mbered
business as their inheritance.

Apollonius wrote at once to the customers and then went to his
brother's creditors. The former agreed to give the house another
trial. Among the latter he had the pleasure of learning what
confidence he had already won in his home town. In every case if he
would stand security the creditor was willing to allow the sum owing
to remain as a loan, at low interest, to be gradually paid off. Some
of them even wanted to intrust him with cash in addition. He did not
attempt to test the sincerity of these offers by accepting them, and
thus only added to the confidence that those who made them felt in
him. Then he modestly and gently explained to his brother what he had
done and still wanted to do. Reproaches could not do any good, and he
thought that admonitions were superfluous where the necessity was so
plain. If from now on Apollonius, acting alone and independently, took
over the management of the whole, of the business and of the
household, his brother surely could not see in his conduct any
voluntary derogation. In a matter in which he had staked his honor he
must have a free hand.

Above all things the selling end of the business must once more be
brought up to its former standing. The quality of the material
delivered by the owner of the quarry had steadily deteriorated, and
his brother had been obliged to accept it in order to get any material
at all. The other creditors' offers, to let the money owing them stand
as loans, he accepted, in order to settle the quarry owner's old
account with what could at once be liquidated of the remnant of
Christiane's fortune, and to pay cash at once for a new order. Thus it
was possible to obtain good material again at a reasonable price and
to satisfy his purchasers. The owner of the quarry, who on this
occasion made Apollonius' acquaintance and saw something of his
knowledge of the material and of its treatment, made him an offer, as
he himself was old and tired of work, to lease him the quarry. The
conditions under which he was willing to do this would have allowed
Apollonius to reckon on large profits; but as long as he had only
himself to depend upon in his difficult situation, he could not divide
his strength among several enterprises.

Apollonius made his plan for the first year and fixed a certain sum
which his brother was to receive from him weekly for his household
expenses. He dismissed as many of the hands as he could possibly
s