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Rh matters of church and religion, it is a wonder the three old ladies were there. Why do they not go to the Free Thought lectures of Doctor Heuteufel?"

The Pastor shot up out of his chair. He snorted so much that his beard looked like foam, and his frock-coat flapped wildly. "Herr Assessor!" he cried vehemently, "this man is my brother-in-law, and vengeance is mine saith the Lord. But also this person is my brother-in-law and the husband of my own sister, I can only pray to God, pray with clasped hands, that He shall strike him with the lightning of his vengeance. Otherwise, He will one day be obliged to rain fire and brimstone upon the whole of Netzig. Heuteufel, do you understand, gives coffee, coffee for nothing, to the people so that they will come to him and let him capture their souls. And then he tells them that marriage is not a sacrament, but a contract—as if I were ordering a suit of clothes." The Pastor laughed bitterly.

"Disgusting," said Diederich in a deep voice, and while Jadassohn was assuring the Pastor of the positive nature of his Christianity, Diederich began again to make obvious efforts to approach Käthchen by changing his chair. Fräulein Käthchen," he said, "I can assure you most seriously that to me marriage is really a sacrament." Käthchen replied:

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Dr. Hessling."

He turned hot all over. "Don't look at me so crossly!"

Käthchen sighed. "You are so frightfully designing. I am sure you are no better than Herr Assessor Jadassohn. Your sisters have told me all the things you used to do in Berlin, they are my best friends."

Then they would meet soon again?—Yes, at the Harmony Club. "But you needn't think that I believe anything you say. You arrived together with Guste Daimchen at the station."

Diederich asked what that proved, and said that he protested against any conclusions which might be drawn from