couple of thousand florins that were at
home--all have run away with your brother Lorand."

How I reached the street after those words; whether they opened the door
for me; whether they led me out or kicked me out, I assure you I do not
know. I only came to myself, when Marton seized my arm in the street and
shouted at me:

"Well sir Lieutenant-Governor, you walk right into me without even
seeing me. I got tired of waiting in the beer-house and began to think
that they had run you in too. Well, what is the matter? How you
stagger."

"Oh! Marton," I stammered, "I feel very faint."

"What has happened?"

"I cannot tell anyone that."

"Not to anyone? No! not to Mr. Brodfresser,[47] nor to Mr.
Commissioner:--but to Marton, to old Marton? Has old Marton ever let out
anything? Old Marton knows much that would be worth his while to tell
tales about: have you ever heard of old Marton being a gossip? Has old
Marton ever told tales against you or anyone else? And if I could help
you in any way?"

[Footnote 47: The name given to Desiderius' professor ("bread
devourer").]

There was a world of frank good-heartedness in these reproaches; besides
I had to catch after the first straw to find a way of escape.

"Well, and what did my old colleague say?--You know the reason I call
him 'colleague,' is that my hair always acts as if it were a wig, while
his wig always acts as it if were hair."

"He said," I answered tremblingly, hanging on to his arm, "he knew more
than I. Lorand has not merely run away, but has stolen my uncle's wife."

At these words Marton commenced to roar with laughter. He pressed his
hands upon his stomach and just roared, then turned round, as if he
wished to give the further end of the street a taste of his laughter;
then he remarked that it was a splendid joke, at which remark I was
sufficiently scandalized.

"And then he said--that Lorand had stolen his money."

At this Marton straightened himself and raised his head very seriously.

"That is bad. That is 'a mill,' as Father Fromm would say. Well, and
what do you think of it, sir?"

"I think, it cannot be true; and I want to find my brother, no matter
what has become of him.

"And when you have found him?"

"Then, if that woman is holding him by one hand, I shall seize the other
and we shall see which of us will be the stronger."

Marton gave me a sound slap on the back, saying "Teufelskerl.[48] What
are you thinking of?--would other child