ummed up all he could express in the
way of withering condemnation. "A fellow like me wants to get on and
wants to learn something. All right. So I think I'll buy me a book and
get a step ahead in knowledge. So where do I go? To a party member, to
Comrade Schimmelweis, thinking natural-like I'm safe in his hands. I pay
sixty marks--hard earned money--for a history of the world, and manage
to squeeze the payments out o' my wages, and then, all of a sudden, when
half the price is paid, I'm to have my property taken from me without so
much as a by your leave just because I'm two payments in arrears."

"Read your contract," said Theresa. "Every point is stipulated."

"No wonder people get rich," the man went on. His voice grew louder and
louder, and he glanced angrily at Jason Philip, who at that moment
rushed into the shop with his hat crushed and his trousers sprinkled
with mud. "No wonder that people can buy houses and speculate in real
estate. Yes, Schimmelweis, I call such things sharp practice, and I
don't give a damn for your contract. Everybody knows by this time what
kind of business is done here--more like a man-trap--and that these here
instalments are just a scheme to squeeze the workingman dry. First you
talk to him about education, and then you suck his blood. It's hell!"

"Pull yourself together, Wachsmuth!" Jason Philip cried sternly.

Wachsmuth picked up his cap, and slammed the shopdoor behind him.

Marian Nothafft's eyes passed mechanically over the titles of a row of
fiercely red pamphlets spread out on a table. She read: "The Battle that
Decides," "Modern Slaveholders," "The Rights of the Poor," "Christianity
and Capitalism," "The Crimes of the Bourgeoisie." Although these
catch-words meant nothing to her, she felt in her heart once more her
old, long forgotten hatred against machines.

XII

"Fetch me a sandwich, Theresa," Jason Philip commanded, "I'm hungry as a
wolf."

"Didn't you eat anything at the inn?" Theresa asked suspiciously.

"I was at no such place." Jason Philip's eyes gleamed, and he shook his
head like a lion.

So Theresa went to fetch his sandwich. It was queer to observe how much
distrust and contradiction she was able to express through the sloth of
her movements. But her daughter Philippina was already hurrying down the
stairs with the sandwich.

At this moment Jason Philip became aware of his sister-in-law. "Ah,
there you are, you shrin