Mahlmann greeted them. "I was curious to see if you were going to give us the slip." Then he took Diederich aside. "Well, how did you find her? Did you get on all right? Didn't I tell you that no great arts are required?"
Diederich made no reply.
"I suppose you made a good beginning? Now let me tell you this: I shall be only two more terms in Berlin, then you can take her on after I am gone, but meanwhile, hands off—my little friend!" As he said this, his small head looked malicious on his immense body.
Diederich was dismissed. He had received a terrible fright and did not again venture in Agnes's neighbourhood. She did not pay much attention to Mahlmann, but shouted over her shoulder: "Father! it is beautiful to-day and I really feel well."
Herr Göppel took her arm between his two hands, as if he were going to squeeze it tight, but he scarcely touched it. His colourless eyes laughed and filled with tears. When the family had taken its departure, he called his daughter and the two young men, and declared that this was a day which must be celebrated; they would go along down Unter den Linden and afterwards get something to eat.
"Father is getting frivolous!" cried Agnes looking at Diederich. But he kept his eyes fixed on the ground. In the tram he was so clumsy that he got separated far from the others, and in the crowd in Friederichstrasse he walked behind alone with Herr Göppel. Suddenly Göppel stopped, fumbled nervously at his waistcoat and asked "Where is my watch?"
It had disappeared along with the chain. Mahlmann said: "How long have you been in Berlin, Herr Göppel?"
"Ah, yes,"—Göppel turned to Diederich,—"I have been living here for thirty years, but such a thing has never happened to me before." Then, with a certain pride: "such a thing couldn't happen in Netzig at all!"
Now, instead of going to a restaurant, they had to go to
