nt she had left the room. Daniel stared at her as if he feared she
had lost her mind. In a few minutes she came back. In the meantime she
had put on a cloak that was much too short for her, and beneath which
the loud, freakish skirt of her checkered dress could be seen.

"Daniel, come along with me," she said in an anxious voice. To Daniel
her voice sounded mysterious and fearful. "Come along with me, Daniel! I
want to show you something."

He turned pale, put on his hat, and followed her. They crossed the
square in silence, went through Binder Street, Town Hall Street, and
across the Market. Daniel stopped. "What are you up to?" he asked with a
hoarse voice.

"Come along! You'll see," whispered Philippina.

They walked on, crossed the Meat Bridge, went through Kaiser Street and
the White Tower to St. James's Place. Some people looked at the odd
couple in amazement. When they reached Frau Hadebusch's little house, it
was dark. "Listen, Philippina, are you ever going to talk?" said Daniel,
gritting his teeth.

"Psh!" Philippina knew what she was doing. She put her mouth to Daniel's
ear, and whispered: "Go up two flights, quick, you know the house, bang
on the door, and if it's locked, bust it in. In the meantime I'll go to
Frau Hadebusch so that she can't interfere."

Then Daniel understood.

VII

Everything became blood-red before his eyes; he was seized with a
feverish chill.

He had followed Philippina with a dejected, limp feeling of disgust,
fear and coercion. Now he knew what it was all about. At the very
beginning of the events he saw the middle and the end. He saw before the
bolted door what was going on behind it. His soul was seized with
horror, rage, woe, contempt, and terror. He felt dizzy; he feared lie
might lose consciousness.

He sprang up the creaking stairs by leaps and bounds. He stood before
the door behind which he had gone hungry, been cold, and glowed with
enthusiasm as a young man. Silence should have reigned there now, so
that the devotion of retrospective spirits might not be molested on the
grave of so many, many hopes.

He jerked at the latch; a scream was heard from within. The door was
bolted. He pressed his body against the fragile wood so violently that
both hinges, and the latch, gave way, and the door fell on to the middle
of the floor with a mighty crash.

The scream was repeated, this time in a more piercing tone. Dorothea was
lying o