ople are well off. His
grand-aunt, Miss Lehsen, who lives in Broad Street, is going to leave
him all her money, L12,000 at the very least."

"What," the Commissionsrath cried, pale with the suddenness of his
amazement, "L12,000. I tell you what it is. I believe Albertine is
crazy about young Lehsen, and I'm not a bad-hearted fellow. I am an
affectionate father; can't bear crying, and all that sort of thing.
When she sets her heart on a thing, I can't refuse her. Besides, I like
the fellow; he's a first-rate painter, you know; and where Art is
concerned I'm a perfect gaby. There are a great many capital points
about Lehsen. L12,000. I'll tell you what it is, Leonhard, just out of
mere goodheartedness, I shall let this nice young fellow have my
daughter."

"Hm!" said the Goldsmith, "there's something queer, too, which I want
to speak to you about. I was at the Thiergarten just before I came
here, and I found your old friend and schoolfellow, Tussmann, going to
jump into the water because Albertine wouldn't have anything to say to
him. I had the greatest difficulty in preventing him from doing it; and
it was only by telling him that you would be quite certain to keep your
word, and make her marry him, that I did succeed in preventing him.
Now, if this is not so, if she doesn't marry him, and if you give her
to young Lehsen, there cannot be a doubt that the Clerk of the Privy
Chancery will carry out his idea of jumping into that basin. Think what
a sensation the suicide of a person of Tussmann's 'respectability' will
create. Everybody will consider that you, and no other, are responsible
for his death. You will be looked upon with horror and contempt. Nobody
will ask you to dinner, and if you go to a cafe to see what's in the
papers, you will be shown to the door, or kicked downstairs; and more
than that, Tussmann bears the very highest character in his profession.
All his superiors have a very high opinion of him; the Government
departments think him a most valuable official. If you are supposed to
be answerable for his death, you know that you need never expect to
find a single member of the Privy Legation, or of the Upper Chamber of
Finance, in when you go to see them. None of the offices which your
business affairs require you to be _en rapport_ with will have a word
to say to you. Your title of Commissionsrath will be taken from you,
blow will follow upon blow, your credit will be gone, your income will
fall away, th