"It was on my account then that you got into this danger?" she said.
"If von Felsen was in it, probably; but then there has never been any love lost between us. He has always owed me a grudge." I had not admitted that I knew he had planned the thing.
"If you can prove it, you will have him punished?"
"I hope to deal with him in another way yet."
"I think we shall unravel it," I said hopefully.
Bessie came back then to say that all was ready for me and I rose.
"How shall I ever be able to repay my obligation, Mr. Bastable?"
"I shall manage to get even with you some day, I expect. Bessie will tell you that whenever I do a little thing for her, she has to pay the price, eh Bess?"
"Bessie has already told me lots of things," was the reply.
"Ah, you mustn’t believe half she says. She’s a born gossip," I answered, and then went off.
The next morning I went early to the Jew’s house and found him full of the news of my disappearance. I did not tell him what had occurred, merely that I had had to leave the city and had been detained.
"I came to see you that night because I wanted to know if your daughter’s marriage could not be postponed for a time."
"It is fixed for to-morrow, Herr Bastable, and everything is arranged."
"I’m afraid you’ll have to put it off, Ziegler." But he would not listen to this. He was deaf alike to arguments, persuasions and threats. And while we were in the midst of a heated discussion about it, Hagar herself came in.
He told her what I wished; but she added her protests to his and spoke with great passion. She was intensely agitated at the suggestion, and wound up a fierce tirade with the vehement declaration: "If it is put off, father, I will kill myself." And that ended the matter.
She was a strange girl; and the instant I said that I should urge it no more, she seized my hand and pressed her lips to it, not a little to my embarrassment. "It is you I have to thank for its taking place so soon, Herr Bastable. I know that. Father has told me all: and I shall never cease to feel that you have been my best friend throughout."
"You see," said the Jew, lifting up his hands, when she had left the room.
"All right. Let us talk about something else. How goes the matter of the papers?"