The
other gentleman remained sitting, and looked at Frank with stately
indifference.

"Herr Frank, my esteemed neighbor of Frankenhoehe," said Siegwart,
introducing Frank.

The gentleman rose and made a stiff bow.

"The Assessor von Hamm," continued the proprietor.

Frank made an equally stiff and somewhat colder bow.

The three sat down.

While Siegwart rang the bell, Richard cast a searching glance at the
assessor who had said, "Angela is as lovely as ever."

The assessor had a pale, studious color, regular features in which
there was an expression of official importance. Frank, who was a fine
observer, thought he had never seen such a perfect and sharply defined
specimen of the bureaucratic type. Every wrinkle in the assessor's
forehead told of arrogance and absolutism. The red ribbon in the
buttonhole of Herr von Hamm excited Frank's astonishment. He thought it
remarkable that a young man of four or five and twenty could have
merited the ribbon of an order. He might infer from this that
decorations and merit do not necessarily go together.

"How glad I am that you have kept your word!" said Siegwart to Frank
complacently. "How is your father?"

"Very well; he goes this morning to the city, where business calls
him."

"I have often admired your father's attentions to Dr. Klingenberg,"
said Siegwart after a short pause. "He has for years had Frankenhoehe
prepared for the accommodation of the doctor. You are Klingenberg's
constant companion, and I do not doubt but such is the wish of your
father. And your father tears himself from his business and comes
frequently from the city to see that the doctor's least wish is
realized. I have observed this these last eight years, and I have often
thought that the doctor is to be envied, on account of this noble
friendship."

"You know, I suppose, that the doctor saved my father when his life was
despaired of?"

"I know; but there are many physicians who have saved lives and who do
not find such a noble return."

These words of acknowledgment had something in them very offensive to
the assessor. He opened and shut his eyes and mouth, and cast a
grudging, envious look at Richard.

The servant brought a glass.

"Try this wine," said Siegwart; "my own growth," he added with some
pride.

They touched glasses. Hamm put his glass to his lips, without drinking;
Frank tasted the noble liquor with the air of a connoisseur; while
Siegwart's smiling gaze rested on h