CHAPTER VII.
SYMPOSIUM.
Paul had hardly returned from his wedding trip to Paris when he surprised his friends by a series of quite unexpected business engagements.

He gave up his post as lecturer, in spite of the fact that the appointment as professor for the next six months depended on it; he left his young wife for three weeks, during which nothing was heard of him, except an occasional letter bearing the postmarks of Hamburg, Altona, or Harburg, then he appeared again, and told Malvine that they were to remove from Berlin, to spend in future a portion of the year in Hamburg, but to live chiefly on some property near Harburg.

He had decided to leave his academic profession and become a practical landowner, and accordingly had taken a large leasehold estate.

He gave Wilhelm and Schrotter further particulars of his plans.

The place he had bought was hardly to be called an estate, but a wild desert bit of moorland called "Friesenmoor," growing only a kind of marsh grass.