learnt to know in his official days: they were now leading counsel
in the supreme court, eminent jurists whose opinions he could safely
follow. He had not seen them for a long time, but it now occurred to him
that he might just as well look them up and be beforehand with Aunt
Teresa in case she put her threat into execution.

His nearest acquaintance was Councillor Schmerz, a bachelor of about
forty, a smooth-faced, quiet sort of man, whom he found in his garden
grafting his pinks. To him he confided his grievance, telling him all
about Aunt Teresa and the shabby trick she threatened to play
him--reporting him to the Prince Primate, forsooth!

Mr. Schmerz smiled once or twice during this speech, and now and then
warned Mr. Meyer, who was quite carried away by the force of his
declamation, not to trample on his flower-beds, as they were planted
with cockscombs and larkspurs. When, however, Mr. Meyer had finished his
oration, he replied very gently--

"Teresa will not do that!"

"Teresa will not do that?" thought Mr. Meyer. "That's not enough for
me." He wanted to be told that Teresa _could_ not--was not allowed to do
it; and if she tried it on, so much the worse for Teresa.

Mr. Schmerz had evidently made up his mind to graft an endless series of
pinks that afternoon, so Mr. Meyer thought it best to carry his
complaint to another of his acquaintances, in the hope that he would and
must give a more definite reply.

This other acquaintance was Mr. Chlamek, a famous advocate, one of the
most honourable of characters, and withal an exceedingly dry
man--practical shrewdness and commonsense personified. He, too, was a
pater-familias with three sons and two daughters.

Mr. Chlamek listened to the matter laid before him with all an
advocate's patience, and answered the question quietly and frankly--

"My dear friend, never quarrel with a relation for showing a disposition
to relieve you of one of your daughters. Thank God that you have still
daughters left and to spare. I know from experience that one girl gives
more trouble than three boys. I should not refuse this offer if I were
you."

Mr. Meyer said not a word. This advice pleased him even less than the
other. So he went to his third acquaintance.

This third acquaintance was a really excellent fellow, and by profession
a judge of the criminal court. He was always frightfully rude to those
with whom he was in any way angry, and if the whole penal code had been
hi