-"

"But, dear Munter," said Mrs. Frank, "you are not in a good humour
to-day."

"Good humour!" replied he: "no, Mrs. Elise, I am not in a good humour; I
don't know what there is in the world to make people good-humoured.
There now, your chair has torn a hole in my coat-lap! Is that pleasant?
That's home-made too! But now I'll go; that is, if your doors--are they
home-made too?--will let me pass."

"But will you not come back, and dine with us?" asked she.

"No, I thank you," replied he; "I am invited elsewhere; and that in this
house, too."

"To Mrs. Chamberlain W----?" asked Mrs. Frank.

"No, indeed!" answered the Assessor: "I cannot bear that woman. She
lectures me incessantly. Lectures me! I have a great wish to lecture
her, I have! And then, her blessed dog--Pyrrhus or Pirre; I had a great
mind to kill it. And then, she is so thin. I cannot bear thin people;
least of all, thin old women."

"No?" said Mrs. Frank. "Don't you know, then, what rumour says of you
and poor old Miss Rask?"

"That common person!" exclaimed Jeremias. "Well, and what says malice of
me and poor old Miss Rask?"

"That, not many days since," said Mrs. Frank, "you met this old lady on
your stairs as she was going up to her own room; and that she was
sighing, because of the long flight of stairs and her weak chest. Now
malice says, that, with the utmost politeness, you offered her your arm,
and conducted her up the stairs with the greatest possible care; nor
left her, till she had reached her own door; and further, after all,
that you sent her a pound of cough lozenges; and----"

"And do you believe," interrupted the Assessor, "that I did that for her
own sake? No, I thank you! I did it that the poor old skeleton might not
fall down dead upon my steps, and I be obliged to climb over her ugly
corpse. From no other cause in this world did I drag her up the stairs.
Yes, yes, that was it! I dine to-day with Miss Berndes. She is always a
very sensible person; and her little Miss Laura is very pretty. See,
here have we now all the herd of children! Your most devoted servant,
Sister Louise! So, indeed, little Miss Eva! she is not afraid of the
ugly old fellow, she--God bless her! there's some sugar-candy for her!
And the little one! it looks just like a little angel. Do I make her
cry? Then I must away; for I cannot endure children's crying. Oh, for
heaven's sake! It may make a part of the charm of home: that I can
believe;--perhaps it is h