his box of Latakia out of his
pocket and began to make a cigarette. "You'll permit me to smoke I
hope," he said affably to his silent companion. "The air here is
abominably bad, the breath of heaven and hell mixed; I am afraid of the
contagion and should like to disenfect myself."

Lorinser's eyes were fixed upon the floor. Not a muscle of his rigid
face betrayed the feelings that were aroused by this visit. But when
Mohr had lighted his cigarette, he said with a slight cough: "I must
beg you to be brief, I don't like this odor."

"As brief as possible, my dear fellow," answered Mohr phlegmatically.
"You'll give me credit for having troubled myself about you only for
very serious motives, not merely from a desire to continue an
acquaintance which is utterly uninteresting to me. The class of human
beings to which you belong is, thank God, by no means numerous, but
sufficiently well known for it to be a mere waste of time to study it.
Goethe has described it admirably in Faust; you remember the passage
where he speaks of a certain abortion. Even the manner of playing you
represent, is not new. Zacharias Werner and others are your
predecessors, so you've not even the merit of originality, but are
simply a second-hand scoundrel."

"I only wish to observe," began Lorinser without losing his composure,
"that we will suppose you to have poured forth all your invectives and
come to the point at once. I'm accustomed to insults, and console
myself by thinking, that far more holy men, nay our Saviour himself--"

"Beautiful!" interrupted Mohr. "But one good turn deserves another.
I'll avoid every incivility except those which the mere business in
hand may entail, and you'll promise me not to again desecrate in my
presence a name so venerated as that of the founder of the Christian
religion by uttering it with your lips. I confess my weakness; it makes
me fairly sick, when I hear that a--how shall I express it--a poor
sinner--that's not insulting--is playing a blasphemous farce in the
name of that sublime sufferer and champion of humanity. So we're
agreed? Very well. And now we'll proceed at once to business. Do you
know this?" He put his hand into his breast pocket; Lorinser
involuntarily shrank back.

"Calm yourself," said Mohr with a scornful laugh. "I've no pistol in my
pocket, to aim at your breast and force you to a full confession. I
despise such melodramatic means, which moreover would undoubtedly fail
if directed tow