"You must thank Fräulein Lieschen, if you wish to thank anybody--our gracious little lady. 'Pray make Herr Pigglewitch look like a human being,' she said to me yesterday. Not very flattering to you, but for me a command to be obeyed under all circumstances. I tell you frankly that but for this I should have had some hesitation in going surety for you, for your conduct yesterday provoked me. To-day, however, you are a different person, and I am quite sure that I run no risk in signing your promise to pay."
"Fräulein Lieschen's word is your law, then?"
"Yes, so I told you yesterday, and so I tell you again to-day." Storting laughed as he spoke, but the seriousness in his eyes contradicted the laughter of his lips. "Fräulein Lieschen rules at Castle Osternau. Just as you controlled Soliman yesterday, Fräulein Lieschen will control you before two days are gone by. Yesterday you tried to withstand the magic of her glance, to-morrow you will obey her implicitly, as I do, as every one in the castle does."
He turned as he finished the sentence into the old-clothes shop, where Pigglewitch's cast-off habiliments were to be disposed of. If Egon had enjoyed the novelty of the transaction with the tailor, here he was infinitely more entertained. Storting defended his interests bravely. The Jew dealer declared that he should be ruined by the purchase at any price of such antiquated garments, but finally with many lamentations agreed to give twenty-four marks for the two suits. Storting was content; the porter who had carried the bag was paid and dismissed; Egon pocketed his gains with a smile, and took the empty bag under his arm.
The chief business in Breslau was completed, and Egon found that he had still half an hour before the departure of the train for Osternau. This time he employed in the purchase of linen and school-books, and arrived with Storting at the station just in time to pack away his various bundles in the railway-carriage and to take his seat beside his companion before the train started.
The events of this little expedition to Breslau were very unimportant, and yet they exercised an important influence upon Egon's mode of thought, his views of life. For the first time some idea occurred to him of the value of money. The tailor's hesitation to trust him for the insignificant sum of two hundred and fifty marks, the petty haggling for an infinitely less sum in the old-clothes shop, were a lesson to him. And in his purchase of linen and books the impossibility of his buying, as he had been wont to do, everything that he desired, or even everything that he thought necessary, set him thinking in earnest.
He had smiled at the gravity with which Storting, at the tailor's, reckoned up the cost of the clothes, at the eagerness with which he had contested a few marks with the Jew dealer, while his zeal was all in behalf of another, and the same man who was so anxious to save expense for the poor Candidate Pigglewitch did not hesitate to pledge himself to pay a hundred and fifty marks in case the tutor should be unable to do so. And this when the sum in question was of great importance to him, for, as he had frankly told Egon, he was without means except his salary as inspector, out of which he contributed to the support of a sister who was preparing for the governess examinations in Berlin.
Under these circumstances the kindness shown to Egon by Storting was genuine indeed, and placed the recipient under an obligation which instead of annoying him gave him pleasure. Hitherto Egon had been disposed to regard any favour shown him as due to his wealth and position. Storting's disinterestedness therefore made the greatest impression upon him, and weakened the morbid suspicion with which he had come to look upon all friendly advances made to him.
The elation that he felt upon returning from Breslau to Castle Osternau was not damped by the fulfilment of his duties there. His little pupil's boyish eagerness to learn, his affectionate enthusiasm for his dear Herr Pigglewitch, warmed Egon's heart, while the hours spent in giving Lieschen her music-lessons were the most delightful he had ever passed in his life.
After the daily game of billiards, in which, much to the Lieutenant's chagrin, Egon maintained his supremacy, Frau von Osternau accompanied her daughter and the tutor to the sitting-room, where the lesson on the piano was given. Egon began his instruction with an interest which the discovery of his pupil's talent for music heightened to enthusiasm, and the girl's progress was such that Frau von Osternau was charmed, and in the delight which these lessons gave her forgot that she had at first been present at them from a sense of duty. Indeed, her anxiety lest Lieschen's interest in her teacher might transcend the limits of that which a pupil should feel for a master seemed entirely groundless. The girl admired the musician, as did Frau von Osternau. She listened to every word of his, and did her best to obtain his approval. When he praised her her lovely face beamed with smiles, but it was to the teacher as such that she paid her tribute of respectful attention. The lesson once concluded, Lieschen was again the merry, artless, audacious child. She teased Herr Pigglewitch as she was wont to tease Cousin Albrecht, Herr Storting, and Herr von Wangen, the third inspector. She expressed without reserve her admiration for his skill at billiards and as a horseman, and then, when displeased by some reckless speech of his, she scolded him as unreservedly. She was as frankly familiar with him as with the others, and her conduct in this respect was at times a proof to her mother that her fears for her daughter had been unfounded. She willingly allowed the daily rides, during which the pair, of course, were never alone, Fritz always forming one of the party.