V
"Hallo, Franz! Hallo—there!"
Two young men, walking rapidly along the low hedge that shuts in the Zum Biersack from the highway, lifted heated faces and glanced toward the enclosure, where a youth seated at one of the tables had half risen from his place, and was gesticulating with the open book in his hand to vacant seats beside him.
"It is Tieze," said Schubert, with a smile. "Come in."
His companion nodded. The next instant a swift waiter had served them, and three round, smiling faces surveyed one another above the foaming mugs.
"Ach!" said Tieze, looking more critically at the shorter man, "but you have grown thin, my friend. You are not so great."
Schubert smiled complacently. He glanced down at his rotund figure.
"Nein, I am little," he assented affably.
His companions broke into a roar of laughter.
"Drink her down, Franz! drink her down!" said Tieze, lifting the heavy stein.