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Rh did not reply, Diederich thought: "They have sent him here specially about the machine; they are afraid of a lawsuit." Then he noticed that Magda and Büschli's representative were raising their glasses at the same time, and toasting each other with their eyes. Emma and Frau Hessling looked on in rigid silence. Diederich bent his head over his plate in a rage—but all at once he began to sing the praises of domestic life. "You are in luck, my dear Herr Kienast, for this lunch hour is by far the pleasantest time in the day. Coming up here, right in the middle of one's work, has a humanising effect, so to speak, and one needs it."

Kienast agreed that it was needed. To Frau Hessling's inquiry whether he was married he replied in the negative, looking, as he did so, at the top of Magda's head, for it had modestly drooped. Diederich stood up at attention, bringing his heels together. "Herr Kienast," he said sharply, "I am at your disposal."

"You will take a cigar, Herr Kienast," said Magda invitingly. Kienast allowed her to light it for him and hoped that he would have the pleasure of seeing the ladies again—this with a significant smile at Magda. Outside in the yard his tone changed completely. "Hm, these are small, cramped premises," he remarked in frigid tones of depreciation. "You should see our works."

"In a hole like Eschweiler," replied Diederich, equally contemptuous, "that is no wonder. Just you try to pull down this block of houses!" Then he shouted in the tones of a martinet for the machinist to set the new cylinder machine in motion. As Napoleon Fischer did not come at once, Diederich stormed down upon him. "Are you deaf, sir?" But as soon as he came in front of him he stopped shouting. In an imploring whisper, his eyes staring with anxiety, he said: "Fischer, I have been thinking things over. I am satisfied with your work, and from the first of the month your salary is raised to one hundred and eighty marks." Napoleon