as the storm, and he moved over a wide area with great
rapidity and violence. He was central, naturally, over Hans and Minna:
the first of whom, after being denounced with great energy as a viper
who had been warmed to the biting point, was ordered to take himself off
without a single instant's delay, and never to darken the doors of the
Cafe Nuernberg again; and the second of whom was declared to be a baby
fool, who must be kept locked up in her own third-story back room, and
fed on nothing more appetizing than pumpernickel and water until she
came to her senses. In the outer edges of the storm the apprentices and
the young men who drove the wagons found themselves most hotly involved;
and a very violent gust swept down upon Aunt Hedwig and Herr Sohnstein,
who surely were as innocent in the premises as any two people quite
satisfactorily engaged in earnest but somewhat dilatory love-making of
their own very well could be. Indeed, this storm was an ill wind that
blew a famous blast of luck to Herr Sohnstein: for Aunt Hedwig, being
dreadfully upset by her brother's outbreak, went of her own accord to
Herr Sohnstein for sympathy and consolation--and found both in such
liberal quantities, and with them such tender pleadings to enter a
matrimonial haven where storms should be unknown, that presently,
smiling through her tears, she uttered the words of consent for which
the excellent notary had waited loyally through more than a dozen weary
years. It was Herr Sohn-stein's turn to be upset then. He couldn't
believe, until he had soothed himself with a phenomenal number of pipes,
that happiness so perfect could be real.

Possibly one reason why Gottlieb's storm was so violent was that he
could not give any good reason for it. Hans really was a most estimable
young man; he came of a good family; as a baker he was nothing short of
a genius. All this Gottlieb knew, and all this he frequently had said to
Aunt Hedwig and to Herr Sohnstein, and, worst of all, to Minna. As each
of these persons now pointed out to him, in order to be consistent in
his new position he must eat a great many of his own words; and he would
have essayed this indigestible banquet willingly had he been convinced
that thus he really could have proved that Hans was a viper and all the
other unpleasant things which he had called him in his wrath. In truth,
Gottlieb was, and in the depths of his heart he knew that he was,
neither more nor less than a dog in the m