: "Do you ever do anything
else, do you ever want to do anything else, but just what you know
will hurt me?"

"For a long time I have wanted to say something to you," went on
Apollonius, "I will tomorrow; you are not in the right humor today.
You had to know what I have told you about the workman, and it wasn't
meant as you have taken it."

"Of course! Of course!" laughed Fritz. "I'm convinced that it wasn't
so meant."

Apollonius went and Fritz supplemented his speech with, "it was not
meant as you would have me believe, old fox. And wasn't it meant as I
took it? You think--The workman is a bad fellow; but you would never
have warned me if you hadn't needed an excuse." He turned on his heel
with a movement that suggested his feeling of superiority. In his
desolate state of mind it had pleased him to make successful use of
his father's diplomatic method of concealing his thoughts by half
expressing them.

His pleasure was short-lived; his old worry fastened him again to the
rack. And a newer one had been added to it. He had neglected the
business. In his master's absence from the shed the workman had had
opportunity enough to steal, and had certainly made use of it. It was
long since Fritz had done any work at the church; Apollonius had been
obliged to engage another workman and put him in his brother's place.
He had earned nothing now for a long time and yet never missed any
public amusement. The esteem of the important people showed a growing
inclination to fall, and could only be kept up by increasing
quantities of champagne. He had plunged himself into debt, and
continued to add to his obligations daily. And yet the moment was
bound to come when the appearance of prosperity which he had been at
such pains to sustain would disappear.

Anne Wohlig had often been at the house since Apollonius' arrival; and
Christiane, with the credulity which in simple souls is the natural
consequence of their own truthfulness, had seen nothing suspicious in
her most far-fetched pretexts. This was not so today. She had suddenly
grown so keen-sighted that what she recognized to be an excuse assumed
in her eyes the proportions of an unpardonable crime. She disliked any
girl that could be so double-faced, and she herself was too honest to
hide her opinion. Anne sought the reason for Christiane's treatment of
her in the latter's dislike of her brother-in-law. It was well known
that she begrudged the poor fellow his brother's affecti