"And why didn't you tell me so at once?" "You may be satisfied that I didn't tell you," answered Hinrich, tenderly patting Brownlock's slender neck. "You wouldn't have known that you are, I don't know how many thousand thalers richer than you supposed." "It is six o'clock," said Brandow, looking at his watch. "Then ride on and find him. I must take Brownlock home. Shall I tell Frau Brandow that we shall have a visitor this evening?" "I don't know that yet myself." "She would be so delighted." "Be off, and hold your tongue." A repulsive grin overspread Hinrich's grotesque face, and he cast a piercing glance at his master, but made no reply, turned Brownlock, and rode slowly away. "I might just as well tell him everything," said Carl Brandow to himself, as he turned his horse's head and rode over the moor towards the forest. "I believe the damned fellow sees through me as if I were glass. No matter; everybody must have some one on whom he can depend, and certainly I could not have done without him this time. I've no desire to invite the stupid fellow, but it is one chance more, and I should be a fool to hesitate long in my present situation." Carl Brandow dropped the reins on his horse's neck as he rode slowly up the rough forest path at a walk, and drew from his pocket a letter which he had found on his return home, half an hour before: "Dear Sir:--I hasten to inform you that, as I expected and told you, it was unanimously decided by the convent yesterday not to give an extension of credit, upon any account, but on the contrary to hold you to the promise given, both verbally and in writing, and require the ten thousand on the day it becomes due. I am very sorry to be obliged to write this to you, after what you told me in confidence; but I firmly believe that--with your excitable nature--you have considered your situation more desperate than it really is. In any case, I think it is better for you to know where you stand, and be able to use the week that still remains to discover new resources, if the old ones are really so entirely exhausted. "I intend to pay you a short visit on the 15th, as I must go to several estates at that time, and can, if agreeable to you, take the money back with me and save you the trouble of a journey here. Perhaps my wife will accompany me. She is very anxious to see Dollan, of whose romantic situation I have spoken so enthusiastically, and also renew her acquaintance with her old friends--Frau Wollnow in Prora and your wife--after an absence of so many years. Do you require any stronger proof of my conviction that you can separate the messenger from his message, and that both to you and your lovely wife, I am as ever, Your sincere friend, Bernhard Sellien."