The neighbours all came to call on the squire during the first week after his coming home. Pomuchelskopp amongst the number. He was dressed in his blue coat with the brass buttons, and drove up to the door in his grand new carriage which looked, even more imposing than before, because of the coat-of-arms on the pannels. He had paid half a sovereign to a man in Vienna for the arms, which were a cod's head on an azure field, but the stupid labourers who knew nothing about cod-fish, and who perhaps saw a certain resemblance between the coat of arms and their master, always spoke of it as a "fool's head on a blue ground." Pomuchelskopp had given up all thought of being on visiting terms with Bräsig's master the count, and there were no other members of the aristocracy in the neighbourhood, so he rejoiced in Mr. von Rambow's coming to Pümpelhagen; but he met with a disappointment. He told the old butler, Daniel Sadenwater, in a tone of heart-felt anxiety of his distress where he heard of Mr. von Rambow's illness, and how he could not resist coming to enquire after him personally, adding that he had known the squire well in Rostock. Daniel listened with stolid gravity, and then went to tell his master who it was that had called, he returned in a few minutes, as stolidly grave as before, and said that the squire regretted that he did not feel well enough to admit visitors. Pomuchelskopp was very much put out by this, and spent the rest of the afternoon sulking in his favourite sofa corner, and his wife, who was always loving and tender to him at such times, called him "Pöking," which must have gone a long way towards making up for his disappointment.