s to
come to an end with me and Beate. I've been expecting it the whole
week; whenever he raised his hand I thought he was pointing to the
little garden and was ready to follow him like a poor sinner. That is
the place where he gives his cabinet orders. The collector is said not
to be in very good circumstances. There is some gossip about his
spending more than his pay. And--well, you are a quill-driver, too,
like old Blue-coat. But what can the girl do? Or I? Well, the affair
must stop--but I'm sorry about the girl, and I must see how I can
forget her. I must drink or get another one."

Our hero was accustomed to his brother's manner; he knew that the
words were not intended to be as wild as they sounded, and his brother
was showing his love and respect for their father by the fact of his
obedience; still our hero would have liked to see them shown in speech
as well as in action. It seemed to Apollonius as if there were
something unclean on his brother's soul and involuntarily he stroked
the other's coat collar several times with his hand as if he could
brush it off him from outside. Dust had collected on the collar during
the dance; when he had removed it he felt as if he had really removed
what had troubled him.

The subject of their conversation changed. They began to speak of the
girl who had just been out, fanning herself to get cool; Apollonius
certainly did not know that he was responsible for this. Just as the
girl was the goal to which all his lines of thought led, so, too, when
once he began to speak of her he could not escape from his theme. He
forgot his brother so completely that at last he was really talking to
himself. His brother now seemed for the first time to perceive all the
beautiful and good things in her that the hero lauded with unconscious
eloquence. He agreed with more and more enthusiasm until he broke into
a wild laugh which roused the hero from his self-forgetfulness and
dyed his cheeks as red as those of the girl had been a short time
before.

"And so you slink about round the hall where she is dancing with
others, and if she shows herself you haven't the heart to draw her
into conversation. Wait, I will be your ambassador. From now on she
shall dance no turn except with me, so that no one else shall cross
your plans. I know how to get on with girls. Let me take your part for
you."

Our hero was frightened at the thought that the girl should learn that
very day what he felt for her.