ing in it, and then he sat down at the table and read the
whole document from beginning to end.

Ah, indeed, his wife too? Why, that was quite a charming surprise! If
her funds were running so low as to oblige her to contract debts it
would be vain, he thought, to expect any help from his mother-in-law,
and yet he had always counted on her as a last resort. In a rage he
flung the summons and the legal statement into a corner and went up
and down in the room, musing on the financial embarrassment of his
wife.

Probably Frau Leimann had heard the steady tramp of his feet through
the ceiling, for now she entered with exuberant excuses.

"My dear George," said she, breathlessly, "I had a pressing engagement
with my dressmaker, and I ran after you in the street. I saw you
passing before me, but I could not catch up with you."

"What did you have to do with your dressmaker?" Leimann confronted her
furiously.

"What else should I have had to do there than business for which I pay
her? She is making a riding-habit for me!"

"You had better first pay for your old rubbish before ordering any new
gear!" shouted he.

"Why this tone to me? And who tells you that I do not pay my bills?
You think, I suppose, that I'm squandering my money as you are
squandering yours."

"If you do not wish me to see what the bailiff brings you, you had
better not leave it directly under my nose."

His wife for an instant did not quite understand what he meant by
that, but then she recollected that she had left the summons on her
husband's desk.

"I must tell you very emphatically," she flared up indignantly, "not
to put your nose into my private correspondence. If the letter was
lying open on the table, you had no right to read it. _I_ never look
at _your_ bills."

"Oh, do what you please; but I must request you not to bring the
bailiff to my house."

"That is not the worst, _mon cher_, that may happen to you; he will
know now at least the way here when he'll call on you next."

"Hold your tongue, you impudent woman, or I will throw you into the
street."

"Many thanks for your kind offer, but I'm going of my own accord."

She left the room, went into her bed-chamber, and retired to rest.

Meanwhile on the floor below Borgert was reading a book; but his
thoughts were far away. He had serious forebodings that all his
creditors, like a pack of hungry wolfhounds, were about to engage in a
joint hunt for him, or rather for the money th