d spare Borgert himself the unpleasant
predicament of facing a court-martial because of systematic
maltreatment of a subordinate.

When he returned home at noon, Borgert found a letter. It was the
reply of the financial man in Berlin to whom, in his quandary, he had
turned. The letter told the recipient in curt terms that his
application had been rejected. No loan could be made to him, it said,
since inquiries about Borgert and his co-called bondsmen, and the
endorsement of Leimann, had "demonstrated a financial status highly
unfavorable."

Borgert received this news almost with indifference, for since this
morning he had abandoned all hope of a favorable turn, and hence felt
no disappointment.

He knew he could obtain no money anywhere after this. In fact, now
that he clearly envisaged things, it seemed astonishing that the
bubble had not burst long ere this. It had been solely due, as he now
felt, to Leimann's extraordinary skill in hiding his own pecuniary
embarrassments that Borgert himself had been able to run up large
accounts without any tangible security whatever. For Leimann, he
remembered, had backed him up throughout.

Dazed and spent, Borgert lay down on his divan.

He did not wish to go to the Casino, for he felt no appetite, and he
was not in the mood to play his accustomed pranks and capers for the
delectation of his comrades. He did not want to see or hear of
anybody. He wanted to be all by himself and indulge in his morose
reflections. His eye wandered around the elegant appointments of his
dwelling. These fine paintings on his walls; this handsome and costly
furniture, most of it carved in solid oak; the soft Oriental rugs
underfoot which deadened every sound and made his bachelor home so
comfortable and cosy; those heavy, discreet hangings of finest velvet
which shut out the intrusive light and kept his apartments in that
epicurean _chiaroscuro_ which his sybarite taste demanded--what a
pity, what an infernal shame, to have to surrender into the hands of
these vermin of usurers all these trappings of his bachelor freedom!
Of course, they would struggle and fight for it all, and each one of
them would scramble to be the first to assert and enforce his rights.
Rather amusing it would be, he thought, but alas! he himself would not
be able to view the scene.

There was no help for it. Within a few days the crash must come; he
could see no escape.

But what was to become of himself? He had never