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Rh ! I've been cycling my legs off and I'm tired out."

"You're quite red in the face."

"Yes, I've had great fun! Ottocar—in his motor-car! You see, I've got to have my fun by myself . . . when you're cooped up at school."

"What are you saying, Father, about Ottocar?"

"Nothing, nothing, it's a song: Ottocar in his motor-car! . . ."

"Well, I'm off . . . to meet Mamma. Good-bye, you mad old Dad!"

"Good-bye, my boy . . . Come here a moment . . ."

"What's the matter now? . . ."

"Old chap, I feel so lonely sometimes . . . so terribly alone . . . so forlorn . . . Tell me, Addie, you'll always be your father's chum, won't you? . . . You won't leave me, like all the rest? You'll stay with your old father?"

"But, Daddy, what makes you so sentimental suddenly?"

"Oh, no, I'm not sentimental . . . but, my dear boy, I'm so awfully bored sometimes!"

"Then why don't you find more to do, Daddy?"

"Oh, my boy, what would you have me do? . . . Oh, if I only had a car!"

"A car? . . ."

"A motor-car! Like Ottocar!"

And Van der Welcke burst out laughing: