Tony said: “I was never so glad to come to Travemünde before--for various reasons. You needn’t laugh, Tom. I wish I could leave a certain pair of yellow mutton-chops even further behind! And then, it will be an entirely different Travemünde at the Schwarzkopfs’, on the sea front. I shan’t be bothered with the Kurhouse society, I can tell you that much. I am not in the mood for it. Besides, that--that man could come there too as well as not. He has nerve enough--it wouldn’t trouble him at all. Some day he’d be bobbing up in front of me and putting on all his airs and graces.” Tom threw away the stub of his cigarette and took a fresh one out of the box, a pretty little affair with an inlaid picture inside the lid, of an overturned troika being set upon by wolves. It was a present from a Russian customer of the Consul. The cigarettes, those biting little trifles with the yellow mouthpiece, were Tom’s passion. He smoked quantities of them, and had the bad habit of inhaling the smoke, breathing it slowly out again as he talked. “Yes,” he said. “As far as that goes, the garden of the Kurhouse is alive with Hamburgers. Consul Fritsche, who has bought it, is a Hamburger himself. He must be doing a wonderful business now, Papa says. But you’ll miss something if you don’t take part in it a bit. Peter Döhlmann is there--he never stops in town this time of year. His business goes on at a jog-trot, all by itself, I suppose. Funny! Well--and Uncle Justus comes out for a little on a Sunday, of course, to visit the roulette table. Then there are the Möllendorpfs and the Kistenmakers, I suppose, in full strength, and the Hagenströms--” “H’m. Yes, of course. They couldn’t get on without Sarah Semlinger!” “Her name is Laura, my child. Let us be accurate.” “And Julchen with her, of course. Julchen ought to get engaged to August Möllendorpf this summer--and she will do it, too. After all, they belong together. Disgusting, isn’t it, Tom? This adventurer’s family--” “Yes, but good heavens, they are the firm of Strunck and Hagenström. That is the point.” “Naturally, they make the firm. Of course. And everybody knows _how_ they do it. With their _elbows_. Pushing and shoving--entirely without courtesy or elegance. Grandfather said that Heinrich Hagenström could coin money out of paving-stones. Those were his very words.” “Yes, yes, that is exactly it. It is money talks. And this match is perfectly good business. Julchen will be a Möllendorpf, and August will get a snug position--” “Oh, you just want to make me angry, Tom, that’s all. You know how I despise that lot.” Tom began to laugh. “Goodness, one has to get along with them,” he replied. “As Papa said the other day, they are the coming people; while the Möllendorpfs, for example-- And one can’t deny that the Hagenströms are clever. Hermann is already useful in the business, and Moritz is very able. He finished school brilliantly, in spite of his weak chest; and he is going to study law.”