m you made this unfortunate acquaintance."

"Be so good as to hear me say," replied Fink, lighting the lamp of his
tea-kettle, "that I never gave you any right to speak to me thus. I
have no wish to quarrel with you, but I shall be much obliged to you
henceforth to drop this subject."

"Then I must leave you, for I can speak of nothing else while I have the
conviction that you are acting unworthily."

Anton moved to the door. "I give you your choice; either you break with
Rosalie, or, dreadful as it is to me to think of it, you break with me.
If you do not by to-morrow evening give me an assurance that this
intrigue is at an end, I go to Rosalie's mother."

"Good-night, thou stupid Tony!" said Fink.

The following day was a gray one for both.

It was Fink's constant custom, on entering the office, to beckon to his
friend, whereupon Anton would leave his place, and exchange a few words
as to how Fink had spent the previous evening. But this morning Anton
doggedly remained where he was, and bent down over his letters when Fink
took his seat opposite him. Whenever they looked up, they had to make as
though empty space were before them, and not each other's faces. Fink
had found it easy to treat the paternal Ehrenthal as a nonentity, but it
was not so in this case; and Anton, who had had no practice in the art
of overlooking others, felt himself supremely uncomfortable. Then every
thing conspired to make it peculiarly difficult to each to play his
part. Schmeie Tinkeles, the unfortunate little Jew who spoke such
execrable German, and whom Fink always found especial pleasure in
badgering and beating down, made his appearance in the office, and, as
usual, a laughable scene ensued. All the clerks watched Fink, and chimed
in with him, but Anton had to behave as though Tinkeles were a hundred
miles away. Then Mr. Schroeter gave him a commission, which obliged him
to ask Fink a question, and he had to cough hard to get out the words at
all. He received a very short answer, which increased his anger.
Finally, when the dinner hour struck, Fink, who used regularly to wait
till Anton came for him, walked off with Jordan, who wondered what could
keep Wohlfart, to which Fink could only reply that he neither knew nor
cared.

During the afternoon Anton could not avoid a few furtive glances at the
haughty face opposite him. He thought how dreadful it would be to become
estranged from one he so dearly loved; but his resolve was firm