“Oh, he is just the same. You know he is a very good, hard-working man, and in a way a model husband; he never stops in anywhere, but comes straight home from the office and spends all his free time with us. But--you see, Tom--we can speak quite openly, just between ourselves--he requires Erica to be always lively, always laughing and talking, because when he comes home tired and worried from the office, he needs cheering up, and his wife must amuse him and divert him.” “Idiot!” murmured the Senator. “What? Well, the bad thing about it is, that Erica is a little bit inclined to be melancholy. She must get it from me, Tom. Sometimes she is very serious and quiet and thoughtful; and then he scolds and grumbles and complains, and really, to tell the truth, is not at all sympathetic. You can’t help seeing that he is a man of no family, and never enjoyed what one would call a refined bringing-up. To be quite frank--a few days before I went to Pöppenrade, he threw the lid of the soup-tureen on the floor and broke it, because the soup was too salt.” “How charming!” “Oh, no, it wasn’t, not at all! But we must not judge. God knows, we are all weak creatures--and a good, capable, industrious man like that--Heaven forbid! No, Tom, a rough shell with a sound kernel inside is not the worst thing in this life. I’ve just come from something far sadder than that, I can tell you! Armgard wept bitterly, when she was alone with me--” “You don’t say! Is Herr von Maiboom--?” “Yes, Tom--that is what I wanted to tell you. We sit here visiting, but I really came to-night on a serious and important errand.” “Well, what is the trouble with Herr von Maiboom?” “He is a very charming man, Ralf von Maiboom, Thomas; but he is very wild--a hail-fellow-well-met with everybody. He gambles in Rostock, and he gambles in Warnemünde, and his debts are like the sands of the sea. Nobody could believe it, just living a couple of weeks at Pöppenrade. The house is lovely, everything looks flourishing, there is milk and sausage and ham and all that, in great abundance. So it is hard to measure the actual situation. But their affairs are in frightful disorder--Armgard confessed it to me, with heart-breaking sobs.” “Very sad.” “You may well say so. But, as I had already suspected, it turned out that I was not invited over there just for the sake of my _beaux yeux_.” “How so?” “I will tell you, Tom. Herr von Maiboom needs a large sum of money immediately. He knew the old friendship between his wife and me, and he knew that I am your sister. So, in his extremity, he put his wife up to it, and she put me up to it.--You understand?” The Senator passed his finger-tips across his hair and screwed up his face a little.