"It was you, then, after all!" he exclaimed. "I heard you singing down in the church and it almost upset me. I asked myself over and over again, 'Who but Jos knows our song and has a voice like that?' But yet you could not be here. And now you are after all!"
Then Alida stood before him and Hugo and Mr. Thornau. One lively greeting followed the other. Alida had so much to say about past events, present and future, that Mr. Thornau finally had to say it was time to go to dinner; that they could carry on their conversation there.
In spite of Vinzenz Lesa's reluctance, he could not help himself, but had to go to the Zahringerhof Hotel to dinner, a place he had never before entered, and then the hour of departure came too soon for all of them.
"You can have no conception of my gratitude, Mr. Lesa," said Mr. Thornau when he said farewell. "My son, who has never shown the slightest inclination whatever to follow any calling, has just declared his decision to become a farmer. He has already selected the manager for his estate, and insists that your cows are the only stock he will buy; they are the finest to be found. The youngster knows the breed already.
"Then my daughter who has been hostile to studying music for over a year and has not opened the piano in spite of my pleas, now tells me it is her highest ambition to resume her lessons as soon as she returns to Hamburg. Hearing her former pupil play so beautifully makes her desire to follow him. In all earnestness I say, Mr. Lesa, that my gratitude for all my children have shared in your house is greater than I can express. I would like to prove it to you. Will you make a trip to Hamburg some day?"
"No, I believe not," said the latter truthfully. "But it is a pleasure to us if your children have profited by being with us. We have been glad to have them and hope they will come again."
Deeply moved, Mr. Thornau pressed Mrs. Lesa's hand, for he realized she had been a mother to his children and he asked sincerely, "May the children come to you again?"
"I shall be unhappy if they do not come next summer," she replied, torn by both joy and pain, "and I shall look for their return each following summer."
When taking leave of Vinzenz Lesa, Mr. Delrick said they would soon meet again, as he was planning to spend Vinzi's vacation with him in his father's house. But first they would go up the Simplon; Father Silvanus must know how his pupil had progressed. He would take Vinzi with him if Mr. Lesa did not object. Mr. Lesa replied that he could do just as he thought best. Vinzi, standing alongside, listened intently. What was it his father had just said? How could he say this when he had forbidden him to go up the mountain again?
"Father," he asked rather timidly, "may I really go with Mr. Delrick?"