"Sit down and eat with us, we don't want to sit staring at all this food. Pitch in and enjoy yourselves,
'Whoever late to dinner comes
Must eat what's left or suck his thumbs.'"
There was no need to ask them a second time, and they were jolly and in good spirits, and Hermine was the merriest of all, and her appetite grew better and better the more annoyed and displeased her father became.
"The fellow seems to be a boor!" he growled to himself, but she heard it and said:
"He probably couldn't get leave; we mustn't judge him too hastily."
"Not get leave! Are you ready to defend him already? Why shouldn't he get leave if he cares anything about it?"
He finished his meal in the worst of humors and, contrary to his habit, went at once to a coffee-house simply that he should not be at home if the negligent suitor should finally come. Towards four o'clock, instead of joining the Seven as usual, he came home again, curious to see whether Ruckstuhl had put in an appearance. As he came through the garden, there sat Mrs. Hediger with Hermine in the summer-house, as it was a warm spring day, and they were drinking coffee and eating the "cocked hats" and the raisin loaf and seemed to be in high spirits. He said good afternoon to Mrs. Hediger, and although it annoyed him to see her there, he asked her at once whether she had no news from the barracks, and if all the sharpshooters had not perhaps gone on an excursion.
"I think not," said Mrs. Hediger, "they were at church this morning and afterwards Karl came home to dinner; we had roast mutton and that is a dish he never deserts."
"Did he say nothing about Mr. Ruckstuhl or mention where he had gone?"
"Mr. Ruckstuhl? Yes, he and another recruit are in close confinement for getting dreadfully intoxicated and insulting their superiors; they say it was a most laughable scene."