"Ladies and gentlemen--"
The speaker was a bank clerk from the young men's table, famed among his companions for his extraordinary talent for after-dinner speeches. He had so placed himself, glass in hand, between the dining-room and the conservatory that he might have been heard in both rooms, if, in the noise which increased every moment, one man's voice had not been as much lost as a drop in the ocean.
"Stand on a chair, Norberg!"
"Hear, hear!"
"Stand on two chairs, Norberg; one is of no use."
"Ladies and gentlemen--"
"Louder, louder! Silence! Hear, hear!"
Nobody could hear anything, but here and there people could see some one standing on a chair gesticulating, and apparently making an attempt to speak; they drew the attention of their neighbours, and though silence was not attained, Herr Norberg, with renewed hopes, exerted the full force of his lungs, so far overpowering the noise as to make himself audible, at least to the circle which had gathered round him, and which was increasing every moment.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Our German proverb says that every man forges his own fortune--"
"Bravo! hear, hear!"