Meanwhile, Fortune selected three bank-notes of a thousand marks each, and ten hundred-mark notes. "Here, friend Pigglewitch," he said, "are four thousand marks; our bargain was for three thousand five hundred, but I add the rest and make the four thousand complete on condition that you make over to me your travelling-bag and its contents. I should like to begin my new life fully equipped as Pigglewitch. Do you agree?"
"Oh, certainly. You are most generous. I thank you from my soul, but----"
"But? Go on; why do you hesitate?"
"If you really wish to assume the life of a poor man like myself you must not carry about you so well filled, a pocket-book."
Fortune looked up in surprise. "You are cleverer than I thought," he said; "you are right. It were best to throw the entire rubbish into the lake, where it can do no mischief."
"For God's sake, take care what you do, Herr Fortune!" Pigglewitch exclaimed, in dismay, seizing the young man by the arm as he was about to toss the pocket-book into the water. "It is a sin to destroy all that beautiful money. If you do not want it, give it to me."
Fortune's hand fell by his side, he reflected for a moment, and then said as he looked at Pigglewitch with a smile, "The appetite grows with eating. A moment ago four thousand marks seemed wealth to you, now you would like to have more. No, friend Pigglewitch, four thousand marks is enough. If you cannot begin life afresh with that sum, a larger one would assuredly plunge you into misery. But you were right, nevertheless, to prevent me from destroying this money, it would have been folly. I always act foolishly when I follow the impulse of the moment, and I thank you for hindering me. I will keep the pocketbook. There is no danger for me in the money, I know its worthlessness. Give me your travelling-bag. Is there a key to it? Yes? Thank you. I will deposit the pocket-book here in this bag, where it shall remain untouched. And now we will exchange clothes. I am longing to don your charming black suit as a bride longs to deck herself in her veil. We are about the same height, we shall have no difficulty in the matter."
He took off his cravat and waistcoat, and with a shake of the head Pigglewitch followed his example. In a few minutes the transformation was complete. Fritz Fortune in the wet black suit confronted its amazed former possessor; the clothes, 'a world too wide' for his slender, muscular figure, dangled and hung loosely about him, he clapped the tall black hat upon his head and exclaimed with a laugh as he looked at himself in a small pocket-mirror which he had taken from his own coat, "Horrible! ugly beyond belief! Indeed I am worthy of you, friend Pigglewitch. But my poor fellow, how you look! You have the worst of the bargain. My new summer coat suits you about as well as does a dress-coat a poodle. Look at yourself!"
He handed Pigglewitch the little mirror. Gottlieb contemplated his image with much complacency. He thought he presented an aristocratic appearance in his elegant attire, and said so.
"Are you pleased? So much the better," said Fortune. "Then we are both satisfied. And now, friend Pigglewitch, let us take leave of each other, but first swear to me by all that you hold sacred, by the very salvation of your soul, that you never will reveal to a human being what has taken place between us, and that you will sail for America as soon as possible."