m to a powder-mill. Eric said that he knew it, that he
had been ordered to a powder-mill in the mountains for a long time, and
was employed there.

The doctor was silent, and looking up, he saw that some one was
greeting him. An open carriage drawn by two dapple-gray horses came
towards them, and a handsome young man, sitting in it and driving
himself, was already bowing from a distance.

The doctor ordered his carriage to be stopped.

"Welcome!" he cried to the young man. They shook hands from their
vehicles, and the doctor asked,--

"How are Louise and the children?"

"All well."

"Have you been to your mother's?"

"Yes."

"How are your parents?"

"They are well too."

The doctor introduced the young man as Herr Henry Weidmann, his
daughter's husband.

"Are you the son of the Herr Weidmann whom I have so often heard of?"

"Most certainly."

"Where is your father now?" asked the doctor.

"Yonder there in the village; they are considering about establishing a
powder-mill."

Something seemed to come into the doctor's mind like a flash; he turned
quickly round to Eric, but did not utter a word. The young man asked
excuse for his haste, as he was obliged to be at the station at a
particular hour, and soon took leave.

The young Weidmann said hurriedly to Eric, that he hoped this would not
be their last meeting, and that next time he hoped they would not pass
each other in this way, and that his father would be glad to see him.

The two carriages drove on, each in its own direction.

The doctor informed Eric that his son-in-law was a practical chemist,
and he murmured to himself,--

"Trump called for, trump shown." Eric did not understand him; he
thought, smiling, how Pranken had spoken of Weidmann's sons, with the
impertinently white teeth.

The carriage drove on. Just as they were entering the next village, the
steamboat from the upper Rhine came along; the doctor ordered the
coachman to drive as rapidly as possible, in order to reach the landing
in time. They went at a tearing gallop. The doctor cried,--

"I have it now! I have it now!" He struck Eric's arm at the same time,
as if he were giving a blow upon the table that would make the glasses
jingle, and he held it with no gentle grasp.

The carriage reached the landing just as the plank was thrown from it
to the steamboat. The doctor got out quickly, and told the coachman to
say to his wife that he would not be home until evening; then he