and do up their last year's dresses. Carnival
time came round again, and big balls were advertised, but they were
forced to sit at home, for they had no money to go anywhere.

Meyer, in whatever direction he looked, saw nothing but ill-tempered,
dejected, sullen faces around him; but after a while he did not trouble
himself much about them. Only on Sunday afternoons, when a little of the
wine of Meszely had soothed his nerves, would his tongue be loosened,
and a fine flood of moral precept would pour forth for the edification
of his daughters. He would then tell them how happy he was at having
preserved the honour of his name, although he was poor and his overcoat
was ragged (which latter fact, by the way, was not very much to the
credit of his grown-up daughters), but he was proud of his rags, he
said, and wished his daughters to be equally proud of their virtues, and
so on. As for the daughters, they were, naturally, out of the room long
before this sermon was over.

Suddenly, however, a better humour and a more cheerful spirit descended
upon the family. Mr. Meyer, whenever he returned from his office or from
goodness knows whence, would find his daughters boisterously singing.
His wife, too, bought new bonnets; their dresses began to look stylish
again, and their food grew decidedly better. Mr. Meyer, instead of
having his modest measure of Meszely wine on Sunday afternoon only, now
met that pleasant table companion at dinner every day. He would have
taken the change as much as a matter of course as the sparrows take the
wheat from the fields without inquiring who sowed it, if his wife had
not whispered to him one day that Matilda was making such delightful
progress in her profession that the manager had thought well to very
considerably raise her salary, but that the matter was to be kept secret
for a time, lest the other chorus-girls should come to know of it, and
demand a rise of salary likewise. Mr. Meyer considered this to be quite
natural.

It is true he was a little surprised to find Matilda appearing in finer
and finer clothes every day, and wearing continually the most stylish
shawls and bonnets, which she passed on to her younger sister when she
had worn them a bit; he frequently noticed, too, that when he entered
the room, the conversation was suddenly broken off, and when he
inquired what they were talking about, they first of all looked at each
other as if they were afraid of giving contradictory answe