A young man
whose countenance seemed known to me held my hand between his. I
perceived also the fat gentleman, another thin one, the lady, the
children, and in distant twilight I saw the shimmer of the
paradise of the tea-table; in short, I found myself by an
incomprehensible whim of fate amidst the family which an hour
before I had contemplated with such lively sympathy.
When I again had returned to full consciousness, the young man
embraced me several times with military vehemence.
"Do you then no longer know me?" cried he indignantly, as he saw
me petrified body and soul. "Have you then forgotten August D--,
whose life a short time since you saved at the peril of your own?
whom you so handsomely fished up, with danger to yourself, from
having for ever to remain in the uninteresting company of fishes?
See here, my father, my mother, my sister, Wilhelmina!"
I pressed his hand; and now the parents embraced me. With a stout
blow of the fist upon the table, August's father exclaimed, "And
because you have saved my son's life, and because you are such a
downright honest and good fellow, and have suffered hunger
yourself--that you might give others to eat--you shall really have
the parsonage at H--. Yes, you shall become clergyman, I say!--I
have jus patronatum, you understand!"
For a good while I was not at all in a condition to comprehend, to
think, or to speak; and before all had been cleared up by a
thousand explanations, I could understand nothing clearly
excepting that Wilhelmina was not--that Wilhelmina was August's
sister.
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