Two women with
eyes!--hein!"

"There is nothing to be gained by violence," Mrs. Decie murmured, passing
her handkerchief across her lips. Miss Naylor, whose thin brown cheeks
had flushed, advanced towards him.

"I hope you do not--" she said; "I am sure there was nothing that I could
have prevented--I should be glad if that were understood." And, turning
with some dignity, the little lady went away, closing the door behind
her.

"You hear!" Herr Paul said, violently sarcastic: "nothing she could have
prevented! Enfin! Will you please tell me what I am to do?"

"Men of the world"--whose philosophy is a creature of circumstance and
accepted things--find any deviation from the path of their convictions
dangerous, shocking, and an intolerable bore. Herr Paul had spent his
life laughing at convictions; the matter had but to touch him personally,
and the tap of laughter was turned off. That any one to whom he was the
lawful guardian should marry other than a well-groomed man, properly
endowed with goods, properly selected, was beyond expression horrid.
From his point of view he had great excuse for horror; and he was
naturally unable to judge whether he had excuse for horror from other
points of view. His amazement had in it a spice of the pathetic; he was
like a child in the presence of a thing that he absolutely could not
understand. The interview had left him with a sense of insecurity which
he felt to be particularly unfair.

The door was again opened, and Greta flew in, her cheeks flushed, her
hair floating behind her, and tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Papa!" she cried, "you have been cruel to Chris. The door is locked; I
can hear her crying--why have you been cruel?" Without waiting to be
answered, she flew out again.

Herr Paul seized his hair with both his hands: "Good! Very good! My own
child, please! What next then?"

Mrs. Decie rose from her chair languidly. "My head is very bad," she
said, shading her eyes and speaking in low tones: "It is no use making a
fuss--nothing can come of this--he has not a penny. Christian will have
nothing till you die, which will not be for a long time yet, if you can
but avoid an apoplectic fit!"

At these last words Herr Paul gave a start of real disgust. "Hum!" he
muttered; it was as if the world were bent on being brutal to him. Mrs.
Decie continued:

"If I know anything of this young man, he will not come here again, after
the words you have spoken.