.

I struck through empty streets toward my house. When I stood before
it, and gazed at it, I could scarcely recognize it. No light shone
through the dashed-in windows. The doors were closed; no throng of
servants was moving therein. There was a laugh near me. "Ha! ha! so
goes it! But you'll probably find your Bendel at home, for he was the
other day providently sent back so weary that he has most likely kept
his bed since." He laughed again. "He will have a story to tell! Well
then, for the present, good night! We meet again speedily!"

I had rung the bell repeatedly; light appeared; Bendel demanded from
within who rung. When the good man recognized my voice, he could
scarcely restrain his joy. The door flew open and we stood weeping in
each other's arms. I found him greatly changed, weak and ill; but for
me--my hair had become quite gray!

He conducted me through the desolated rooms to an inner apartment
which had been spared. He brought food and wine, and we seated
ourselves, and he again began to weep. He related to me that he the
other day had cudgeled the gray-clad man whom he had encountered with
my shadow, so long and so far that he had lost all trace of me and had
sunk to the earth in utter fatigue; that after this, as he could not
find me, he returned home, whither presently the mob, at Rascal's
instigation, came rushing in fury, dashed in the windows, and
gave full play to their lust of demolition. Thus did they to their
benefactor. The servants had fled various ways. The police had ordered
me, as a suspicious person, to quit the city, and had allowed only
four-and-twenty hours in which to evacuate their jurisdiction. To that
which I already knew of Rascal's affluence and marriage, he had yet
much to add. This scoundrel, from whom all had proceeded that had been
done against me, must, from the beginning, have been in possession of
my secret. It appeared that, attracted by gold, he had contrived to
thrust himself upon me, and at the very first had procured a key to
the gold cupboard, where he had laid the foundation of that fortune
whose augmentation he could now afford to despise.

All this Bendel narrated to me with abundant tears, and then wept for
joy that he again beheld me, again had me; and that after he had long
doubted whither this misfortune might have led me, he saw me bear it
so calmly and collectedly; for such an aspect had despair now assumed
in me. My misery stood before me in its enormity a