of
the stables. To him personally it was a matter of little concern, but
humbler and poorer people could not so well afford to do without it.

This gave rise to much loud talk. All seemed to be speaking at once,
and saying, "Such things should not be tolerated."

When I at last obtained an opportunity to make myself heard, I told
them that the community had an interest in the preservation of the
forests, and suggested that it was necessary to seek other means of
gaining the object to be attained, in order that the forests need not
suffer.

And when I went on to tell them that we would be unable to take proper
care of our forests until we had a general law on the subject applying
to the whole empire, and that the lines separating our different states
ran through the midst of our woods, I heard some one call out, "Of
course! He owns forests on both sides of the line." And Schmalz laughed
out at the top of his voice, holding his fat paunch the while. "What a
fuss the man is making about a few little sticks!" he said.

I descended from the tribune, feeling that I had not convinced my
constituents.

At the banquet all was life again. Herr Von Rontheim was among the
guests. He had courage enough to confess to being one of the
opposition, of which he had become a member against his will. He was an
impoverished member of the old nobility. In figure and in education he
seemed intended for a courtier. But now he was filling an office that
entailed much labor upon him. He attended to his duties punctually and
carefully, but in a perfunctory manner. He had given in his adhesion to
the late liberal ministry. In view of his position at Court, this was
an ill-considered step; for, when the ministers were removed, he was at
once ordered to the capital, and assigned to official duties that he
found it hard to do justice to, for his education had better fitted him
for the life of a courtier than for that of a painstaking government
deputy.

Rontheim sat beside me, and assured me that the fall of the one man who
had been appointed minister to the federation would soon draw that of
the rest after him.

He spoke as if he knew all about the matter, and merely wanted to find
out how much I knew on the subject. The artifice was too apparent,
however; he knew just as little as I did. In the course of
conversation, he asserted that the existence of the lesser German
States does not find its justification in greater privileges than are