ittle advocate fast asleep over the deed. Itzig looked at him
with hearty contempt, and said, "He grows burdensome. He said he was
death; I wish he were dead, and I freed from him." Then roughly shaking
up the old man, he screamed out to him, "You are fit for nothing but to
sleep; why must you come here to snore? Go home; I will give you the
deed when you are sober."

The advocate accordingly reeled away, promising to return the following
afternoon. Itzig proceeded to brush his silk hat with enviable
dexterity; he then put on his best coat, gave his hair its most
graceful curve, and went to the house of his antagonist Ehrenthal. As he
entered the hall he cast a shy glance at the office door, and hurried on
to the staircase. But he stopped on the lowest step. "There he is,
sitting again in the office," said he, listening. "I hear him mutter; he
often mutters so when he is alone. I will venture in; perhaps I can make
something of him." So he stepped slowly to the door and listened again;
then taking heart, he opened it suddenly. In the dimly-lighted room sat
a stooping figure in a leathern chair, a shapeless hat on its head. The
figure kept constantly nodding, and muttering unintelligible words. How
changed was Hirsch Ehrenthal in the course of the past year! When he
last drove over the baron's estate, he was a stout, respectable-looking
man, a fresh, well-preserved man, who knew how to stick in his
breast-pin to the best advantage, and cut a figure in ladies' eyes. Now
the head that was constantly nodding in nervous debility was that of an
old man, and the beard that hung down from his furrowed face had been
untrimmed for weeks. He was a picture of that most lamentable decay,
when the mind precedes the body on the way to second childhood.

The agent stood at the door and looked in dismay at his former master.
Then, advancing nearer, he said, "I wish to speak to you, Mr.
Ehrenthal."

The old man continued to nod his head, and answered in a trembling
voice, "Hirsch Ehrenthal is my name; what have you to say to me?"

"I wish to speak to you on important business," continued Itzig.

"I hear," returned Ehrenthal, without looking up; "if the business be
important, why do you not speak?"

"Do you know me, Hirsch Ehrenthal?" said Itzig, bending down and raising
his voice.

The man in the leathern chair looked at him with languid eyes, and at
length recognized him. He got up in all haste, and stood, his head still
nodding