Saffran felt the blood rush to his face.
"Well, my good friend," continued Felix, "how has the world treated you since I last saw you? Are you still afraid of 'the doctor'? There's a plaster for you; it will heal any remains of your former injuries." So saying, he took out of his pocket-book a note for a hundred gulden and put it into Peter's hand. "No," he added, "don't thank me, but thank the kind lady there, who remembered you."
He pointed to Eveline, and Peter kissed her hand, or, rather, her beautiful mauve glove.
What a transformation in the man-eater! He had grown obedient and gentle.
"That good lady," continued Felix, "wishes you well. At her request his excellency, Prince Theobald, has given you the post of overseer in the new company's colony, at the yearly salary of a thousand gulden. What do you say to that?"
What could he say? He kissed the hand of his excellency.
Kaulmann filled a large goblet to the brim with foaming champagne and handed it to Peter.
"Toss that off," he said. "But first drink to the long life of his excellency, our generous prince."
"And to the health of this dear lady," added the prince, gallantly, at which the trumpets sounded shrilly, and Peter Saffran, the prince, the banker, and Eveline drank to one another.
This scene delighted the working-men. Here was no pride, the gentlemen clinking glasses with the common miner. This was the right spirit.