Barnewitz had long wished for an hour when he might inform Cloten under the mask of friendship of the reports which filled the town about him and his wife. The day before he had accidentally heard of some new scandal, and to-day Cloten's superiority at billiards had greatly annoyed him. After thinking the matter over for some time, therefore, he exploded: "How is your wife, Cloten?" "Thanks! Pretty well; why?" replied Cloten, not a little astonished at the brusque question. "Well, I suppose it is permitted to inquire after your wife! Or do you allow no questions to be asked?" "Certainly; but what do you mean?" "Because she has been so very charming for a little while past." "Is that so very uncommon?" asked Cloten, slightly embarrassed, and torturing his moustache. "Yes; for she had just before treated everybody, yourself included, so very badly, that one could not help wondering at the sudden change. At all events, I was not the only one to notice it; the whole world is full of it." "The whole world ought to pull its own nose," said Cloten; and his hand trembled with annoyance as he filled his glass. "Certainly; but they don't do it." "---- the whole world!" "Certainly; if you wish it. But if you would rather talk about something else;--I only thought that, as your oldest friend, it was my duty to call your attention to certain things." "Well, then, come; out with your story," said Cloten, with nervous vehemence. "What is it? Out with it!" "I shall take good care not to say anything more, if the first word puts you into such a state." "I am not in any state," said Cloten; and to prove it, he dashed his glass upon the table, so that the foot broke to pieces and the wine flooded the marble top. "You are a queer fellow," said Barnewitz. "Wait till you have cause to get angry. What does it amount to? They say that you are not exactly Darby and Joan; that your wife has her own way; that you quarrel occasionally so that the servants hear it in the kitchen, and the like." "Who says so?" "The whole world!" "And you believe it?" Barnewitz shrugged his shoulders. "I shouldn't like to hurt your feelings, Arthur; but I cannot deny it that the way your wife acts looks very suspicious to me. I should not wonder, and no one in our circle would wonder, if she had some little _liaison_, and I rather think I know the person." "I insist upon it that you tell me all you know," said Cloten, with great pathos.