cold turkey,
lobster salad, and several excellent wines. A servant in the livery of
a "Jager" waited at table.

Wilhelm shook his head at the sight of all this splendor. "But, my dear
lady, so much trouble on my behalf!"

"You are quite mistaken," Paul answered for Malvine, and not without a
smile of satisfied pride; "it is our usual breakfast--we have it so
every day."

Wilhelm looked at him surprised, and then remarked after a short pause:
"I would never have written to you, if I had dreamed that you would get
up before daybreak, and upset your whole household in order to fetch me
from the station."

"Why, what nonsense! We are quite used to getting up early. At
Friesenmoor we have to be still earlier."

"But that is in the summer."

"So it is, but then our broken rest is not made up to us by the sight
of a friend."

While they devoured the good things, and Paul, who despised tea and
coffee, sipped his slightly warmed claret, he remarked, between two
mouthfuls, "I was struck all of a heap by your letter. You turned out!
the most harmless, law-abiding citizen I ever heard of! What in the
world did you do? You need not mind telling me."

"I cannot say that I am aware of having committed any crime, Paul."

"Come now, something must have happened, for the police does not take a
step of that kind without some provocation--it's only your beggarly
Progressives who think that, but nobody who knows the fundamental
principles of our government and its officials would believe it."

"You seem to have become a warm admirer of the government."

"Always was! But, upon my word, when I see the way the opposition
parties go on I am more so than ever--positively fanatical."

"Then I have no doubt that you will consider that I did commit a crime."

"Ah! so there was something after all?"

"Yes, I contributed fifteen hundred marks to a collection for the
distressed families of the Social Democrats who had been dismissed from
Berlin."

"You did?" cried Paul, dropping his knife and fork, and staring at
Wilhelm in amazement.

"And that seems so criminal to you?"

"Look here, Wilhelm, you know I'm awfully fond of you, but I must say
you have only got what you deserve. How could you take part in a
revolutionary demonstration of the kind?"

"I did not, nor do I now see anything political in it. It was a
question of women and children deprived of their bread-winners, and
whom one cannot allow to starve or freeze to death.