ever-courteous colleague and travelling companion from his dream, and,
when the latter started and turned toward him, Alassi gaily continued:
"To see his home and his family again does, indeed, make any man glad!
The sight of yonder shining steeples and roofs seems to make your heart
laugh, Sir Wolf, and, by Our Lady, you have good reason to bestow one or
more candles upon her, for, besides other delightful things, a goodly
heritage is awaiting you in Ratisbon."

Here he paused, for the sunny radiance vanished simultaneously from
the sky and from his companion's face. The violinist, as if in apology,
added: "Some trouble always precedes an inheritance, and who knows
whether, in your case also, rumour did not follow the evil custom of
lying or making a mountain out of a molehill?"

Wolf Hartschwert slightly shrugged his shoulders and calmly answered:

"It is all true about the heritage, Massi, and also the trouble, but it
is unpleasant to hear you, too, call me 'Sir.' Let it drop for the
future, if we are to be intimate. To others I shall, of course, be the
knight or cavalier. You know what the title procures for a man, though
your saying--

'Knightly Knightly rank with lack of land
More care than joy hath at command,'

is but too true. As for the heritage, an old friend has really named me
in his will, but you must not expect that it is a large bequest. The man
who left it to me was a plain person of moderate property, and I myself
shall not learn until the next few days what I am to receive in addition
to his modest house."