The old fellow was beside himself with delight that they thought so much of his relics.
"Is it true," he asked, "that you fought two highwaymen with this stick? Master Desiderius wrote to say so."
"No, only one."
"And you knocked him down?"
"It was impossible for he ran away. Now I have done my walking, and give back the stick with thanks."
But it was not the silver handle that delighted Márton so. He took the returned stick into the shop, like some trophy, and related to the assistants, how Master Lorand had, with that alone, knocked down three highwaymen. He would not have surrendered that stick for a whole Mecklenburg full of every kind of cane.
Old Grandmother Fromm, too, was still alive and counted it a great triumph that she had just finished the hundredth pair of stockings for Fanny's trousseau.
And last, but not least, Fanny, even more beautiful, even more amiable!—as if she had not seen Desiderius and his grandmother for an eternity!
"Well, you will be our daughter!"
And they all loved Desiderius so.