the
greatest scamp in the place--and I've no objection to use a stronger
word if you like. I wouldn't take his hand, no, not if he offered it to
me. The last time he was in this room, about six months ago, he--well,
let us say he borrowed, without a word to me, five or six marks that
were lying loose on the writing-table. Yes, it's a fact," she repeated,
complacently eyeing Maurice's dismay. "Otherwise?--oh, otherwise, he
was born, I think, with a silver spoon in his mouth. He has one piece
of luck after another. Zeppelin discovered him ten years ago, on a
concert-tour--his father is a smith in Warsaw--and brought him to
Leipzig. He was a prodigy, then, and a rich Jewish banker took him up,
and paid for his education; and when he washed his hands of him in
disgust, Schaefele's wife--Schaefele is head of the HANDELVEREIN, you
know--adopted him as a son--some people say as more than a son, for,
though she was nearly forty, she was perfectly crazy over him, and
behaved as foolishly as any of the dozens of silly girls who have lost
their hearts to him."

"I suppose they are engaged," said Maurice after a pause, speaking out
of his own thoughts.

"Do you?" she asked with mild humour. "I really never asked them.--But
this is just another example of his good fortune. When he has worn out
every one else's patience, through his dishonest extravagance, he picks
up a rich wife, who is not averse to supporting him before marriage."

Maurice looked at her reproachfully. "I wonder you care to repeat such
gossip."

"It's not gossip, Maurice. Every one knows it. Louise makes no mystery
of her doings--doesn't care that much what people say. While as for
him--well, it's enough to know it's Schilsky. The thing is an open
secret. Listen, now, and I'll tell you how it began--just to let you
judge for yourself what kind of a girl you have to deal with in Louise,
and how Schilsky behaves when he wants a thing, and whether such a pair
think a formal engagement necessary to their happiness. When Louise
came here, a year and a half ago, Schilsky was away somewhere with
Zeppelin, and didn't get back till a couple of months afterwards. As I
said, I knew Louise pretty well at that time; she had got herself into
trouble with--but that's neither here nor there. Well, my lord
returns--he himself tells how it happened. It was a Thursday evening,
and a Radius Commemoration was going on at the Con. He went in late,
and stood at the back of the hall