ho is to eat it? Why, I
never had the right sort of a roast on my table until Katje came into
the family. And now that you're here too, Fritzy, the roasts get bigger.
But not big enough, even yet. Oh, we must find the husband for----"

"Oom Peter!" protested Kathrien. "You promised you wouldn't tease----"

"Tease?" repeated Grimm, as though he heard the word for the first time.
"Why, how could you have imagined such a thing, child? I was only
telling Frederik about the sort of roasts I like on my table. And
speaking of tables, Fritzy, I like a nice long table with plenty of
young people at it. And myself at the head, carving and carving, and
seeing the plates passed round and round and round;--getting them back
and back and back--There, there, Katje! They shan't tease you. We'll
keep the table just as it is. For you and Fritz and me. A nice little
circle. All in the family."

The telephone bell set up a purring. Hartmann picked up the receiver.

"Hello," he called. "Yes, this is Mr. Grimm's house.--Yes.--Wait one
moment, please."

He put his palm over the transmitter and turned to Grimm.

"It's Hicks again, sir," he reported. "He wants to talk more with you
about buying the business."

"Buying the business, hey?" snorted Grimm in sudden rage. "No! No! I've
told him ten million times it's not on the market and never will be.
Tell him so again."

"Mr. Grimm says," called Hartmann into the transmitter, "that the
business is not for sale. He says--what?--Wait a minute. Mr. Grimm, he
insists on speaking to you personally."

"He does, hey?" growled Peter, advancing upon the telephone as though
upon an enemy that must be crushed at a blow.

"Hello!" he roared wrathfully into the instrument. "Hello?--What?--Why,
my old friend, how are you?--And how are your plum trees doing? Mine,
too. Well, we can only pray and use Bordeaux Mixture.--What?"

He paused to listen. Then he went on as if to humour a cross child.

"No, no,--it's nonsense. Why, this business has been in the Grimm family
for over a hundred years. Why should I sell? I'm going to arrange for
it to stay in the family a hundred years longer.--Hey? What's that?--No,
no. Of course not. Of course I don't propose to live a hundred years
longer. But I propose that my plans shall. How can I make certain? Never
mind how. I'm going to arrange all that. Yes, I know I'm a bachelor. You
don't need to spend good money on long distance phoning, to remind me of
that. Oh-