ed Mr. Feuerstein, who was posing as a statue of gloomy
wrath.

"Who are you?" he demanded in the insulting tone which exactly
expressed his state of mind.

Mr. Feuerstein cast up his eyes. "For Hilda's sake!" he murmured
audibly. Then he made a great show of choking down his wrath. "I,
sir, am of an ancient Prussian family--a gentleman. I saw your peerless
daughter, sought an introduction, careless who or what she was in birth
and fortune. Love, the leveler, had conquered me. I--"

"Do you work?" Brauner broke in. "What are your prospects? What have
you got? What's your character? Have you any respectable friends who
can vouch for you? You've wandered into the wrong part of town. Down
here we don't give our daughters to strangers or do-nothings or
rascals. We believe in love--yes. But we also have a little common
sense and self-respect." Brauner flung this at Mr. Feuerstein in
High-German. Hilda, mortified and alarmed, was also proud that her
father was showing Mr. Feuerstein that she came of people who knew
something, even if they were "trades-folk."

"I can answer all your questions to your satisfaction," replied Mr.
Feuerstein loftily, with a magnanimous wave of his white hand. "My
friends will speak for me. And I shall give you the addresses of my
noble relatives in Germany, though I greatly fear they will oppose my
marriage. You, sir, were born in the Fatherland. You know their
prejudices."

"Don't trouble yourself," said Brauner ironically. "Just take yourself
off and spare yourself the disgrace of mingling with us plain folk.
Hilda, go to your room!" Brauner pointed the stem of his pipe toward
the outside door and looked meaningly at Mr. Feuerstein.

Hilda, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks flushed, put herself between
Mr. Feuerstein and the door. "I guess I've got something to say about
that!" she exclaimed. "Father, you can't make me marry Otto Heilig. I
HATE him. I guess this is a free country. I shall marry Mr.
Feuer--Carl." She went up to him and put her arm through his and
looked up at him lovingly. He drew her to him protectingly, and for an
instant something of her passionate enthusiasm fired him, or rather,
the actor in him.

Otto laid his hand on Brauner's arm.

"Don't you see, sir," he said in Low-German, very earnestly, "that
you're driving her to him? I beg you"--in a lower tone--"for the sake
of her future--don't drive him out, and her with him. If he really
wo