ordinary
mechanic, he invited him to spend a few more days on his estate.

Daniel did not decline; he had not in truth given one minute's thought
to where he would go when he left.

After he distributed the present from Herr von Erfft among the musicians
and discharged them, he took a long walk in the woods. He ate a frugal
meal in a village restaurant, and then sauntered around until evening.
When he returned, he found his hosts sitting at the table. He neglected
to beg their pardon; Frau Agatha looked at her husband and smiled, and
told the maids to bring in something for the Herr Kapellmeister. Sylvia
had a book in her hand and was reading.

Daniel was a trifle ill at ease; he merely took a bite here and there.
When Frau von Erfft left the table, walked over to the window, and
looked out into the cloudy sky, Daniel got up, went into the adjoining
room, and sat down at the piano.

He began to play Schubert's "Song to Sylvia." Having finished the
impetuous, heart-felt song, he struck up a variation, then a second, a
third, and a fourth. The first was melancholy, the second triumphant,
the third meditative, the fourth dreamy. Each was a hymn to forgotten
joy.

Herr von Erfft and Agatha were standing in the open door. Sylvia had sat
down close beside him on a tabourette; there was a pleasing, far-away
look in her eyes, riveted though they were to the floor.

He suddenly stopped, as if to avoid both thanks and applause. Sylvester
von Erfft took a seat opposite him, and asked him in a most kindly tone
whether he had any definite plans for the immediate future.

"I am going back to Nuremberg and get married," said Daniel. "My fiancee
has been waiting for me for a long time."

Herr von Erfft asked him whether he was not afraid of premature marriage
bonds. Daniel replied rather curtly that he needed some one to stand
between him and the world.

"You need some one to act as a sort of buffer," said Frau Agatha
sarcastically. Daniel looked at her angrily.

"Buffer? No, but a guardian angel if such a creature can shield me from
rebuffs," said Daniel, even more brusquely than he had spoken the first
time.

"Why do you wish to settle down and live in Nuremberg, a city of such
one-sided commercial interests?" continued Herr von Erfft, with an
almost solicitous caution. "Would you not have a much better opportunity
as a composer in one of the great cities?"

"It is impossible to separate the daughter from her father,"