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Updated: May 6, 2025
He had bowed to them familiarly in passing, and when the old gentleman said, "Will you not join us, Herr ?" I answered my friend's interrogative glance with a decided affirmative, and we moved to the other table. My seat was beside the Baron von Herisau, with whom I exchanged the usual commonplaces after an introduction.
"Have you noticed," some one asked, "how much attention the Baron von Herisau is paying her?" I whirled round and exclaimed, in a breath, "The Baron von Herisau!" "Yes," said my friend; "do you know him?"
Before examining the fragments relating to the American phase of his life, which illustrated his previous history only by occasional revelations of his moods and feelings, I made one more effort to guess the cause of his having assumed the name of "Von Herisau."
Otto Lindenschmidt had been educated by an old Baron, Bernhard von Herisau, on account of his resemblance in person to a dead son, whose name had also been Otto. He could not have adopted the plebeian youth, at least to the extent of giving him an old and haughty name, but this the latter nevertheless expected, up to the time of the Baron's death.
I fitted them to the vacant places, and found that the first letters of the sister in Breslau had been forwarded to "Otto Lindenschmidt," while the letter to Poland was addressed "Otto von Herisau." "No tidings of Y" might indicate that Count Kasincsky had been concerned in the rebellion, and had fled, or been taken prisoner.
After the theft, and the partition, which took place beyond the Polish frontier, "Jean" in turn, stole his accomplice's share, together with the Von Herisau documents. Exile and a year's experience of organized mendicancy did the rest. Otto Lindenschmidt was one of those natures which possess no moral elasticity which have neither the power nor the comprehension of atonement.
He denied having stolen Otto's share of the money, but could not help admitting his possession of the Von Herisau papers, among which were the certificates of birth and baptism of the old Baron's son, Otto. It seems that he had been fearful of Lindenschmidt's return from America, for he managed to communicate with his sister in Breslau, and in this way learned the former's death.
"Ah, then it can't be the same person," said I: "still, if he should happen to pass near us, will you point him out to me?" It was an hour later, and we were all hotly discussing the question of Lessing's obligations to English literature, when one of the gentlemen at the table said: "There goes the Baron von Herisau: is it perhaps your friend, sir?"
That night we slept at Herisau, the largest town in the Canton, and here I was to part with Spruner. There was no difficulty in reaching the lower valley. With many shakes of the hand, and "May God's blessing be upon you," we parted: one to take the railroad to Zurich, the other back to his household charms, and the work he had chosen. A Night In The Cathedral.
The list of guests which the landlord gave me whetted my curiosity to a painful degree; for on it I found the entry: "Aug. 15. Otto V. Herisau, Rentier, East Prussia." It was quite dark when the carriage returned. I watched the company into the supper-room, and then, whisking in behind them, secured a place at the nearest table.
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