"Marietta! my Marietta, is it really you?"

"Grandpapa!" cried the young girl exultantly, as she ceased her song and
rushed forward to throw herself in the old man's arms.

"You bad child. Why did you frighten me so?" he said, tenderly. "I did
not expect you until day after to-morrow, and intended going to the
railway station to meet you. When I heard your voice so suddenly just
now, I believed my ears had deceived me."

The girl laughed out gaily like an excited child.

"Ah, I have succeeded in surprising you, grandpapa, haven't I? I came up
the back road, but the wheels stuck so in the mud that I had to get out
and walk part of the way. I came in through the garden and by the back
door--well, Babette, what is it?"

"Fräulein, the carrier is still waiting with the satchel," Babette had
just discovered that a stranger was on the premises. "Shall I give him
money for a drink and let him go?"

The young man, thus designated as the carrier, still stood, satchel in
hand, awaiting Marietta's pleasure. Dr. Volkmar turned at once, and
recognizing who it was, cried in a frightened tone:

"Good heavens--Herr von Eschenhagen!"

"Do you know the gentleman?" asked Marietta, without any especial
interest or surprise, for her grandfather, being the only physician in