_Lew._ I shall have the honour to let the Privy Counsellor know, that the Aulic Counsellor Reissman waits. (Steps into a closet, out of which the Privy Counsellor immediately comes, and Lewis sometime after.) _Reiss._ I fly to congratulate you on your well-merited elevation. _P. Coun._ I thank you with all my heart. I shall never forget that I am indebted to you for it. _Reiss._ I beg,--nay, I entreat-- _P. Coun._ Your advice. _Reiss._ Too much modesty. _P. Coun._ Your self-denial. For you yourself had the justest claims to all the honours, with which you permitted me to be invested. _Reiss._ _Audaces fortuna._--I am too old. Now you should enjoy life, my friend. The merchant will endeavour to get a hundred per cent. if he can; why should the statesman sell his labour to the state at three? Away with the silly prejudice, and the retail-trade of your conscientious precepts; carry on your business wholesale, on the sacred principle of self-preservation. _P. Coun._ I partly do so, but my father-- _Reiss._ I have paid the old honest man a visit. _P. Coun._ Very kind of you! very kind of you indeed! _Reiss._ He persists in his determination of setting the will aside. _P. Coun._ Ridiculous! _Reiss._ He will not suffer the children to go to the hospital, because the institution is intended for old and decayed people. _P. Coun._ Mere formalities, attached to old age! _Reiss._ As for the rest, he appeared pleased with your proposed union with my daughter. _P. Coun._ Was he! _Reiss._ He said many handsome things of the girl. _P. Coun._ Too much cannot be said in her praise. She is an angel. _Reiss._ I humbly thank you.--But he will not accept the office of mayor on any account. _P. Coun._ I thought so;--but he must. _Reiss._ Oh, yes! I must request you to carry that point, for-- _P. Coun._ Without doubt. _Reiss._ For, however pleased I may be with your connection, I could not possibly think of giving my daughter to a man whose father earned his bread as a mechanic. _P. Coun._ Leave me alone for that. His whole mode of life will be changed. Nay, this change has in some measure taken place already. _Reiss._ Bravo, bravo! _P. Coun._ His mansion-- _Reiss._ Right, right! _P. Coun._ His dress-- _Reiss._ Very necessary. _P. Coun._ Those pitiful caps of my sister-- _Reiss._ Oh, nice! Oh! there you remove a heavy weight from my mind. And then the chief object, that law-suit-- _P. Coun._ You cannot lose it. The will--? _Reiss._ I will stick to that, as if rivetted to it with iron. _P. Coun._ It speaks in your favour in all its forms. _Reiss._ But he is so obstinate in pursuit of the cause, and will-- _P. Coun._ He cannot gain it. _Reiss._ I think so. But then he has engaged that old foolish lawyer Wellenberg, that-- _P. Coun._ A fool, and a pedant. _Reiss._ True! But then he is such a conscientious fellow; and, besides, you know he is called the champion of the poor and the guardian of orphans.