We walked through a glass-covered entry, then across a wide floor to the quietly-situated back-building, where the noise of the street could not penetrate.
In the silent room, Julius knelt beside the cradle. Gently he raised the curtain; the boy awoke, and, for the first time, the eyes of father and son met.
"Erwin, my son!" cried Julius, and kissed the child, who stared at him, and tried to clutch his eyes with his hands.
Martha, too, knelt beside the cradle. She laid her hand on the husband's forehead, and said, "And at this head hostile bullets were aimed!"
"Oh don't let us give way to our feelings," said Julius, rising.
Martha took the wreath from her husband's helmet, and wanted to place it on my head. I seized it and laid it on the cradle of my great-grandson. After that, we left the young couple, and hunted up the other returned wanderers.
Our hosts resigned their house to us, and saved us from all restraint by kindly keeping themselves in the background.
Richard and Annette, Ludwig, Conny, and Wolfgang, by turns clasped me in their arms. O how many good, true hearts beat against mine to-day! How many lives I could call my own!
Richard was still somewhat pale. Annette was radiant with glorious beauty, and her modest, gentle demeanor was the more attractive because she had the appearance of one born to command.
When the first emotions awakened by the overwhelming fulness of my joy had subsided, I had a wonderful vision. I saw great tables loaded with meat and drink and fragrant flowers, and from the streets resounded cheering and song. One of those wonderful visions, or phantasms, as you may call it, that supplement our life and withdraw us from the actual world, seized me. The beaming faces, the brilliant lights reflected again and again in the mirrors and the wine-glasses, the sumptuous table, and the lovely flowers,--methought I had seen them all before.--I felt as if in the midst of one of those wonderful, color-steeped groups of Paul Veronese, and, like soft music, or an apparition gently gliding through the air, memories of Gustava filled my soul.