“Please let him come here, if only for a little while,” Mrs. Maxa begged, yet more strongly, “so that you can see him.  If you can’t willingly see him who may be the pride and joy of your life, then open the door of his home because, before God, it is right, which you must feel as fully as I.”

The Baron was silent, then finally said, “Salo may come.”

Mrs. Maxa’s face shone with joy and gratitude.  Many things had still to be discussed, and the two old friends remained sitting under the pine tree till the last rays of the setting sun were throwing a rosy light over the gray castle.  The children were at last returning from their walk across the meadows.  They looked like a full-blown garden when they approached the Baron’s chair, for they were covered with garlands of poppies, ivy and cornflowers.  Now supper was announced, and the Baron was escorted to the terrace as before.  It was a true triumphal march this time, when he, throned in his chair with the lion-skin on his knees, was pushed along by the gaily decked children.  The Baron told them how much he would enjoy taking a similar ride into the fields some day.

When Mrs. Maxa gave the sign for parting after the merry supper party, no sign of grief was shown because the Baron had already told them that Leonore was to move up into the castle in a few days.  They were all to be present then.  After that there would be no end to their visits.

When the Baron shook Maezli’s hand at parting, he said, “You came to see me first, Maezli, so you shall always be my special friend.”

“Yes, I’ll be your friend,” Maezli said firmly.

When Leonore tenderly took leave of her uncle she whispered in his ear, “May Salo come soon, Uncle?”

This time the answer was a clear affirmative, and the child’s heart was filled with rapture.

“Oh, Aunt Maxa,” he cried aloud, “Can’t we sing our evening song up here?  I should love to sing the song my mother used to sing.”

When consent was given, they grouped themselves about the Baron’s chair and sang: 

   God, Who disposes all things well,
   I want but what Thou givest me. 
   Oh how can we Thine acts foretell,
   When Thou are far more wise than we?

All the way home the children kept looking back at the castle, for their day had been too marvellous.

The next day three letters were sent to Salo, one from Bruno and one from Leonore, both full of enthusiasm about the great event of the day before; and one from Mrs. Maxa.  The last thrilled Salo most, because it contained a summons for him to come to his new home.

The news that Baron Bruno had come back and that Apollonie had resumed her old post at the castle had spread all over the neighborhood.  Everybody had heard that Loneli also was living at the castle, that Baron Salo’s daughter had come, and his son was soon to be there.  The report that Mrs. Rector Bergmann’s whole family had spent a day at the castle was reported, too, and everybody talked about the intimate friendship of the two families.