"That scarcely gives you the right to bid me welcome on my on domain. Kindly do me the favour to put a bridle on your joy at seeing me, till you are asked." The sharp, forward boy collapsed, and swore fearfully to himself. "Well, hang it all!" Leo exclaimed, flashing a glance down the table, "does no one offer me a chair, a greeting, or a glass of beer now I am on my own property again?" Every one jumped up, and the tankard fell clattering from Uncle Kutowski's rigid hand on to the board, which it flooded from one end to the other with brown streams. Leo acted as if this mishap made him aware of the old man's presence for the first time. "What, uncle! You here too?" he cried. "I was under the impression that I had strayed into a party of juveniles, who were enjoying a little harmless lark behind your back, and I was about to have a drink with them. But now, of course, the matter takes a different complexion.... Do things go on like this every night, dear uncle?" He was answered by gloomy silence. One of the stewards of outlying estates had in the meanwhile made an attempt to get out at the door unobserved, but Leo caught him by the sleeve in the nick of time. "So, old friend," said he, "you want to be off without shaking hands? Certainly at eleven o'clock at night, or rather"--looking at the timepiece--"at eleven-forty, there is precious little to do at Halewitz. It would have been better, perhaps, not to have let yourself been seen here at all. So off with you, and make haste." At this bidding, not one but two men disappeared through the door. Leo looked after them, laughing, and then turned to the two bailiffs, who, ashamed and anxious, stared into vacancy with watery eyes. "We all know the pretty proverb, gentlemen, 'Run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.' You have all been hunting. Good sport. I can agree with you; but who the hounds are is what I am now elucidating." He looked keenly at the old man, who seemed to have composed himself somewhat, and sat frowning moodily. The reprimanded couple fetched their caps and departed without a word. Now it was the turn of the four half-fledged striplings. He measured the slight, narrow-chested, overgrown figures, that stood drawn up before him like a row of scarecrows, with a wondering, amused glance. "Will you kindly introduce me to these gentlemen, dear uncle?" "Introduce you, eh? Why the dickens shouldn't I introduce you to them?" "Well, then, I am waiting." But it pleased the old man to keep silent. He puffed out clouds of smoke and sulked. Leo let him be. Some time elapsed before he elicited any clear information with regard to the name and character of the lads. "Since when has Halewitz taken pupils?" "Since I have been agent here, my son." Leo's eyes flashed; but he checked himself. "I advise you to write to your respective fathers, young men, and tell them that for the future Halewitz can get on very well without you. Now then, off to bed."