"Don't you know me, my dear brother?" asked the reverend gentleman; "didn't they tell you my name? August Semmel--"
"Surnamed Kloss,"[[1]] said Gotthold with an involuntary laugh. "I beg your pardon, I really had not heard your name, and then I have never seen you lately except in uniform, with a military cap on one side of your head, and your face covered with a beard; it is really an excellent mask."
Pastor Semmel dropped Gotthold's hands and hastily turned away, so that he placed himself in shadow.
"A mask," he said, rolling up his eyes piously; "yes indeed! and, as I now think, a very vain, not to say sinful one. I often scolded you then because you would not enter our corps, although you sometimes did not disdain to go to an ale--to amuse yourself with us, I mean; now I envy you for having had the power of self-renunciation I lacked."
"So Saul has now become Paul," replied Gotthold smiling, "while my journey to Damascus is still delayed."
"Yes, yes," said the Pastor. "Who would have thought it! The most industrious of us all at school, the most indefatigable at the university; always held up as a pattern by teachers and professors; when in the fourth session already cram--preparing us older ones for the examination, passing your own with great distinction, and all this--"
"For Hecuba! No, dear Semmel, you must not revile my art, although I freely admit I am but a poor artist as yet. But I can assure you of one thing: it is easier to pass a creditable examination in theology than to paint a good picture. I speak from experience; besides if I had remained a theological student, who knows whether the son might not have stepped into his father's place instead of you? That is to be considered too."
"There would have been a terrible competition," said Herr Semmel, "although on the other hand a prophet has little honor in his own country; and to be frank, when I was a candidate here--after I left Halle I spent four years in Lower Pomerania as a tutor in Count Zerneckow's family, and afterwards came to Neuenkirchen to relieve the old man, who had grown very garrulous, so that I thought I was positively settled--but he has entirely recovered his powers again, and so it happened very opportunely--what was I going to say? yes--when I applied for this place a month ago, and thought it would be an advantage to present myself as an intimate school and university friend of my predecessor's son, I found the recommendation was not satisfactory everywhere. Herr Otto von Plüggen of Plüggenhof--"
Gotthold could not help laughing. "I suppose so," said he, "I have often punched his stupid head when he went to school in P."
"You know I was in the first class, while you were still in the second," continued the Pastor in an apologetic tone, "and had entirely forgotten that you must have known each other; but when, warned by my experience with von Plüggen, I mentioned you more cautiously to several others, I found a certain, what shall I term it? hostility would be unchristian, but--"