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 Frankenhöhe 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.