take Specht as your partner?" asked Anton,
smiling. "You used to have a great horror of partnerships."

"I should not enter into one with any body else. Between ourselves, I
owe the poor fellow some compensation, and I can make the ten thousand
dollars he is marrying useful in my business. I have undertaken a retail
warehouse, in which I will place him. That will amuse him. He can be
polite to the ladies all day long, and can have a new fur coat every
winter. He will come out much stronger there than here in the office."

"How comes it that you have chosen this branch of trade?"

"I was obliged," was the reply. "I found a great stock on hand left by
my predecessor in sorry plight, I can assure you, and was thrown all at
once among those who valued hare-skins and pig's bristles exceedingly."

"And that alone decided you?" replied Anton, laughing.

"Perhaps something else as well," said Pix. "I could not remain here on
account of my wife; and you will admit, Anton, that I, who was manager
of the provincial department of this firm, could not open another in the
same town of the same nature. I know the whole provincial department
better than the principal, and all small traders know me better than
they do him. I might have injured this house, though my capital is so
much smaller. I should, no doubt, have got on, but this house would have
suffered; so I was obliged to turn to something else. I went to Schroeter
as soon as I had decided, and talked it over to him. I only keep one
thing in common with you here, and that is horse-hair, and in that I
beat you hollow. I have told the principal so."

"The firm can bear that," said Anton, and shook the fur-merchant by the
hand.

But it was not in the office only; even among the porters around the
great scales a change was observable. Father Sturm, the faithful friend
of the house, threatened to quit both it and this little ball of earth
together. One of Anton's first inquiries, on his return, had been for
Father Sturm. He was told that Sturm had been unwell for some weeks, and
did not leave his room. Full of anxiety, Anton went to the dwelling of
the giant the second evening after his arrival.

While still in the street, he heard a loud hum, as though a swarm of
gigantic bees had settled in the red-painted house. When he entered, the
hum sounded like the distant roar of a family of lions. He knocked in
amazement. No one answered. When he had opened the door he stood still