Beneath an overhanging rock they threw themselves down upon the soft green moss.
"I cannot get used to it," said Freistetten, shaking Egon again by the hand. "This is what I call a surprise indeed. But now tell me all about yourself. Where in the world have you been hiding? What reasons could you have for vanishing so suddenly and giving no sign of life?"
"I was tired of the stupid society life of the capital, and I have been spending a few weeks quietly in the country. I really have nothing to tell. But you must satisfy my curiosity. What was it you said about finding my body and going to my funeral? What did you mean?"
"That you were buried, and have risen from the dead. But no, the matter is too serious for trifling. You shall hear the consequences of your flight from Berlin."
And he went over the whole story; how he had not been believed when he said that he had seen Egon in Breslau, how every one said that young Ernau had taken his life because of an unhappy love-affair. "You have deeply grieved your friends, Ernau," he added.
"Have I any friends?" Egon rejoined. "The few who felt some slight regret at my death were more than indemnified by the interesting gossip to which it gave occasion."
"I don't envy you such sentiments as those," Freistetten said, gravely. "They can only be entertained by one who is no man's friend, and who thinks only of himself. I am no moralist, but I cannot understand how you could make up your mind to play so reckless a game with your friends, among whom I count myself, and, above all, with your father."
Egon had no reply to make to this reproach, and Freistetten continued his narrative, telling how the dress of the corpse found in the Spree had been identified by the servant and by Councillor von Ernau, and how magnificent had been the funeral.
Egon listened eagerly, and when he heard how the body had been identified, he had a sudden conviction as to who had been so ceremoniously consigned to earth in his stead. He remembered that he had forgotten to take his empty silver card-case from the breast-pocket of the coat which he had exchanged for Pigglewitch's. The Candidate had not been heard from for weeks. Doubtless he had gambled again, had again lost all, and his second attempt at suicide had been more successful than his first. His body was now at rest in the church-yard.
"You are really dead in every one's estimation," Freistetten concluded. "It is fortunate that I chanced to meet you, and could tell you of the result of your flight from Berlin,--else you might not have thought of returning thither to put a stop to the wild rumours about you. Or were you going down to Hirschberg, to start thence for Berlin?"