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Rh finally offered to accompany brother and sister home, so that their father, should he be already returned, would without more ado credit the story of an accidental meeting; in this manner, also, their acquaintance would naturally occur. Sabine nodded shortly, in a way which was peculiar to her and which appeared to the doctor to imply a more definite approval than words could have conveyed. They went along the gently sloping and constantly widening woodpath and it was principally Karl who now led the conversation, developing plans of travel and of discovery; in his childish spirit of adventure there showed unmistakably the effects of juvenile books which he had recently read. Sooner than the doctor expected they had reached the garden hedge, and through the tall pines saw the back of the house, with its six narrow uniform windows shimmering in the waning light. On the trampled lawn between the house and the hedge stood a long, rough-timbered table with a bench and chairs. As Karl had run ahead to reconnoitre, the doctor stood for a moment under the pines with Sabine. They looked at one another and the doctor smiled, a little embarrassed; but Sabine remained grave, and, after turning his gaze slowly about in all directions, the doctor remarked, "How peaceful it is here!" and cleared his throat softly. Karl appeared at an open window and beckoned vigorously. The doctor summoned professional gravity to his countenance and followed Sabine through the garden and on to the veranda, where the ranger and his wife were just listening to their son's report of the story of the afternoon's meeting. Graesler, still confused by the erroneous designation of the man as a ranger, had expected to see before him a rough, long-bearded man with a pipe in his mouth, and perhaps dressed in hunting costume, and was astonished to find him a slender, smooth-shaven gentleman with carefully combed hair only just turning from black to grey, who greeted him pleasantly, but with an air of distinction that affected him as somehow theatrical. Doctor Graesler began by extolling the beauty of the woods, with all whose glories Karl and Sabine had just been acquainting him; and while they carried on a conversation about the slowness with which, despite its charming surroundings, the watering-place nearby showed signs of growth, Doctor Graesler by no means neglected to set about his professional observations of the head of the house. He could at first discover nothing striking about him except a certain restlessness of eye as well as a recurring, half-contemptuous twitching of the corners of his mouth. When