nciples
of which they were well aware. Hence the opinion he had formed of
Greifmann was utterly erroneous, concluded Gerlach, The banker was
not a mere secluded business man--he was not indifferent about the
great questions of the age. Then there was another circumstance
that perplexed the ruddy-cheeked millionaire to no inconsiderable
degree--Greifmann's unaccountable way of taking things. The tyrannical
mode of electioneering which they had witnessed at the sign of the
"Green Hat" had not at all disgusted Greifmann. Spitzkopf's threats had
not excited his indignation. He had with a smiling countenance looked
on whilst the most brutal species of terrorism was being enacted before
him, he had not expressed a word of contempt at the constraint which
they who held the power inhumanly placed on the political liberty of
their dependents. On the other hand, his indignation was aroused by a
mere breach of good behavior, an offence which in Gerlach's estimation
was as nothing compared with the other instances of progressionist
violence. The banker seemed to him to have strained out a gnat after
having swallowed a whole drove of camels. The youth's suspicions being
excited, he began to study the strainer of gnats and swallower of
camels more closely, and soon the banker turned out in his estimation a
hollow stickler for mere outward decency, devoid of all deeper merit.
He now recollected also Greifmann's dealings with the leaders of
progress, and those transactions only confirmed his present views. What
he had considered as an extraordinary degree of shrewdness in the man
of business, which enabled him to take advantage of the peculiar
convictions and manner of thinking of other men, was now to his mind a
real affinity with their principles, and he could not help being
shocked at the discovery.

He hung his head in a melancholy mood, and his heart protested
earnestly against the inference which was irresistibly forcing itself
upon his mind, that the sister shared her brother's sentiments.

"This doubt must be cleared up, cost what it may," thought he. "My God,
what if Louise also turned out to be a progressionist, a woman without
any faith, an infidel! No, that cannot be! Yet suppose it really were
the case--suppose she actually held principles in common with such vile
beings as Schwefel, Sand, Erdblatt, and Shund? Suppose her moral nature
did not harmonize with the beauty of her person--what then?" He
experienced a spasmodic