau.

And last, but not least, Fanny, even more beautiful, even more
amiable!--as if she had not seen Desiderius and his grandmother for an
eternity!

"Well, you will be our daughter!"

And they all loved Desiderius so.

"What a handsome man he has grown," complimented Grandmother Fromm.

"What a good fellow!"--remarked Mother Fromm.

"What a clever fellow! How learned!" was Father Fromm's encomium.

"And what a muscular rascal!" said Henrik, overcome with astonishment
that another boy too had grown as large as he. "Do you remember how one
evening you threw me on to the bed? How angry I was with you then!"

"Do you remember how the first evening you put away the cake for
Henrik?" said grandmamma. "How you blushed then!"

"Do you remember," interrupted Father Fromm, "the first time you
addressed me in German? How I laughed at you then!"

"Well, and do you remember me?" said Fanny playfully, putting her hand
on her fiance's arm.

"When first you kissed me here," retorted Desiderius, looking into her
beaming eyes.

"How you feared me then!"

"Well, and do you remember," said the young fellow in a voice void of
feeling, "when I stood resting against the doorpost, and you came to
drag my secret out of me. How I loved you then!"

Lorand stepped up to them, and laying his hands on their shoulders, said
with a sigh:

"Forgive me for standing so long in your path!"

At that everyone's eyes filled with tears, everyone knew why.

Father Fromm, deeply moved, exclaimed:

"How happy I am,--my God!" and then as if he considered his happiness
too great, he turned to Henrik, "if only you were otherwise! but look,
my dear boy: nothing has come of him! _fuit negligens_. If he too had