t again; after this he went to his
bedroom, took off all his clothes, flung them passionately one by one
into a footbath, and got into bed.

"I might be a criminal!" he muttered to himself, while the buttons of his
garments rattled on the bath.

"Am I her father? Have I authority? Do I know the world? Bssss! I
might be a frog!"

Mrs. Decie, having caused herself to be announced, found him smoking a
cigar, and counting the flies on the ceiling.

"If you have really done this, Paul," she said in a restrained voice,
"you have done a very unkind thing, and what is worse, you have made us
all ridiculous. But perhaps you have not done it?"

"I have done it," cried Herr Paul, staring dreadfully: "I have done it, I
tell you, I have done it--"

"Very well, you have done it--and why, pray? What conceivable good was
there in it? I suppose you know that Nicholas has driven him to the
frontier? Nicholas is probably more dead than alive by this time; you
know his state of health."

Herr Paul's fingers ploughed up his beard.

"Nicholas is mad--and the girl is mad! Leave me alone! I will not be
made angry; do you understand? I will not be worried--I am not fit for
it." His prominent brown eyes stared round the room, as if looking for a
way of escape.

"If I may prophesy, you will be worried a good deal," said Mrs. Decie
coldly, "before you have finished with this affair."

The anxious, uncertain glance which Herr Paul gave her at these words
roused an unwilling feeling of compunction in her.

"You are not made for the outraged father of the family," she said. "You
had better give up the attitude, Paul; it does not suit you."

Herr Paul groaned.

"I suppose it is not your fault," she added.

Just then the door was opened, and Fritz, with an air of saying the right
thing, announced:

"A gentleman of the police to see you, sir."

Herr Paul bounded.

"Keep him out!" he cried.

Mrs. Decie, covering her lips, disappeared with a rustling of silk; in
her place stood a stiff man in blue....

Thus the morning dragged itself away without any one being able to settle
to anything, except Herr Paul, who was settled in bed. As was fitting in
a house that had lost its soul, meals were neglected, even by the dog.

About three o'clock a telegram came for Christian, containing these
words: "All right; self returns to-morrow. Treffry." After reading it
she put on her hat and went out, followed closely by Greta, who