; but tell me what you did, Peter, to bring things to
such a sudden crisis?"

"Did? pshaw! a piece of nonsense! I was a donkey, my very dear and very
proper young friend, as, of course, you have heard--unless perhaps they
did not tell you, lest evil communications should corrupt good
manners."

"The chief thing, I suppose, I do know," said Walter reddening. He only
knew what old Christel had told him; viz., that Peter had come home
drunk, and been disrespectful to Helen.

"The chief thing!" sneered Peter; "a pretty chief thing to make a row
about! I have done many such chief things, and more to the purpose, in
my life, and not a cock crowed after me. If I had not been such a
confounded ass as to let myself be found out too soon, and get kicked
out like a mangy hound _before_ I had got what I came for, I could have
laughed in my sleeve, even if they did kick me out _after_. As it is, I
have made a fool of myself for nothing--got blown up and turned off,
while others remain behind to laugh at me as I deserve. Eh! why don't
you laugh. Propriety? You see _I_ laugh at my own clumsiness!"

"I don't see what there is to laugh at," said Walter coldly; for he
bitterly repented of having suffered this little villain to walk by his
side.

"Don't, then," he said jeeringly; "Milksop that you are!--You have a
spirit that is as blond as your head, and as your mother's was, when
she suffered herself to be so taken in--"

"Fellow!" cried Walter, flaring up with sudden passion; "if ever I hear
my mother's name on your lips,--" and he held his strong fist in the
wizened face of his tormentor, who stood still with a look of defiance.

"Softly, old boy, take it coolly," he said. "There are moments, I am
aware, when even the sweetest milk is apt to turn sour; but never mind;
I don't see what I should gain by quarrelling with you before I go. You
always treated me fairly--like a gentleman, I may say; for our
principal I was a mere machine; for our adorable Mamsell a toad; you
were the only person in the house who treated me as a fellow-creature;
and so, old fellow, I mean to do you a good turn before I go. When all
the rest are abusing me, you can say: 'Well, poor devil, he was not so
bad a fellow after all!'"

"Come to the point;" said Walter, losing patience; "I have work to do."

"Work, have you? Ah! poor dear, I dare say. Now you have to be first
and last; man-of-all-work, and Jack-of-all-trades, until the Meister
finds another