"Confound your logic! I tell you--" cried the little man angrily. But he stopped suddenly, for there on the threshold stood Gertrude Linden.

"Are you talking of us?" she asked, her terrified eyes wandering over the group and resting at length on her mother, who at sight of her had sunk back weeping in her chair.

"Yes, child."

The old man hastened towards her and tried to draw her away.

"It's a thoughtless whim of your mother to send for you here; nothing at all has happened; really, it is only some stupid gossip, a misunderstanding perfectly absurd. Come across to the other room and I will explain it all."

"No, no, uncle, I must know it, must know it all."

She withdrew her hand from his and went up to her mother.

"Here I am, mamma; now tell me everything, but quickly, I entreat you."

She looked down on the weeping woman with a face that was deathly pale, standing motionless before her in her light summer costume. Only the strings of her bonnet, which were tied on the side in a simple bow, rose and fell quickly, and bore witness to her great agitation.

"I can't tell her," sobbed Mrs. Baumhagen, "you tell her, Jenny."

Gertrude turned to her sister at once. She cast down her eyes and wound the black velvet ribbon of her morning-dress nervously round her finger.

"Your husband is in a very unpleasant situation," she began in a low tone.

"In what respect?" asked Gertrude.

"It is a disagreeable affair, but nothing to make such solemn faces over," burst out the old gentleman, who was standing at the window.

"He had--" Jenny hesitated again, "a conversation with Wolff yesterday."

"I know it," replied Gertrude.

"Wolff had a claim on him which your husband will not recognize and--"

"For Heaven's sake, make an end of it!" The old gentleman brought his fist down angrily on the window-sill. "Do you want to give her the poison drop by drop?"

He took Gertrude's hand again, and tried to find words to explain.

"You see, Gertrude, it is not so bad; it often happens, and this Wolff may have thrust himself forward, in short--he is a sort of a walking encyclopaedia, knows everybody hereabouts, and whenever any one wants to know anything he is sure to be able to tell him. So your husband--well, how shall I excuse it?--he inquired about your circ.u.mstances, do you understand?--before he offered himself to you--_voila tout_. It happens hundreds of times, child, and you are reasonable, Gertrude, aren't you?"

The young wife stood motionless as a statue. Only gradually the color came to her cheeks.

"That is a lie!" she cried, drawing a long breath. "Did you bring me here for _that_?"

"But Wolff was here," moaned Mrs. Baumhagen, "asking for my intervention."

"No, he came to _us_," corrected Jenny, "early this morning; he wanted to speak to Arthur, but Arthur--" she hesitated, "last evening Arthur--"

"You may as well say that Arthur started off suddenly on a journey in the night," interposed Mrs. Baumhagen sharply, "I am very fortunate in my children's marriages!"

"Well, I can't help it if he gets angry at every little thing," laughed the young wife, quite undisturbed. "Besides we are very happy."

"A pretty kind of happiness," grumbled the old gentleman to himself, so low that no one but Gertrude could hear it. Then he added aloud, "A hurried journey on business, we will call it, a sudden journey on business, preceded by a little curtain lecture."

"Oh, to be sure, a journey on business," said Mrs. Baumhagen in a tone of pique, "to Manchester."

"What has that got to do with Gertrude's affairs?" asked Uncle Henry, "It is enough that Arthur was not there, and the gentleman went up another flight and spoke to your mother, my child. It is not worth mentioning--if I had only been here sooner. It is very disagreeable that you should have heard of it, but believe me, my child, they all do it now-a-days."

The good-natured little man clapped her kindly on the shoulder.

Mrs. Baumhagen, however, started up like an angry lioness.

"Don't talk such nonsense! How can you smooth it over? It was nothing but a common swindle. I hope Gertrude has enough sense of dignity to tell Mr. Linden that--"

"Not another word!"

The young wife stood almost threatening before her in the middle of the room.

"But for mercy's sake! It will be the most scandalous case that was ever known," sobbed the excited lady. "He is going to sue Linden--you will both have to appear in court."

Gertrude did not utter a syllable.

"Have the kindness to order a carriage, uncle," she entreated.

"No, you must not go away so! you look shockingly," was the anxious cry of her mother and sister.

"Do listen to reason, Gertrude," said Jenny in a complaining tone.

"We must silence Wolff--uncle can inquire how much he asks for his services, and--"

"And you will come to us again," sobbed her mother. "Gertrude, Gertrude, my poor unhappy child, did I not foresee this?"

"This is too much!" growled the old gentleman. "Confound these women!

Don't let them talk you into anything, child," he cried, forcibly; "settle it with your husband alone."

"A carriage, uncle," reiterated the young wife.

"Wait a while at least," entreated Jenny, "till mamma's lawyer--"

"Oh," groaned Uncle Henry, "if Arthur had only been here, this confounded affair wouldn't have been left in the women's hands. I will get you a carriage, Gertrude. Your nags are at the factory, Jenny? Very well. Excuse me a moment."

Gertrude was standing in the window like one stunned; she had as yet no clear understanding of the matter. "The whole city is talking about it," she heard her mother sob. Of what then? She tried forcibly to collect her thoughts, but in vain. Only one thing: it is not true! went over and over in her mind.

She clenched her little hand in its leather glove. "A lie! A lie!" fell again from her lips. But this lie had spread itself like a heavy mist over her young happiness, bringing so much vague alarm that her breath came thick and fast.

"Shall I go with you?" asked Jenny. The carriage was just coming across the square.

"No, thank you. I require no third person between my husband and myself."

Her words sounded cold and hard.