"That's what happens when you women interfere in money matters. How could you be so stupid as to change a cheque, even if only one person was standing by and saw you? And why was it a cheque at all? Can't the Warnows pay the miserable few thousands (hundreds) in cash? Nobody would then have heard of it; but now I am obliged to pay out some of the money. But," he roared out suddenly, "I won't do it at all. I did not think to have my sixtieth birthday spoilt by that shameless crew. I'll see them all to the devil first." "Shall I go and talk to these people?" asked Fritz. "I have great experience in these things, and I can safely say that no one has ever got anything from me. I can't understand, father, why you get so excited over such trifles. Now, let me go and try what I can do." He was about to go out of the room, but his mother kept him back. "That won't do, Fritz. You don't know how often the bailiff from the court has been here. Things have gone so far--I mean--well, you will have to know it--up till now he has only sealed some of our furniture and has not sold any; but if the authorities hear that we really have money he will have to sell us up. He told us that, and we wanted to spare papa that to-day." "Above all things, certainly." Fritz had become serious, and involuntarily he looked round to see the seals. "He has only put on seals where they could not be seen," the mother whispered to her son; "on the carpets, the piano, the bookshelf, the pictures--briefly, all the things that stand against the walls. Oh, it's frightful!" and she began to cry. "Yes, that's right, cry!" roared the major. "Formerly on one's birthday one was serenaded; now, when one is old and grey, one's wife weeps because there is no money and the creditors are outside the door. A man must live to be sixty to enjoy such an honour." He stamped to and fro cursing, listening from time to time to the people who were in the vestibule waiting for him. Suddenly he stood in front of Hildegarde and put his hand on her shoulder. "Eh, Hilda, you see we cannot wait much longer for your lover. Bring him soon, before it is too late, before that rascally crew has taken everything and sold us up and I and your mother are cast into the street." His words expressed such bitterness and such despair that Hildegarde forgot all about her own feelings and how she was looked upon as deliverer, and in grief for her parents she burst into tears. "Number two," scolded the major. "That's right." "Don't be unjust, father. You can't blame mother and Hildegarde for being sad. The affair is more than unpleasant to me even." "Then you had better begin and cry," cursed the old man, whose veins stood out on his forehead. "I am not thinking of myself but how these people can be satisfied in some way or other. I did not know that any of the furniture was sealed. You ought to have told me so." After a slight pause he asked, "How much is it for?" "Only two thousand marks."