He walked slowly away. Brandow's eyes followed the short dark figure; he wanted to call him back, to tell him he need not harness the horses, but only a strange, hoarse, choking sound came from his throat; his tongue clung to his palate, and as he raised his foot he staggered like a drunken man, and was obliged to hold fast to the trunk of one of the old linden-trees, through whose thick branches a violent gust of wind was just roaring. The rain, which again began to fall, beat into his face, now burning with a strange flush, although he was shivering from head to foot. There! What was that? The noise of the carriage which Hinrich was pushing out of the barn. There was still time! But, after all, he had said nothing, nothing at all; how could he help it if an accident happened to Hinrich on the moor at night? Gotthold and the Assessor had remained in the room; the latter was trying to explain to Gotthold that Brandow had certainly been quite right when he asked that the game should be continued, but had done wrong to express his wish in so peremptory a manner; and finally he ought not to have forgotten that he was the host, and as such must overlook any little impropriety on the part of his guests. During the latter part of his long speech, the Assessor had addressed himself in an admonitory tone, partly to Brandow, who had just entered the room, and going up to the side-board swallowed several glasses of wine. "I have in fact been compelled to overlook many such things to-day, and am obliged to you, Herr Assessor, for keeping me in practice up to the last minute." The tone in which Brandow said this, and the gesture with which he approached the Assessor, were so peculiar that the latter was partly sobered, and stared in astonishment at his host, who now came a step nearer and said in a low voice: "Or what do you call it, when the guests, in presence of the servants, subject the conduct of the master of the house to such an unsparing criticism?" and he pointed to Rieke, under whose direction another maid servant and the groom Fritz were beginning to remove the glasses standing about on the tables, and sweep up the fragments scattered over the floor. The Assessor drew himself up to his full height. "I beg your pardon," said he, "and will request you to be kind enough to place your carriage at my disposal for my return. I regret that I did not accept from your other guests the favor I must now solicit of you. I can still depend upon your company, Gotthold?" "I think Brandow will make no objections." "I beg the gentlemen to act their own pleasure." They bowed to each other with distant civility. A few minutes after, the same light carriage that had brought the two gentlemen to Dollan a few hours before rolled over the rough road into the dark, gusty night. Hinrich Scheel drove the horses. CHAPTER XXI.