"In Heaven's name, then!" sighed the latter, casting a droll look upward, "I submit to higher guidance, and acknowledge with gratitude the consideration you have shown toward my poor person in your project. Schnetz will find his way out to us, I suppose--after all a horse can always be found or sent for; there will most likely be a pistol-gallery at hand; and, if all other sports should leave me in the lurch, I can still become an angler on the lake--that most insipid of all pastimes, which I have heretofore regarded with quiet horror from a distance. When shall we be off? Not before this evening, of course?" "With the next train, uncle. We have only half an hour to spare. Fritz is already at work packing your things, for he had heard from Betty that my trunk was ready. All you will have to do will be to make your own toilet." The baron broke into a shout of laughter. "What do you say to that, Schnetz? Abd-el-Kader himself might learn a lesson from this rapidity in breaking camp. Child, child! And my new acquaintances of last night--the stag-party that was arranged for to-morrow--Count Werdenfels, whose collection of weapons I was to go and see--" "You can send them your excuses by letter from Starnberg, dear uncle. And truly I would not hurry so if there were any other way of avoiding taking leave in person of our fellow-guest down stairs. But, if we go off at once, these two lines, which the waiter will give her as soon as we are gone, will be sufficient." She produced a visiting-card, on which she had already written a word of farewell. "The note already written, too! _La letterina eccola qua!_" cried the baron. "Child, your genius for command is so sublime that subordination under your flag becomes a pleasure, and blind submission a matter of honor. In five minutes I will be ready for the journey." With comical gallantry he kissed the girl's hand, who had listened to all his jests in a preoccupied and serious way, gave his friend a look that seemed to say: "I yield to force!" and rushed out of the room. Schnetz was left alone with the Fräulein. A feeling that was almost fatherly in its tenderness passed over him as he looked at the serious young face. "Perhaps," he thought, "it needs but a first word, a light touch, and this young heart that is full to the brim will overflow and be relieved." But, before he could even open his lips, she said suddenly: "I do hope Starnberg is not such a great resort for artists as the other places in the Bavarian mountains, of which my cousins have told me." He looked at her in amazement. "You hope so, Fräulein? And what possible reason can you have for not wishing it to be such a place? Artists are, as a rule, among the most harmless of God's creatures, and can hardly be said to disfigure a fine region with their umbrellas and camp-stools." "And yet, last evening, I made the acquaintance of one of these artists at the countess's below. The tone which he adopted--"