"It is possible that it was he. I, however, made both the gentlemen stay, that at least the coffee and 'cowl-skippers'[113] might not be wasted. They did not wait to be asked twice, but ate with right good will. During the meal we fully discussed the best means of helping forward the stranded concert. Suddenly the dancing-master looked at his watch: 'Gracious me, if it isn't six o'clock! I must be off to give the children of the chief magistrate a dancing-lesson'—and with that he jumped up, kissed my hand, and pirouetted off.
[113] A sort of dumpling.
"Then Esaias also rose from the table, brushed the crumbs of the cowl-skippers from his coat, and said: 'Blessing and peace be with you!'—This was always his parting formula. Such a salutation as 'Your humble servant!' or 'I commend myself to your protection!' nobody has ever heard from his lips—no, not even his superintendent; for Esaias is not humble and not your servant, and does not commend himself to anybody, nor will he tell a lie even as a matter of form.
"'What! must you go too?' I replied to his 'blessing and peace.' 'You have no six-o'clock school this evening.'
"'No; but why should I stay here if there's to be no practice?'
"'Must I, then, begin singing in my own house before a man?'
"'It depends upon the man,' replied Esaias.
"'What am I to understand by that?' I inquired, much astonished.
"'What are you to understand by that?' said he, striking the leg of his boot repeatedly with his pipe stem—'what are you to understand by that? It is not very hard to understand, I should think. If a lawyer, a doctor, or a squire were to come to see you and amuse himself here with or without music, not a dog in the village would have anything to bark at; but if they saw the schoolmaster come here at six o'clock in the afternoon—if they saw him, I say, remain here last of all when the other guests were gone, then there would be such a stir in Israel that men would be ready to stone me.'
"'Do I stand, then, in such evil odour as all that?'