"And now I must really build it!" said George, and grew quite excited himself as he said it.
In their own rooms the General and his wife talked about the Porter's son. Why, he knew how to carry himself and to speak with knowledge and refinement. "He could be a tutor," said the General.
"Genius!" said the General's wife, and that was all she did say.
Often during those fine summer days George came to the castle of the Count. They missed him when he didn't come.
"How much more our Lord has given to you than to us ordinary beings!" Emilie said to him. "Are you grateful for it now?"
George was flattered that this beautiful young girl should look up to him. He found her very gifted.
And the General was more and more convinced that Mr. George could hardly have been a real child of the cellar. "However, his mother was a mighty fine woman," he said; "I owe her that sentence as an epitaph!"
Summer passed, winter came, and there was still more to tell about Mr. George. He had received attention and favor in the highest of all highest places. The General had met him at the court ball!
And now there was a ball planned at home for Little Emilie. Could Mr. George be invited?
"Whom the King invites, the General can invite!" said the General, drawing himself up a good inch higher.
So Mr. George was invited, and he came. And princes and counts came, and each danced better than the other. But Emilie danced only the first dance, for during that she strained her ankle, not seriously but painfully, so she had to stop dancing and watch the others. And there she sat, looking on, while the architect stood beside her.
"You're giving her the whole of St. Peter's Church at Rome!"
said the General as he passed, smiling like good humor itself.
A few days later he received Mr. George with the same smile of good humor. The young man had come to thank him for the ball, of course, and had he anything else to say? Yes - and the most surprising, astonishing, insane words were uttered by him. The General could hardly believe his ears. A preposterous declamation, an unbelievable proposition! Mr. George actually asked for Emilie as his wife!
"Man!" said the General as he began to boil. "I cannot understand you! What are you saying? What do you want? I don't know you! Sir! Fellow! You come and break into my house! Am I to remain here or am I not?" And then he backed into his bedroom, turned the key, and let Mr George stand alone. He stood there for a few moments, then turned around and left.
In the hallway he met Emilie. "What did my father say?" she asked in a trembling voice.
George pressed her hand. "He ran away from me - a better time will come."
There were tears in Emilie's eyes, while in the young man's were courage and confidence; the sun shone in upon them both and blessed them.
In his bedroom the General sat boiling; yes, still boiling - and then he boiled over and spluttered, "Lunacy! Porter madness!"
Inside of an hour the General's wife had heard it all from the General himself, and she sent for Emilie, to be alone with her. "Poor girl," she said. "To think of his insulting you like that, insulting all of us! I see there are tears in yours eyes; they're quite becoming to you. You really look charming in tears; you remind me of myself on my wedding day. Go ahead, cry, Little Emilie."
"Yes, that I certainly shall," said Emilie, "unless you and Papa say 'yes'!"
"Child!" cried the General's wife. "You're ill! You're delirious, and I'm getting one of my dreadful headaches! Oh, the miseries, that are descending upon our house! Don't let you mother die, Emilie, because then you'll have no mother!" And her eyes filled with tears; she couldn't bear to consider her own death.