"I want to ask you, as a man and a father, to see that this young lady
is warned. She'll be anxious enough to keep quiet. If you do, there
won't be any scandal--at least not from there."
"I'll go down and warn her. Where is she? I'll speak to her father."
"And have him make a row? No, there's only one way. Send your
daughter to her."
"But you don't know my daughter. She's a born--" Just in time Ganser
remembered that he was talking to a stranger and talking about his
daughter. "She wouldn't do it right," he finished.
"She can go in and see the young lady alone and come out without
speaking to anybody else. I'll promise you there'll be no risk."
Ganser thought it over and decided to take Otto's advice. They
discussed Mr. Feuerstein for several minutes, and when Otto left,
Ganser followed him part of the way down the stoop, shaking hands with
him. It was a profound pleasure to the brewer to be able to speak his
mind on the subject of his son-in-law to an intelligent, appreciative
person. He talked nothing else to his wife and Lena, but he had the
feeling that he might as well talk aloud to himself.
After supper--the Gansers still had supper in the evening, their
fashionable progress in that direction having reached only the stage at
which dinner is called luncheon--he put Lena into the carriage and they
drove to Avenue A. On the way he told her exactly what to say and do.
He stayed in the carriage. "Be quick," he said, "and no foolishness!"
Lena, swelling and rustling with finery and homelier than before her
troubles, little though they disturbed her, marched into the shop and
up to the end counter, where Hilda was standing.
"You are Miss Hilda Brauner?" she said. "I want to see you alone."
Hilda looked her surprise but showed Lena into the living-room, which
happened to be vacant. Lena could not begin, so intent was she upon
examining her rival. "How plain she's dressed," she thought, "and how
thin and black she is!" But it was in vain; she could not deceive her
rising jealousy. It made her forget her father's instructions, forget
that she was supposed to hate Feuerstein and was getting rid of him.
"I am Mrs. Carl Feuerstein," she cried, her face red and her voice
shrill with anger and excitement. "And I want you to stop flirting
with my husband!"
Hilda stood petrified. Lena caught sight of a photograph on the
mantelpiece behind Hilda. She gave a scream of fury and darted for it.
"How dare you!" she shrieked. "You impudent THING!" She snatched the
frame, tore it away from the photograph and flung it upon the floor. As
she gazed at that hair like a halo of light, at those romantic features
and upturned eyes, she fell to crying and kissing them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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