uld devour my good money, one thousand after
another, even as the lean kine of Egypt devoured the fat, I should have
taken more time to consider, and would not have paid you a single
dollar. A herd of elephants will I feed with my substance, but never
more a factory. How then can you say that I have deceived you?"
continued he, in increasing dudgeon.

"You have known the state of matters," cried the baron, "and have
disguised the count's position from me."

"Was it I who sold you the mortgage?" inquired the offended Ehrenthal.
"I have paid you the interest half-yearly--that is my offense; I have
paid you much money besides--that is my deceit." He then continued more
conciliatingly: "Look at the matter calmly, baron: another creditor has
offered to purchase the estate; the lawyers have not apprised us of it,
or they have sent the advertisement to a wrong address. What of that?
You will now be paid your capital, and then you can pay off the
mortgages on your own land. I hear that this estate in Poland is a very
valuable one, so you have nothing to fear for your capital."

The baron had only to depart with this uncertain hope. As he dejectedly
entered his carriage, he called out to the coachman, "To the Councilor
Horn;" but on the way thither he gave counter orders, and returned to
his lodgings. A coolness had sprung up between him and his former legal
adviser; he shrunk from disclosing to him his never-ceasing
embarrassments, and had been offended by Horn's well-meant warnings. He
had often, therefore, applied for advice to other lawyers.

Itzig, in the tenderness of his heart, had rushed out of the office as
soon as he beheld the baron's horses, but now he put in his head again.

"How was he?" he inquired from Ehrenthal.

"How should he be?" answered Ehrenthal, ungraciously; "he was in a
great taking, and I had good cause to be angry. I have buried my gold in
his property, and I have as many cares about that property as I have
hairs on my head--all because I followed your advice."

"If you think that the ancestral inheritance of the baron is to come
swimming toward you like a fish with the stream, and that you have only
to reach out your hand and take it, I am sorry for you," replied Itzig,
spitefully.

"What am I doing with the factory?" cried Ehrenthal. "The land would
have been worth twice as much to me without the chimney."

"When once you have got the chimney you can sell the bricks," was
Itzig's ironical