d.

"Where should I start for?" asked Trudi, offering a cold cheek to Bibi's
kisses.

"Are you not going to Herr von Lohm?" exclaimed Bibi, open-mouthed.

"What, when he tries to cheat insurance companies?"

"But he never, never set fire to those buildings himself."

"Didn't he, though?" Trudi turned her head, and looked straight into
Bibi's eyes. "I know him better than you do," she said slowly.

She had decided that that was the only way--to cast him off altogether;
and it must be done at once and thoroughly. Indeed, how was it possible
not to hate him? It was the most dreadful thing to happen to her. She
would suffer by it in every way. If he were guilty or not guilty, he was
anyhow a fool to let himself get into such a position, and how she hated
such fools! She registered a solemn vow that she had done with Axel for
ever.

At Kleinwalde the effect of the news was to make Frau Dellwig slay a pig
and send out invitations for an unusually large Sunday party. She and
her husband could hardly veil their beaming satisfaction with a decent
appearance of dismay. "What would his poor father, our gracious master's
oldest friend, have said!" ejaculated Dellwig at dinner, when the
servant was in the room.

"It is truly merciful that he did not live to see it," said his wife,
with pious head-shakings.

What Anna was doing at Stralsund, no one knew. She said she was having
some bother with her bank. Miss Leech related how they had been to the
bank on the Monday. "I must go again," Anna said on the evening of the
fruitless Tuesday, when she had been the whole day again with Manske,
vainly trying to obtain permission to visit Axel; and she added, her
head drooping, her voice faint, that it was a great bore. Certainly she
looked profoundly unhappy.

"One cannot be too careful in money matters," remarked Frau von
Treumann, alarmed by Anna's white looks, and afraid lest by some foolish
neglect on her part supplies should cease. She enthusiastically
encouraged these visits to the bank. "Take care of your bank," she said,
"and your bank will take care of you. That is what we say in Germany."

But Anna did not hear. There was but one thought in her mind, one cry in
her heart--how could she reach, how could she help, Axel?

He was in a cell about five yards long by three wide. There was just
room to pass between the camp bedstead and the small deal table standing
against the opposite wall. Besides this furniture, there was