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176 don't know whether your brother &hellip;" Diederich snorted, and Magda looked at him beseechingly. "Herr Kienast," he managed to say, "I shall be delighted. Perhaps we may yet come to an understanding." Kienast said he hoped so, and offered gallantly to escort the young lady for a while. "If my brother has no objection," she said with demure irony. Diederich allowed this also. Then he gazed after her in amazement as she went off with the representative of Büschli & Co. How that girl got her way, when she liked!

When he came in to dinner he heard the sisters talking in sharp tones in the sitting-room. Emma was accusing Magda of behaving disgracefully. "You shouldn't do such things." "No," cried Magda, "I suppose I must ask your permission. This is my turn, anyway! Is there anything else worrying you?" And Magda burst into a mocking laugh. She stopped immediately, when Diederich entered. Diederich glanced around disapprovingly, but Frau Hessling need not have wrung her hands behind her daughters' backs. It was beneath his dignity to intervene in this feminine quarrel.

At table they spoke of their visitor. Frau Hessling testified to the impression of reliability which he had made. Emma declared that such a person might at least be reliable. But he had no idea of how to talk to a lady. Magda indignantly asserted the contrary. As they all were waiting for Diederich's decision, he pronounced judgment. The gentleman was certainly not exactly good form. He was admittedly no substitute for a university education. "But I have learnt to know him as a first-rate man of business." Emma could no longer contain herself.

"If Magda intends to marry that man, I declare I will have nothing more to do with you. He ate stewed fruit with a knife!"

"She's a liar!" Magda broke into tears. Diederich took compassion on her, and said rudely to Emma: