"I am so new to this state of affairs, my dear Philip----"
"Diplomatic? you need not try that with me. I am a straightforward, honest fellow, always speaking out what I have in my heart--a foolish habit; it is just what the old man has never forgiven me. He will not listen to the truth; the whole world must dance to his pipe--and a pretty world it would be, heaven knows!"
"But he has already created a little world of his own. I must confess that his manufactory----"
"Is very fine. He has just been pretty lucky--that is all, I assure you! Think what any other man might have done who held his cards! But he never knows what are trumps for the moment, and cannot forgive another man understanding it better. What has he told you about me?"
"Nothing--on my honour."
"It will come. But I warn you not to believe a word. He looks upon me as an egotist, a gambler, a speculator, a cut-throat--I don't know what not! And why? Because I am ten times richer than he is; because I could put his whole marble trade into my pocket without feeling it; because I--in a word, because I have been successful. I believe in Bismarck, whom he hates like sin. Bismarck is my man; I swear by Bismarck; I would go through thick and thin for Bismarck. He knows what he is about, and how to do it."
Philip sometimes raised his already loud voice till all the bystanders could hear him as well as Reinhold himself; and even when he spoke lower, his lively eyes penetrated the crowd, in which every moment he greeted some acquaintance with a wave of the gloved hand, or a familiar nod of the head, or sometimes with "How are you?" "All right?" "Morning--morning," and such broken sentences.
"Shall you never come back to your father's house?" asked Reinhold.
"No. Why should I?"
"Now, Philip! As if it were the most natural thing in the world for a son never to enter his father's house!"