. Has he not yet told you about it?"

"No; but this is excellent. And now, have you some money?"

"Yes; I received this morning three hundred marks from my mother, and
I have not touched the money because I had resolved on this step."

"Then you are better off than I am, at least for the moment; but I
shall raise some money. And third, how will you get your luggage to
the station? for, of course, I cannot expect you to run away without
some clothes."

"Very simply, George; just ask my husband to lend you his big trunk,
and tell him you are obliged to go home on a short leave. I will pack
all my things into that, and the orderly will bring it down to you
here. The trunk is big enough to hold enough for us both."

"There it is again," laughingly said Borgert. "Women are best for all
underhanded work."

"And by which train shall we leave?"

"You will go by the afternoon train, for we will not leave together;
that would attract too much attention. I shall follow you on the
evening train. I think it will be best to meet in Frankfort. We will
meet in the waiting-room of the main station, and there we can talk
over everything in quiet. I shall take a three days' leave, so that
they will not follow me at once."

"Then we are agreed so far. I will come down here to-morrow forenoon,
as soon as my husband has left, and then we can talk this matter over
a little more in detail. Just now I'll have to leave you."

Frau Leimann turned towards the door. When she sent a parting nod from
the threshold, she seemed once more enticing in his eyes. The heated
face was animated, and the glowing eyes radiated life. Truly, she was
charming. Borgert lost himself in pleasant speculations about the
honeyed existence which they two were to lead hereafter, once that
inconvenient husband was out of the way, and all scruples which still
clung to them, as the last vestiges of respectability, had been thrown
overboard.

Borgert had regained all his good humor; he felt almost buoyant, and
as if he could dare undertake anything. There was another
consideration with him. His flight, his desertion, his leaving his
creditors unsatisfied, and a record of somewhat crooked financial
transactions behind him,--all that would now be regarded by people in
a wholly different light. The romantic element would predominate in
the minds of all the gossips. They would say that these two had fled,
because of an overmastering passion,--to become united, when
u