“What's the use of family, rank, or fortune,” cried Dalton, indignantly, as he paced up and down the little shop, in a perfect frenzy of passion, “if a little dirty Jew, with a face like a rat-terrier, can insult you? My uncle is one of the first men in Austria, and my daughter's a Princess; and there's a creature you would't touch with the tongs has the impudence to--to--to--” Evidently the precise offence did not at once occur to Dalton's memory, for after several efforts to round off his phrase--“to outrage me----to outrage me!” he cried, with the satisfaction of one who had found a missing object. Meanwhile Abel, who had gradually resumed his courage, was busily engaged in some deep and intricate calculations, frequently referring to a number of ill-scrawled scraps of paper on a file before him, not heeding, if he heard, the storm around him. “Dere, saar,” said he at length, as he pushed a slip of paper towards Dalton,--“dere, saar; our affairs is closed, as you say. Dere is your debit,--eighteen hundred and seventy-three florins, 'convenzion money.' Dere may be leetle charges to be added for commissions and oder tings; but dat is de chief sum, which you pay now.” There was a sharp emphasis on the last monosyllable that made Dalton start. “I'll look over it; I'll compare it with my books at home,” said he, haughtily, as he stuffed the slip of paper into his waistcoat-pocket. “Den you no pay to-day?” asked Abel. “Nor to-morrow, nor the day after, nor, maybe, awhile longer,” said Dalton, with a composure he well knew how to feel in like circumstances. “Very well, den; I will have securities. I will have bail for my moneys before tree o'clock this day. Dere is de sommation before de Tribunal, Herr von Dalton.” Aud he handed a printed document, stamped with the official seal of a law court, across the table. “You will see,” added the Jew, with a malicious grin, “dat I was not unprepared for all dis. Abel Kraus is only an old Jew, but he no let de Gentile cheat him!” Dalton was stunned by the suddenness of this attack. The coolly planned game of the other so overmatched all the passionate outbreak of his own temper that he felt himself mastered at once by his wily antagonist. “To the devil I fling your summons!” cried he, savagely. “I can't even read it.” “Your avocat will explain it all. He will tell you dat if you no pay de moneys herein charged, nor give a goot and sufficient surety dereof before de Civil Grericht, dis day, dat you will be consign to de prison of de State at Carlsruhe, dere to remain your 'leben lang,' if so be you never pay.” “Arrest me for debt the day it's demanded!” cried Dalton, whose notions of the law's delay were not a little shocked by such peremptory proceedings. “It is in criminal as well as in civil Grericht to draw on a banker beyond your moneys, and no pay, on demand.”