As he entered the living room Cornelli looked up at him. The Director was quite startled at what he saw. Now Cornelli flew up to him.
“Oh, Papa, oh, Papa! It is so wonderful to be home again! Everything is still the way it used to be. Oh, I am so glad to be home again!”
The father wanted to embrace his child, but before he did so he held her at arm’s length to gaze at her once more.
“Cornelli,” he said with tears in his eyes, “you look at me the way your mother used to. You have grown just like your mother,” he said, putting his arms lovingly about her. “How was it possible? How could you change in this way? How did it happen?”
“Mother knows about it, Papa. Mother has helped me,” said Cornelli, going with shining eyes to the mother, for Mrs. Halm had retreated to the back of the room.
The Director now turned to his new guest. “Welcome to our house,” he said heartily, greeting both her and the children. Holding Cornelli’s hand within his own, he continued with emotion: “How different you have brought her back to me! How did you do it? Can this be the same child that I brought you?”
The happy father had to look at Cornelli over and over again, for he hardly yet realized that this was his child. Was this really Cornelli and not a creature of his imagination? So he held the child’s hand and looked again and again into her shining eyes; it really seemed as if he could not believe it.
Esther, laden with the dinner dishes, now came into the room to set the table. She informed her master that the guest rooms were ready and that she supposed the ladies wanted to retire before the coming meal.
Mrs. Halm and her daughter gladly followed her, but Cornelli said: “Oh, Papa, can I run over to Martha? I’ll be back very soon.”
Dino also begged to go, for he longed to see old Martha again. As the permission had readily been given, the two children started off. They had meant to run down the path, but Cornelli could not go fast. The meadow was so full of daisies, buttercups and especially of blue forget-me-nots, her favorite flowers, that she felt as if she had to gather them all, and Dino had to remind her that their time was short and that the flowers would still be there to-morrow.