These reasons did not seem conclusive to the elder man. He said that the housekeeper could go to Warsaw to order the clothes; and if he bought a carriage, he would like to buy it himself from a carriage-builder of his acquaintance. It was difficult to agree about the clothes, but it was finally settled that a suit should be sent to the tailor as a pattern. Ferdinand did not look at all pleased at this. "I suppose you keep a riding horse?" "No; what good would it be to me?" replied the mill-owner. "Well, but I must have one, and I hope you will at least not refuse me this?" "Of course not." "I should like to go into the town to-morrow to see if one of the nobility has a good horse for sale. You won't object to that?" "Not in the least." By ten o'clock in the morning Ferdinand had left home to go into the town, and a few minutes later Boehme's cart and horse drew up in the courtyard. The pastor seemed unusually excited. When he hurried into the room, there were two flushed spots between his whiskers and his long nose. As soon as he saw Adler, he called out: "Is Ferdinand at home?" Adler was astonished, and noticed that his friend's voice was trembling. "Why? What do you want Ferdinand for?" he asked. "The scoundrel! He's a bad lot! Do you know what he said to Annette yesterday?" Adler's face showed that he neither knew nor suspected anything. "He actually," continued the pastor, getting still more excited, "he asked her...." He broke off, and exclaimed indignantly: "The insolence! The shame of it!" "What is the matter with you?" asked Adler, growing anxious. "What did he say to her?" "He asked her to leave the window of her room open for him at night." The poor pastor, from the excess of his feelings, flung his panama hat on the floor. In matters which had nothing to do with the manufacture and sale of cotton goods Adler took a long time to think. The chord that would have been touched by the wrong done to the girl was missing in his heart; but he had a feeling of friendship for the pastor, and starting from this basis and reasoning phlegmatically and logically, he came to the conclusion that, if the young girl had listened to the proposal, Ferdinand would have to marry her. In any case he would have to marry her; the old man saw no other way out of it. This then was the end of it! A few hours after his arrival, and a few minutes after his excellent speech about his improvement, Ferdinand had put himself into such a position that he, the son of a millionaire, would have to marry a dowerless girl--the pastor's daughter! Instead of enjoying life at his side, and seeing him take the best of what money, youth and unrestrained freedom could give, he would now have to marry the boy to this girl. It was only after the nervous old Boehme had begun to cry in his anger that Adler's wrath burst out in words.