e trembling daughter sent again and again for her father.

"Let us bring the play to a close," said Herr Krafft, after brief
deliberation; he stepped into the middle office, flung open a window,
and raising his harsh voice to its loudest tones, cried to the throng
below, "You are looking for me, folks. Here I am. What do you want of
me?" "Shares, subscriptions," was the noisy answer.--"You claim
without any right or any manners. This is my house, a peaceable
citizen's house. You are breaking in as though it were a dungeon, an
arsenal, a tax-office,--as though we were in the midst of a
revolution. Are you not ashamed of yourselves?" A confused murmur rang
through the astonished ranks. "If you wish to do business with me,"
continued the merchant, "you must first learn manners and discipline.
Have I invited your visit? Do I need your money, or do you need my
shares? Send up some deputies to convey your requests. I shall have
nothing to do with a turbulent mob." So saying, he closed the window
with such violence that the panes cracked, and the fragments fell down
on the heads of the assailants.

"The Principal knows how to talk to the people," said Heyboldt with
pride to Roland, the mute witness of this strange scene. "He speaks
their own language. He replies to a broken door with a broken window."

Meantime a company of soldiers had arrived on double-quick, with a
flourish of drums. The officer's word of command rang through the
crowd, now grown suddenly quiet: "Fix bayonets! form line! march!"
Yard and passages were cleared, the doors guarded; in the street the
low muttering tide, forced back, made a sort of dam. Three deputies,
abashed and confused, appeared at Krafft's door and craved audience.
The merchant received them like a prince surrounded by his court, in
the midst of his clerks, in the large counting-room. The spokesman
commenced: "We ask your pardon, Herr Krafft, for what has
happened."--"For shame, that you should drag in soldiers as witnesses
and peacemakers in a quiet little business affair among order-loving
citizens."--"It was reported that we had been fooled with these
subscriptions, and that the entire sum had been already disposed of on
the Bourse."--"And even if that were so, am I to be blamed for it? The
Southwestern Railway must raise thirty millions. Double, treble that
amount is offered it. Can I prevent the necessity of reducing the
subscriptions?"--"No; but they say that we poor folks shall not