Ever since the Burgher had been elected a confidant of Madaleine's original communication, he had made a point of calling every day in the Gulden Strasse, with his, to the old nurse, sickening and stereotyped inquiry--"Any news yet ?" until the field post brought the next despatch, when, as he now naturally expected and wished, the letter was given him to read.
"He seems bent on hanging up his hat in our lobby here!" Lorischen would say spitefully, on the widow seeking to excuse the little man's pertinacity in visiting her.

"Much he cares whether poor Master Fritz gets well or ill; he takes more interest in somebody else, I think!" "Oh, Lorischen!" Madame Dort would remonstrate.

"How can you say such things ?" "It is `Oh, mistress!' it strikes me," the other would retort.

"I wish the young master were only here!" "And so do I heartily," said Madame Dort, at the end of one of these daily skirmishes between the two on the same subject.

"We agree on that point, at all events!" and she sighed heavily.