un. You know what an enviable reputation I bear throughout
the city. Many persons would go a hundred paces out of their direction
to avoid me, specially they who owe or have owed me anything. Moreover,
who appoints the mayor? The men who give the keynote, the leaders of
the town. Now, these men would consider themselves defiled by the
slightest contact with the outlawed usurer--which, of course, is very
unjust and inconsistent on the part of those gentlemen--for my views
are the same as theirs."

"Spite of all that, I put faith in the report, Mr. Shund. Schwefel's
bookkeeper also, when I met him, smiled significantly, and even raised
his hat."

"Hold on, Braun, hold! The deuce--it just now occurs to me--you might
not be so much mistaken after all. Strange things have happened to me
also. Gentlemen who are intimate with our city magnates have saluted me
and nodded to me quite confidentially; I was unable to solve this
riddle, now it's clear. Braun, you are right, your information is
perfectly true." And Mr. Shund rubbed his hands.

"Don't forget, Mr. Shund, that I first brought you the astounding
intelligence, the joyful tidings, the information on which the very
best sort of speculations may be based."

"You shall be recompensed, Braun! Go over to the sign of the Bear, and
drink a bottle of the best, and I will pay for it."

"At a thaler a bottle?"

"That quality isn't good for the health, my dear fellow! You may drink
a bottle at forty-eight kreutzers on my credit. But no--I don't wish to
occasion you an injury, nor do I wish to see you disgraced. You shall
not acquire the name of a toper in my employ. You may therefore call
for a pint glass at twelve kreutzers a glass. Go, now, and leave me to
myself."

When the agent was gone, Hans Shund rushed about the room as if out of
his mind.

"Don't tell me that miracles no longer occur!" cried he. "_I_, the
discharged treasurer--_I_, the thief, usurer, and profligate, at the
mere sight of whom every young miss and respectable lady turn up their
noses a thousand paces off--_I_ am chosen to be mayor and assemblyman!
How has this come to pass? Where lie the secret springs of this
astonishing event?" And he laid his finger against his nose in a brown
study. "Here it is--yes, here! The thinkers of progress have at length
discovered that a man who from small beginnings has risen to an
independent fortune, whose shrewdness and energy have amassed enormous
sums, ought to b