She remembered that she had brought her husband a dowry of fifty thousand thalers, but she could not touch them without Emil's permission, and Emil would not allow it. Should she try to move him by throwing herself prostrate at his feet? She could almost have laughed outright at the extravagant idea, especially when she imagined the astonished expression her husband's face would wear; but the tears again sprang to her eyes and mingled with the rain-drops that beat upon her burning face. Suddenly the husband and wife within were roused from their low-toned, eager conversation by a loud exclamation from the balcony. "Gotthold, good heavens, Gotthold!"
"Where, where?" cried the Assessor and his wife with one voice, as they hurried out upon the balcony.
"There he comes," said Ottilie, pointing towards the square, across which a man with a broad-brimmed hat, pulled low over his eyes, was walking directly towards the house.
"He isn't so tall as Brandow," said Alma, who was critically inspecting the new-comer through an opera-glass.
"What can he want?" asked her husband.
"We shall soon know," said Frau Wollnow, as with a vague feeling of anxiety she pressed her two companions back into the room.
But Gotthold had only asked for Herr Wollnow, the maid-servant informed them, and she had been ordered to show him into Herr Wollnow's counting-room. The interview, whatever its purport might be, lasted much longer than was at all agreeable to the impatient waiters, and after an hour, during which the Assessor had rather increased than lessened the ladies' impatience by a detailed account of his adventures with Gotthold in Sicily, Herr Wollnow appeared alone. They were astonished, amazed, and scarcely satisfied when Wollnow said that Gotthold had only gone to the Fürstenhof to change his clothes, and would come back if his business gave him time. They wanted to know what business could be so pressing that Gotthold had selected Sunday morning for its transaction.
"The ladies must ask that of himself," said Herr Wollnow; "he has not taken me into his confidence. All I know is, that he is going to drive back to Dollan with our friends here, return to-night or to-morrow morning in the same excellent company, from which he anticipates a great deal of pleasure, and then continue his journey without further delay. It seems that the point in question concerns the hasty purchase of a few gifts, with which he wants to surprise his host and hostess at Dollan at parting; at least he wanted me to give him a sum of money which is rather large for mere travelling expenses, but I can say no more."
And Herr Wollnow, apparently with the utmost unconcern, hummed an air from "Figaro" as he left the room to avoid further questioning.
"I don't think it at all polite for him not to present himself a moment, at least," said Alma; "I've a great mind to punish him for it by not appearing at breakfast."