m I could talk Dutch, because I
can't keep it up with a regular German; but my father was Pennsylvany
Dutch, and I could understand what he was saying to you about me. I know
I had no business to understood it, after I let him think I couldn't but
I did, and I didn't like very well to have a man callin' me a traitor
and a tyrant at my own table. Well, I look at it differently now, and
I reckon I had better have tried to put up with it; and I would, if I
could have known--" He stopped with a quivering lip, and then went
on: "Then, again, I didn't like his talkin' that paternalism of his.
I always heard it was the worst kind of thing for the country; I was
brought up to think the best government was the one that governs the
least; and I didn't want to hear that kind of talk from a man that was
livin' on my money. I couldn't bear it from him. Or I thought I couldn't
before--before--" He stopped again, and gulped. "I reckon now there
ain't anything I couldn't bear." March was moved by the blunt words and
the mute stare forward with which they ended. "Mr. Dryfoos, I didn't
know that you understood Lindau's German, or I shouldn't have allowed
him he wouldn't have allowed himself--to go on. He wouldn't have
knowingly abused his position of guest to censure you, no matter how
much he condemned you." "I don't care for it now," said Dryfoos. "It's
all past and gone, as far as I'm concerned; but I wanted you to see that
I wasn't tryin' to punish him for his opinions, as you said."

"No; I see now," March assented, though he thought, his position still
justified. "I wish--"

"I don't know as I understand much about his opinions, anyway; but I
ain't ready to say I want the men dependent on me to manage my business
for me. I always tried to do the square thing by my hands; and in that
particular case out there I took on all the old hands just as fast as
they left their Union. As for the game I came on them, it was dog eat
dog, anyway."

March could have laughed to think how far this old man was from even
conceiving of Lindau's point'of view, and how he was saying the worst
of himself that Lindau could have said of him. No one could have
characterized the kind of thing he had done more severely than he when
he called it dog eat dog.

"There's a great deal to be said on both sides," March began, hoping to
lead up through this generality to the fact of Lindau's death; but the
old man went on:

"Well, all I wanted him to know is th