“You don’t know what I have to thank you for,” said Mr. Thornau to Vinzenz Lesa at leave-taking. “My son, who never has shown the slightest inclination nor wish for any occupation, has just informed me that he has decided to become a landowner. After having already chosen the manager for his estate, he insists on getting all his cows from you. He says you have the finest that can be found anywhere, and he knows all about the breed. My daughter has been fighting against studying music for over a year and has not once opened her beautiful piano in spite of all my remonstrances. Now she declares to me that it is her highest wish to take up her lessons again. Hearing her former pupil play so beautifully makes her ambitious to work hard and catch up with him. I really mean it most seriously, Mr. Lesa, when I say that my gratitude for everything that my children have experienced in your house is much greater than I can say. I would love to prove it to you. Don’t you ever expect to get to Hamburg, Mr. Lesa?”
“No, I don’t believe so,” said the latter truthfully. “But we are glad if the children have profited somewhat. We liked to have them and would like them to come again.”
Mr. Thornau pressed Mrs. Lesa’s hand most gratefully, for his children had told him so much about her that he knew she had been a real mother to them. “Will you let the children come back again?” he asked sincerely.
“It would make me quite unhappy if they didn’t come next summer,” she said half sadly, half happily, “and I’ll look forward to their coming every summer.”
Upon taking leave of Mr. Lesa, Mr. Delrick told him that they would see each other again, as he was planning to spend Vinzi’s holidays in Leuk. But first he intended to go to the Simplon in order to show Pater Silvanus how his pupil had progressed. If the father had no objection he would take Vinzi with him. Lesa replied that Mr. Delrick should do whatever he thought best.
Vinzi, who was standing beside them, listened breathlessly. What had his father said? How could he say this when he had forbidden him so emphatically to go back to the mountain?
Anxious to know the truth, he asked a little timidly, “Father, can I really go to the mountain with Mr. Delrick?”
“You may do whatever Mr. Delrick says,” replied the father.
Vinzi’s eyes sparkled with delight. He was to return to the mountain in a few days and see every one he had loved so dearly. He would be able to thank Pater Silvanus, as he fully realized how much he had to be grateful for.
That same hour all separated. The children found it quite impossible to get done with their leave-taking. Whenever they seemed to have finished, they began again. But they were far from sad, as they had the sure prospect of meeting again next summer. Vinzi was to be with them also, as Mr. Delrick had promised to come to Leuk at the beginning of his holidays. Mr. Thornau travelled in the direction of Basle, and Vinzenz Lesa toward Bulle, near his paternal home. Mr. Delrick and Mrs. Lesa, with the three children, journeyed toward Lausanne on the lake of Geneva. Here they spent the night in order to arrive home as soon as possible the next morning.