t's the right time for you."

"Ah, leave me alone," said Eleanore angrily.

Philippina crouched still lower on the hearth: "I mean well by you, I
do," she said. "You're simply killing yourself here. With your white
skin and sugary eyes--uhm, uhm! You bet if I had 'em like yours I'd git
one. Men are all as dumb as shoats outside of a sty."

"Keep quiet," said Eleanore, and went on counting: "Seven from fifteen
leaves eight...."

"An angel has made your bed," interrupted Philippina with a giggle. "I
know a fellow," she went on, her face becoming rather sour, "he's just
the right one. Money? whew! He's stuck on you too, believe me! If I wuz
to go to him and say, Eleanore Jordan is willing, I believe the old
codger would give me a bag of gold. Cross my heart, Eleanore, and he's a
fine man too. He can play the piano just as good as Daniel, if not
better. When he plays you can see the sparks fly."

Eleanore got up, and closed the book. "Do you want me to give you a
present for finding me a man, Philippina?" she asked, with a sympathetic
smile. "And you are trying to sound me? Go on, you fool."

"Come wind and blow my fire hot, so that my soup be not forgot,"
whispered Philippina with a gloomy face.

Eleanore left the kitchen and went upstairs. Her heart was full of
longing; it was in truth almost bursting with longing.

XI

It was at the beginning of October that Daniel for the first time
visited Eberhard in his doll house up by the castle.

They had met each other in the Peter Vischer on the evening agreed upon,
but there was a special party there that evening, a sort of a clam-bake;
the place was crowded; the noise was disagreeable, so that they left
much earlier than they had intended.

They walked along in silence until they reached the Town Hall, when
Eberhard said: "Won't you come up and sit awhile with me?" Daniel
nodded.

Eberhard lighted the six candles of a chandelier in his diminutive room.
Seeing that Daniel was surprised, he said: "There is nothing I hate
worse than gas or oil. That is light; gas and oil merely give off
illuminated stench."

For a while there was complete silence in the room; Daniel had stretched
out on the sofa.

"Illuminated stench," he repeated with a smile of satisfaction. "That is
not bad; it is the new age in which we are living. I believe they call
it _fin de siecle_. The day when things flourish is gone; everything has
to be manufactur