“THE SMILING FACE OF HERR LEBERMANN.”
The judge dropped his fork. “For heaven’s sake—Lebermann!” he stammered with difficulty.
A further critical remark was suppressed, for the good Lebermann, with a happy smile upon his face, stood before our pleasure-seekers.
“Well now, you’d never have supposed you’d find me here, would you?” he asked, full of rapture.
“No—that is the last thing I should have thought of,” replied Karl mildly. “What brought you here?”
“I’ll tell you all about it in a minute,” replied Herr Lebermann, having given a chivalrous greeting to the ladies and proved himself thoroughly well-informed by looking at Annchen with the words, “Ah, this, I suppose, is your visitor that came the other night!”
He drew a chair up to the table and ordered a beef-steak.
The judge looked about him wildly, and was apparently so greatly in danger of indulging in unwary remarks, that Helen, to avert the storm, imprudently reminded the apothecary of his promised narrative.
“Well, you see,” began the interesting arrival, “I noticed some time ago that there was something wrong with my molar tooth—the third in the upper row,” he added, to expel every doubt. “I believe I mentioned it to you once, Herr Judge?”