"Please, Benas, not so many questions at once. I came here to tell you all about it, and I myself hardly know whether this letter is pleasant or unpleasant. It's not from my sister, in fact, from somebody very different." "Well, from whom? You make me curious. How should I guess from whom?" "I shall tell you immediately, but please sit down quietly next to me; for we must decide upon the answer." He glanced at the clock: "I ordered Elkish to come at half-past five." "Elkish can wait." "Indeed not! I must consult him about to-morrow's committee meeting of the Magdeburg Machine Construction Company." "Now, Benas," she interrupted, "there are weightier matters than the Magdeburg Machine Construction...." "You say that so lightly, Fanny.... I cannot understand how a woman as clever as you are can say such things. The 'Magdeburgs' not important! a small matter! When the balance-sheet is published to-morrow, and the dividends declared, they will rise in value at least fifteen points; and _that_, you say, is of no importance! I must still give my orders about buying and selling; for at the close of the exchange, they will naturally fall, but the day after, then--I tell you, Fanny, it will be a big thing!" "That's all very good and nice. Money, sadly enough, is the only power we have nowadays; but sometimes other things affect the course of events, as, for instance, this letter." "Well, what of it? Elkish may come at any moment." She opened the letter while he turned on the electric light of his reading lamp, whose green silk shade spread a soft, subdued light over the room. "Regierungsrat Dr. Victor Weilen begs permission to pay his respects this evening at nine o'clock. He apologizes for setting so late an hour, but explains that his duties keep him occupied until late in the day; and inasmuch as the matter which he wishes to discuss is a family affair, he hopes we shall receive him." "A family affair? He! What does he want of the family? and so unexpectedly! That's really curious. A family affair!" "He begs, as the time is so short, that an answer be sent to him by telephone, to the Foreign Office, where he will wait until eight o'clock." "Gracious, how swell! The Foreign Office! And thus do we attain to the honor of telephoning to the Foreign Office," he added satirically. "What shall the answer be, Joshua? that we are at home?" "Surely, if you wish to receive him. I cannot understand your excitement, dearest. You have received a Regierungsrat in your drawing-rooms before this, even an Oberregierungsrat. There was a time when Mr. Breitbach found our Moet rather fair...." "There _was_ a time, Benas!" He frowned. "Well, that's something that cannot be altered, dear child." At this moment his confidential clerk, Elkish, was announced. "Even though the 'Magdeburgs' rise ever so high," she answered ironically.