There were many tears and sobs, but the cup was drained like the
others; and Marker began his new life in the Lutzowstrasse with his
wife, his mother-in-law, and the little Malvine, who was the only child
of their marriage.

At first things went on pretty well. Frau Brohl often had tears in her
eyes when looking at the familiar furniture in her room, which had been
designed for a house three times as large, and she would rather have
sacrificed one of her hands than one of her old sofas or tables. But
Marker was gay as he had never been before, and full of wonderful
stories of the future importance of his firm, astounding both the
women, and even making them respect him, which feeling had never before
influenced them. He had an office in the Burgstrasse, near the
Exchange, shared by other young men, and came home every day with new
reports of the wonderful business he was doing.

A day came, however, when he had no news to tell them, when his
complexion was as yellow as ever, his eyes avoided the questioning
glances of his mother-in-law, and after playing at concealment for a
whole week, he was at last forced to tell them that he had again lost
all his money. He hastened to add, however, that every thing could be
saved if the mother would once more set him on his feet; in every new
undertaking one had to pay something for learning; he had hardly
understood his position so far, but now he knew what he was about, he
must be contented with modest profits. Frau Brohl made a fresh
sacrifice, giving Marker his position in business again after six
months. He had hardly the courage to come home with new plans, but used
to steal in quietly like a shadow on the wall, sit down at table with a
heart-breaking sigh, sulked with the women, and often was heard talking
to himself in this fashion: "This is no sort of life. If women hold the
cards, stupidity is trumps. The woman in the kitchen, the man in
business," and so on. Finally the thing happened which Frau Brohl had
foreseen with anxiety--Marker came with a new project, for which he
wanted fifty thousand thalers. It was an entirely new idea, unheard of
before; it couldn't miscarry, it must bring in a hundred thousand; with
one stroke all the former losses would be retrieved. Then he stopped
talking, and showed yards of figures, read aloud letters of advice, and
went on reading and talking and crackling papers for an hour to Frau
Brohl, following her from the drawing-room into the