And so it went on the following evenings. Sometimes the engineer came, too, and in the lowly apartment there was such good cheer that they all forgot the hour and had to be reminded by Master Kospoth that they must not overstep the time for closing the great door. It was not the young people alone who found these evening chats enjoyable; it was good for Frau Cordula as well, to see a bit of life around her once more, and to be able to converse with intelligent people. Still, she could not disguise the fact that a strange alteration had come upon her child; she went about abstractedly all day, and only regained her old-time merriment in the evening to fall again into a reverie when she was alone with her mother. The wise woman was accordingly glad when one evening she could inform her patient that the wound was almost healed, and that even the scar would soon disappear if he continued to apply the ointment which she gave him in a little jar. She would now take leave of him, as his visits could hardly be concealed if continued much longer, and she herself wished to avoid all gossip among her uncharitable neighbors. The young man started, and Gundelchen grew as pale as death; but her mother had such a decided way, that there was nothing for them but to part sadly, after Philip had consumed a good five minutes in thanking anew his deliverer, pressing her hand the while. The daughter lighted him out to the head of the steep stairs. As he stood there a minute or two in evident perplexity, wishing to say something, yet still silent, he cast one quick glance at her standing beside him in all her charming confusion, seized her hand and kissed it; then, as she drew back, blushing deeply, and murmured, "But, Herr Doctor!" he threw his arm hastily around her and printed a swift kiss upon her hot cheek, whereupon he rushed down the narrow stairs, and, with a fast-beating heart, strode homeward through the sultry night. Heinrich Müller had fortunately been engaged at a _séance_ and had not witnessed this scene. When, a couple of hours later, he looked in at Gundelchen's window, he saw her with wide-open eyes, and a smile on her face, dreaming--but of what he had no suspicion. On the following day, a servant brought a large, firmly-locked box up the stairs to the little house in the rear court. Gundula had just come in to dinner, and Wenzel Kospoth, too, happened to be present when the box was opened. Within it lay all manner of pretty finery for a young girl, and a warm dress-pattern for an older woman. With it came a note containing the request that they would kindly accept these trifles and thus relieve the sender, in some slight degree, of the weight of obligation which lay upon his heart. In the lid lay a very modest little brooch. The girl had once complained that she lost all her pins; now the hope was expressed that this little clasp would hold more firmly, and that, at the same time, it would secure the recollection of a true friend.