"Here is your place, Cecilia," said he, with deep emotion. "You are my son's widow, and my daughter. You shall find in me a father!"
CHAPTER XVI.
[SCENES AT THE "GOLDEN LAMB."]
In the town, that was the railroad station both for Odensburg and the whole region round about, was situated the "Golden Lamb," a well-known and much-frequented inn. The immediate neighborhood of the railroad station and the lively intercourse that continually took place between this place and the Odensburg works, brought much custom to the house. All who came from Odensburg or went thither, used to turn in at the "Golden Lamb," which had the best repute, so far as accommodations were concerned.
The original proprietor had been dead for a long while, but his widow had given him a successor in the person of Herr Pancratius Willmann. He had once chanced to call here as a guest with the purpose of looking out for some small office in the town, but he had then preferred to court the rich widow and remain in that snug nest. He had succeeded in this plan, and was very comfortably off in consequence. He left it to his wife to manage in kitchen and cellar, reserving to himself the more pleasant duties of entertaining the guests and showing them, by his own example, how excellent was the cookery of the "Golden Lamb."
It was on a gloomy, raw October day, which made one feel that autumn had come in earnest, when Dr. Hagenbach's buggy stopped before the inn; the doctor himself, though, sat in the comfortable gentlemen's parlor upstairs which was only open to favored guests. Dagobert was equipped for a journey, since he was to take the next train for Berlin, where he was to enter the high school. In spite of his uncle's rigid discipline, the young man's stay at Odensburg did not seem to have been disadvantageous to him, for he looked more manly and healthier than in the spring.
Herr Willmann, who would not let the doctor be served by anybody but himself, had informed him, with woful visage, that his health had certainly been better since he had strictly followed his prescriptions, but that he was half-starved nevertheless. Hagenbach listened, quite unmoved, and ordered the continuation of the same treatment, without paying the least heed to mine host's dismay.
"Times seem to be lively with you to-day, Herr Willmann. The sitting room downstairs is swarming like a veritable bee-hive. You are having a grand political gathering. I hear the whole social democracy of the town meet at your house. At all events it is a sign for good that the gentlemen have selected the 'Lamb' for a place of rendezvous of their own accord. It indicates peaceful intentions, at all events."
Herr Willmann folded his hands, and his visage became very rueful.
"Ah, Doctor, do not laugh at me, I am in downright despair. I built the new hall last year, for innocent and instructive entertainment--it is the largest in the whole town--and now those radicals, those revolutionists, those anarchists hold their meetings in it--it is dreadful----"