"Eh, Hilda, you see we cannot wait much longer for your lover. Bring him soon, before it is too late, before that rascally crew has taken everything and sold us up and I and your mother are cast into the street."
His words expressed such bitterness and such despair that Hildegarde forgot all about her own feelings and how she was looked upon as deliverer, and in grief for her parents she burst into tears.
"Number two," scolded the major. "That's right."
"Don't be unjust, father. You can't blame mother and Hildegarde for being sad. The affair is more than unpleasant to me even."
"Then you had better begin and cry," cursed the old man, whose veins stood out on his forehead.
"I am not thinking of myself but how these people can be satisfied in some way or other. I did not know that any of the furniture was sealed. You ought to have told me so." After a slight pause he asked, "How much is it for?"
"Only two thousand marks."
"This must be paid first of all, and this very day."
"Oh, I don't think so. The seals have been all right there for a long time."