infernal sense of satisfaction. His change of
political views had driven away his old customers, and the new ones had
no confidence in him. He had to go in for the publication of dubious
works, if he wished to do any business at all. The result of this was
that when people passed by the Schimmelweis bookshop, they stopped
before the window, looked at his latest output, and smiled
contemptuously. The workman's insurance no longer paid as it used to,
for the credit of the Prudentia and its agents had suffered a violent
setback.

The rise and fall in bourgeois life follows a well established law. In a
single day the honesty and diligence of one man, the tricks and frauds
of another, grow stale, antiquated. Thus Jordan's affairs started on the
down grade, and Jason Philip's likewise.

Philippina ascribed their failure to the quiet influence of her
destructive work. Every bit of misfortune in the life of her father
loosened by that much the chain that prevented her from complete freedom
of movement. In her most infamous hours she would dream of the hunger
and distress, bankruptcy and despair of her people. Once this state of
affairs had been realised, she would no longer have to play the role of
Cinderella; she would no longer have to be the first one up in the
morning; she would no longer have to chop wood, and polish her brothers'
boots: she would have a fair field and no favours in her campaign to
capture Daniel.

IX

At times she thought she could simply go to him and stay with him. At
times she felt that he would come and get her. One thing or the other
had to take place, she thought.

One Sunday afternoon--it chanced to be her eighteenth birthday--a junior
agent of Jason Philip, a fellow by the name of Pfefferkorn, came to the
house, and in the course of the conversation remarked rather casually
that the elder of the Jordan sisters was engaged to the musician
Nothafft, that the engagement had been kept secret for a while, but that
the wedding was to take place in the immediate future.

"By the way, I hear that the musician is your nephew," said Pfefferkorn
at the close of his report.

Jason Philip cast a gloomy look into space, while Theresa, then sipping
her chicory coffee, set her cup on the table, and looked at the man with
scornful contempt.

Philippina broke out in a laughter that went through them like a knife.
Then she ran from the room, and banged the door behind h