te before the
majority of a mob, and worships the omnipotence of the state."

"Don't you think my friend has been uttering some very bitter truths?"
asked the banker, with a smile.

"Pretty nearly so," replied the official demurely. "However, one can
detect the design, and cannot help getting out of humor."

"What design?" asked Seraphin.

"Of creating alarm against progress."

"Indeed, sir, you are mistaken. I, too, am enthusiastic about progress,
but genuine progress. And because I am an advocate of real progress I
cannot help detesting the monstrosity which the age would wish to palm
off on men instead."

The church was now cleared. Greifmann's carriage was at the door. The
millionaires drove off.

"Pity for this Gerlach!" thought the official, as he strode through the
street. "He is lost to progress, for he is too solidly rooted in
superstition to be reclaimed. War against nature's claims; deny healthy
physical nature its rights; re-establish terror of the seven capital
sins; permit the priesthood to tyrannize over conscience; restore the
worship of an unmathematical triune God--no! no!" cried he fiercely, "I
shall all go to the devil!"

A carriage whirled past him. He caste a glance into the vehicle, and
raised his hat to Mr. Hans Shund.

The chief magistrate was on his way home from the town-hall. He could
not rest under the weight of his laurels; the inebriation of his
triumph drove him into the room where sat his lonely and careworn wife.

"My election to the assembly is assured, wife." And he went on with a
minute account of the proceedings of the day.

The pale, emaciated lady sat bowed in silence over her work, and did
not look up.

"Well, wife, don't you take any interest in the honors won by your
husband? I should think you ought to feel pleased."

"All my joys are swallowed up in an abyss of unutterable wretchedness,"
replied she. "And my husband is daily deepening the gulf. Yesterday you
were again at a disreputable house. Your abominable deeds are heaped
mountain high--and am I to rejoice?"

"A thousand demons, wife, I'm beginning to believe you have spies on
foot!"

"I have not. But you are at the head of this city--your steps cannot
possibly remain unobserved."

"Very well!" cried he, "it shall be my effort in the assembly to bring
about such a change that there shall no longer be any houses of
disrepute. Narrow-minded moralists shall not be allowed to howl any
longer. The time is