"
A "Verein" with its banner was posted beside the arch. There was a
roar of cannon, the banner waved, the Verein gave three "Hochs!" and
its chief, or spokesman, stepped up to the first carriage, in which
sat a youngish gentleman with spectacles, and an officer in the
gorgeous uniform of a Landwehr dragoon, his breast covered with
stars and crosses. The spectacled gentleman was the Landrath of the
circuit, and the cavalry officer was no other than Paul Haber, now
Herr Paul von Haber. For he had been raised to the nobility, and
celebrated his auspicious event to-day in the midst of his retainers
and a host of invited guests, whom he had fetched in a dozen
carriages from the station at Harburg, supported by his
distinguished young pupils.
The spokesman of the Verein, a man of some fifty years of age, with
a grizzled beard, addressed the proprietor in a glowing speech, in
which, among other things, he assured him--the man of thirty-seven--
that "We all look upon you as our father, and honor and love you as
if we were your children." Paul smiled, and returned thanks in a few
warm words, then renewed "Hochs!" more waving of banners and firing
of cannon, and the procession set itself in motion again.
At the entrance to Kaiser Wilhelm's Dorf there ensued a second and
more elaborate welcome.
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