"And I should be giving up this very business relation if I allowed Alma to accompany me, when the situation was so critical. In the presence of ladies it is very difficult not to touch the chords of tender feeling, and it seems to me extremely desirable to avoid the possibility of doing so. Are you not of my opinion, dear Alma?" "It is a very disagreeable affair," said Alma. "Is it not? And why should you expose yourself to it unnecessarily? I knew my wise little wife would yield the point at last." And the Assessor tenderly kissed Alma's hand. "But in that case it seems to me you must stay here too, my dear Herr Assessor," said Frau Wollnow. "I? Why? On the contrary, it is only prudent for me to appear as natural as possible. I know nothing; I suspect nothing. Of course I shall be extremely sorry when Brandow takes me aside and tells me he can't pay; but I'll wager the dinner will be none the worse for that, and taste none the worse to me. His red wine and champagne were always superb." Frau Wollnow rose and went out upon the balcony. She must breathe the fresh air, even at the risk of having her new silk morning-dress spoiled by the rain, which was now falling quite heavily from the gray sky. "Poor, poor Cecilia!" she repeated sighing, "and there is no one who can and will save you." She remembered that she had brought her husband a dowry of fifty thousand thalers, but she could not touch them without Emil's permission, and Emil would not allow it. Should she try to move him by throwing herself prostrate at his feet? She could almost have laughed outright at the extravagant idea, especially when she imagined the astonished expression her husband's face would wear; but the tears again sprang to her eyes and mingled with the rain-drops that beat upon her burning face. Suddenly the husband and wife within were roused from their low-toned, eager conversation by a loud exclamation from the balcony. "Gotthold, good heavens, Gotthold!" "Where, where?" cried the Assessor and his wife with one voice, as they hurried out upon the balcony. "There he comes," said Ottilie, pointing towards the square, across which a man with a broad-brimmed hat, pulled low over his eyes, was walking directly towards the house. "He isn't so tall as Brandow," said Alma, who was critically inspecting the new-comer through an opera-glass. "What can he want?" asked her husband. "We shall soon know," said Frau Wollnow, as with a vague feeling of anxiety she pressed her two companions back into the room.