"If it is dreadful to you, why do you take such characters into your house?" asked Hagenbach dryly.
"How am I to refuse them anything? They would ruin my business, maybe blow up my house with dynamite!" Mine host shuddered at this horrible idea. "I did not dare to say no, when that Landsfeld came and demanded my hall. I trembled before that man, yes, trembled in every limb."
"That must have been very flattering to Mr. Landsfeld," said the doctor, taking a huge draught from the beer mug standing before him, while Willmann continued his lamentation.
"But how am I to answer for it to my other customers--you may depend they'll make me pay for it--and what will Herr Dernburg say?"
"I suppose Herr Dernburg will be utterly indifferent as to whether the Socialists meet at the 'Golden Lamb' or elsewhere, and that you will not lose his custom by it either .... for that matter he never did take a meal at your house, did he?"
"Oh, Doctor, what are you thinking of? My little house, only imagine it! The Odensburg family always drive straight to the depot. All the subordinate officers, though, deal with me; why, I put my main dependence upon Odensburg, and would not for any money in the world----"
"Have it all spoiled for the sake of one party!" said Hagenbach, finishing his sentence for him.
"Of course, that is a matter of business, Runeck is to speak to-day; not a seat will be vacant in your big hall, and it will yield you a pretty profit."
Herr Pancratius Willmann lifted both hands in deprecation and cast his eyes up at the ceiling. "What am I caring for the profit? But I cannot let my business go to rack and ruin, these hard times. I am the father of a family, have six children----"
"Why, the hard times do not seem to have preyed heavily on you," laughed the doctor. "By the way, just at this moment, you bear a most remarkable resemblance to your sainted cousin, the man of the desert, who used to cast his eyes heavenward, in the same piteous manner. But come, Dagobert, we must break up now, else the train will leave you."