"And you will teach me to ride, won't you, uncle? Papa has no time."
"But I don't know how to ride myself," returned Wilhelm with a
smile.
Willy looked up disappointed. "What can you do then?"
"Be a good boy now," Malvine broke in, "and leave uncle in peace and
go back to the nursery. You shall have him again later on."
After more kisses and caresses Willy ran off, and Paul led his guest
to the room prepared for him, where at last he left him to himself.
Wilhelm had visited Paul on his estate during the preceeding summer,
but since then had only seen him in Berlin. The house on the
Uhlenhorst was new to him, and he marveled at the solid
sumptuousness that met the eye at every turn. The visitor's room was
not less splendidly furnished than the smoking and breakfast rooms
he had already seen, and when he looked about him at the great
carved bedstead with its ample draperies, the silk damask-covered
chairs, the thick rugs, the marble washstand, and the toilet table
with its array of bottles and dishes of china, cut glass, and
silver, he could not help feeling almost abashed. His friend Paul
had become a very great gentleman apparently!
And so in point of fact he had. The Friesenmoor had proved itself a
very gold mine, and in the district round about they calculated that
it yielded a clear return of a hundred or a hundred and twenty
thousand marks a year.
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