e and put them before the
excited German. Herr Schwarz wrinkled his face in profound meditation.
His eyes almost disappeared behind his spectacles, then emerged
sparkling.

He wrote some figures on a piece of paper, and handed it to Douglas.

Douglas laughed drily, and returned it.

"You will hardly expect me to give my father the trouble of considering
that."

Herr Schwarz puffed and blowed. He got up, and walked about excitedly.
He lit a cigarette, Falloden politely helping him. Miklos
advanced again.

"I have, myself, made a very careful estimate--" he began,
insinuatingly.

"No, no, Miklos,--go away!--go away!" repeated Schwarz impatiently,
almost walking over him. Miklos retreated sulkily.

Schwarz took up the paper of figures, made an alteration, and handed it
to Falloden.

"It is madness," he said--"sheer madness. But I have in me something of
the poet--the Crusader."

Falloden's look of slightly sarcastic amusement, as the little man
breathlessly examined his countenance, threw the buyer into despair.
Douglas put down the paper.

"We gave you the first chance, Herr Schwarz. As you know, nobody is yet
aware of our intentions to sell. But I shall advise my father to-night
to let one or two of the dealers know."

"_Ach, lieber Gott!_" said Herr Schwarz, and walking away to the window,
he stood looking into the rose-garden outside, making a curious
whistling sound with his prominent lips, expressive, evidently, of
extreme agitation.

Falloden lit another cigarette, and offered one to Miklos.

At the end of two or three minutes, Schwarz again amended the figures on
the scrap of paper, and handed it sombrely to Falloden.

"Dat is my last word."

Falloden glanced at it, and carelessly said--

"On that I will consult my father."

He left the room.

Schwarz and Miklos looked at each other.

"What airs these English aristocrats give themselves," said the
Hungarian angrily--"even when they are beggars, like this young man!"

Schwarz stood frowning, his hands in his pockets, legs apart. His
agitation was calming down, and his more prudent mind already half
regretted his impetuosity.

"Some day--we shall teach them a lesson!" he said, under his breath, his
eyes wandering over the rose-garden and the deer-park beyond. The
rapidly growing docks of Bremen and Hamburg, their crowded shipping, the
mounting tide of their business, came flashing into his mind--ran
through it in a series of images. This