"That I may lose your and every worthy man's friendship?"
"What good is my friendship to you? My friendship at best is worth but fifty thousand thalers. You are quite right not to put yourself out of your way for such a trifle. Marry Hermine Streber--then you will know why you were a beggarly fellow."
"It seems that one falls into this category by having either a great deal of money or none at all," I said, hiding under a loud laugh my embarrassment at his brusque suggestion.
"Certainly," said the doctor, still heated. "Extremes meet, and for this reason I consider your destiny inevitable. The question only is, how to deal with the old man; with the daughter the business is half done, or more than half. Your meeting on the steamer was capital; and now this Richard the Lion-heart in effigy, as long as she has him not in propria personæ----"
"Doctor," I said, rising, "I think it must be time to say good-night."
"As you please," replied the doctor. "You know with such remarkable exactitude what is good for you that most likely you know this too."
The doctor had also arisen and was now walking up and down the room making frightful faces.
"Doctor," said I, stepping before him.
"Go!" he cried, passing round me in a curve.
"I am going," I said, and I went.