ps you can still catch him.' As he said
this, he laid the palm of his hand on my shoulder and pushed me toward
the door. I moved to one side and turned toward the girl, who was
standing with her hands resting on the counter and her eyes fixed on the
ground. She was breathing heavily. I wanted to approach her, but she
angrily stamped her foot upon the floor; and when I held out my hand,
hers twitched as though she were going to strike me again. Then I went,
and the old man locked the door behind me.

"I tottered through the streets out of the city gate into the open
fields. Sometimes despair gripped me, but then hope returned. I
recollected having accompanied the secretary to the commercial court to
deposit the bond. There I had waited in the gateway while he had gone
upstairs alone. When he came down he told me that everything was in
order and that the receipt would be sent to my residence. As a matter of
fact I had received none, but there was still a possibility. At daybreak
I returned to the city, and made straightway for the residence of the
secretary. But the people there laughed and asked whether I hadn't read
the papers? The commercial court was only a few doors away. I had the
clerks examine the records, but neither his name nor mine could be
found. There was no indication that the sum had ever been paid, and thus
the disaster was certain. But that wasn't all, for inasmuch as a
partnership contract had been drawn up, several of his creditors
insisted upon seizing my person, which the court, however, would not
permit. For this decision I was profoundly grateful, although it
wouldn't have made much difference in the end.

"I may as well confess that the grocer and his daughter had, in the
course of these disagreeable developments, quite receded into the
background. Now that things had calmed down and I was considering what
steps to take next, the remembrance of that last evening came vividly
back to my mind. The old man, selfish as he was, I could understand very
well; but the girl! Once in a while it occurred to me that if I had
taken care of my money and been able to offer her a comfortable
existence, she might have even--but she wouldn't have accepted me." With
that he surveyed his wretched figure with hands outstretched. "Besides,
she disliked my courteous behavior toward everybody."

"Thus I spent entire days thinking and planning. One evening at
twilight--it was the time I had usually spent in the store--I