"Preserve us!" cried Frau Nüssler, "softly, Mining!" and she led Rudolph into the living-room.
"Well," said Jochen, "Bräsig, sit down a little! Rudolph, sit down, too!"
But that was not so easily done. Rudolph had too much to arrange with Mining and Lining, to be in haste to sit down, and Bräsig's head was going round like clock-work, and he trotted up and down the room, as if his legs were the pendulums, to keep the machinery running.
"Young Jochen," said he, "have you heard the news? They haven't caught him."
"Whom," asked Jochen.
"Good gracious, Jochen," said Frau Nüssler, "let Bräsig tell. You are always interrupting people so; let him speak! Bräsig, whom haven't they caught?"
"Regel," said Bräsig; "they tracked him to Wismar, but there they found themselves too late, since he had gone off a week before, on a Swedish oakum ship, and is up in the Baltic sea."
"What a trouble this is for my brother Karl!" sighed Frau Nüssler.
"Frau Nüssler, you are right there; Karl is hardly to be recognized, for he has completely insulated himself, and is surrounded with gloomy thoughts. The business troubles him dreadfully, not on his own account,--no! only on his young Herr's account, for you shall see, the young man must, sooner or later, declare himself insolvent."
"That would kill Karl!" cried Frau Nüssler.