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92 —"Enough for every impertinent puppy." She laughed in her throat and her small eyes twinkled naughtily. "You can have a piece of sausage, but nothing else." Involuntarily he compared her ability to defend herself with the helplessness of Agnes, and he said to himself: "It would be no harm to marry a girl like that." In the end she herself told her Christian name, and as he still could not guess who she was, she asked after his sisters. Suddenly he cried: "Guste Daimchen!" They both shook with laughter. "You always used to give me buttons from the rags in your paper factory. I shall always be grateful to you for that, Dr. Hessling! Do you know what I used to do with those buttons? I collected them, and whenever my mother gave me money for buttons I used to buy sweets for myself."

"You are a practical person, too!" Diederich was delighted. "Then you used to climb over the garden wall to us, you little rogue! Most of the time you did not wear knickers, and when your dress slipped up there was a view from behind."

She shrieked; no decent man would remember such things. "Now, it must be much more interesting," added Diederich. She at once became more serious.

"Now, I am engaged to be married."

It was to Wolfgang Buck that she was engaged. Diederich was silent and his face expressed his disappointment. Then he declared reluctantly that he knew Buck. She said cautiously: "I suppose you mean that he is rather eccentric? But the Bucks are a very distinguished family. Of course, in other families there is more money," she concluded. Feeling that this shot was directed at him, Diederich looked at her. She twinkled. He wanted to ask her something, but he had lost courage.

Just before they reached Netzig Fräulein Daimchen asked: "and what about your heart, Dr. Hessling, is it still free?"

"So far I have avoided an engagement." He nodded his head seriously. "Oh, you must tell me all about it," she cried,