"

Gertrude turned to her sister at once. She cast down her eyes and wound
the black velvet ribbon of her morning-dress nervously round her
finger.

"Your husband is in a very unpleasant situation," she began in a low
tone.

"In what respect?" asked Gertrude.

"It is a disagreeable affair, but nothing to make such solemn faces
over," burst out the old gentleman, who was standing at the window.

"He had--" Jenny hesitated again, "a conversation with Wolff
yesterday."

"I know it," replied Gertrude.

"Wolff had a claim on him which your husband will not recognize and--"

"For Heaven's sake, make an end of it!" The old gentleman brought his
fist down angrily on the window-sill. "Do you want to give her the
poison drop by drop?"

He took Gertrude's hand again, and tried to find words to explain.

"You see, Gertrude, it is not so bad; it often happens, and this Wolff
may have thrust himself forward, in short--he is a sort of a walking
encyclopaedia, knows everybody hereabouts, and whenever any one wants to
know anything he is sure to be able to tell him. So your husband--well,
how shall I excuse it?--he inquired about your circumstances, do you
understand?--before he offered himself to you--_voila tout_. It happens
hundreds of times, child, and you are reasonable, Gertrude, aren't
you?"

The young wife stood motionless as a statue. Only gradually the color
came to her cheeks.

"That is a lie!" she cried, drawing a long breath. "Did you bring me
here for _that_?"

"But Wolff was here," moaned Mrs. Baumhagen, "asking for my
intervention."

"No, he came to _us_," corrected Jenny, "early this morning; he wanted
to speak to Arthur, but Arthur--" she hesitated, "last evening
Arthur--"

"You may as well say that Arthur started off suddenly on a journey in
the night," interposed Mrs. Baumhagen sharply, "I am very fortunate in
my children's marriages!"

"Well, I can't help it if he gets angry at every little thing," laughed
the young wife, quite undisturbed. "Besides we are very happy."

"A pretty kind of happiness," grumbled the old gentleman to himself, so
low that no one but Gertrude could hear it. Then he added aloud, "A
hurried journey on business, we will call it, a sudden journey on
business, preceded by a little curtain lecture."

"Oh, to be sure, a journey on business," said Mrs. Baumhagen in a tone
of pique, "to Manchester."

"What has that got to do with Gertrude's affairs?" asked Uncle Henry,
"