, the wind blows such
away from the face of the earth."

"No spell will change down into stone, sings the poet," said Bernhard,
taking a feather from his pillow and brushing it away. "I have a
question to ask you, Wohlfart," said he, after a pause. "Fancy that I am
a Christian, and that you are my father-confessor, from whom no secrets
must be kept back." Then looking anxiously at the door of the next room,
he whispered, "What do you think of my father's business?"

Anton started in amazement, while Bernhard watched him in painful
suspense. "I understand little about these matters," continued he;
"alas! too little, perhaps. I do not want to know whether he passes for
poor or rich; but I ask you, as my friend, what do strangers think of
the way in which he makes his money? It is dreadful, and perhaps sinful,
that I, his son, should put such a question as this, but an irresistible
impulse urges me on. Be honest with me, Wohlfart." He rose in his bed,
and, putting his arm round Anton's neck, said in his ear, "Does my
father rank with men of your class as an upright man?"

Anton was silent. He could not say what he really thought, and he could
not tell a lie. Meanwhile the invalid sank back upon his pillows, and a
low groan quivered through the room.

"My dear Bernhard," replied Anton, at length, "before I answer to a son
such a question as this, I must know his motive for asking it."

"I ask," said Bernhard, solemnly, "because I am exceedingly uneasy about
the good of others, and your answers may spare much misery to many."

"Then," said Anton, "I will answer you. I know of no particular dealing
of your father's which is dishonorable in the mercantile sense of the
word. I only know that he is numbered among that large class of business
men who are not particular in inquiring whether their own profit is
purchased at the price of another's loss. Mr. Ehrenthal passes for a
clear, keen-sighted man, to whom the good opinion of solid merchants is
more indifferent than to a hundred others. He would probably do much
that men of higher principle would avoid, but I do not doubt that he
would also shrink from what certain other speculators around venture
upon."

Again there came a trembling sigh from the invalid, and a painful
silence ensued. At last he lifted himself up again, and, placing his
lips so near Anton's ear that his burning breath played upon his
friend's cheek, he said, "I know that you are acquainted with the Bar