"It is not so easily to be had, and especially now when he is busy getting that bill through. People do not dare go to him with many questions which would seem to touch upon the great principle of self-government, which is the order of the day. However--I say it in the strictest confidence--as soon as this bill, which you know goes very much against the grain with him, has been brought through the House of Lords by means of a new creation of peers, and at the same time as I and all patriots feel the grave of Prussia has been dug, he will retire in displeasure from his uncomfortably prominent position in the ministry, and we shall have a better chance next year."
"But I do not want to wait so long," said the Count. He had sprung up and paced up and down the room with hasty steps; now he returned to the table where the Councillor, certain that the interview would not be terminated thus, remained quietly sitting. "And supposing that I wished to wait so long--the very important question arises of whether I could. This is a confidential interview. Councillor Schieler. Well, I am in a bad way. The interest on my debts almost swallows up my income, and by the first of October there will be an additional sum of fifty thousand thalers."
"Have you spoken to Hugo Lübbener? I should have thought such a rich man, and your banker for so many years----"
"He has only been so for three years, since you recommended him to me so strongly, and besides now my account is very low; my banker's book has not been made up since last July. I cannot ask any more from Lübbener; I have not even once been to see him."
"Humph!" said the Councillor, with the air of a man who, thinking he knows something, now sees it in a new light. "I thought your affairs were--apart from temporary embarrassments--quite in order. What you now tell me, with I hope some of the exaggeration of despondency, surprises me very much indeed--very much."
"I do not exaggerate," replied the Count; "indeed I have said rather too little than too much."
"But then still less do I understand why our project does not suit you. The value of both your properties would be doubled, and a directorship is also certain. That is always something."
"It is nothing--nothing at all!" cried the Count vehemently. "A straw to a drowning man. What should I do with the paltry hundreds, which I can win in one evening at écarte? No! if once I go in for speculating it shall not be for nothing; if I make a haul it shall be a good one which shall compensate for the prick of conscience at going in direct opposition to all the traditions of my family and doing what Prince Prora would never condescend to, and which will make me secure in the future."
The Councillor scratched his long nose with a pencil to hide a smile, and suppressed the answer which was on the tip of his tongue.
"How can a gambler be safe in the future?" He said instead: "You should marry, Count Golm!"