"Just so," said Anton. "If I could fill sacks with the yellow sand of the forest, and sell it as wheat, I should have to sell many and many sacks before I could put even a small capital into our purse."
"Where you have pushed yourself in as purse-bearer, I could well suppose the purse an empty one," said Fink, dryly.
"Yes," replied Anton, "my strong-box is an old dressing-case, and, I assure you, it could hold more than it does. I often feel an unconquerable envy of Mr. Purzel and his chalk in the counting-house. Could I but once have the good fortune to behold a row of gray linen bags! As to bank-notes and a portfolio of stocks, I dare not even think of them."
Fink whistled a march. "Poor lad," said he. "Yet there is a large estate and a regular farm-establishment, which must either bring in or take out. What do you live upon, then?"
"That is one of the mysteries of the ladies, which I hardly dare to disclose. Our horses munch diamonds."
Fink shrugged his shoulders. "But is it possible that Rothsattel can have come to this?"
Anton then sketched, with some reserve, the baron's circumstances, speaking enthusiastically, at the same time, of the noble resignation of the baroness, and the healthy energy of Lenore.
"I see," said Fink, "that things are still worse than I supposed. How is it possible that you can carry on such a farm? The birds of the air are rich compared to you."
"As things are," continued Anton, "we may contrive to struggle on till quieter times—till the judicial sale of the family estate. The creditors will not press now, and lawyers are almost without work. The baron can not manage this estate without a large capital, but neither can he give it up at present without forfeiting the little that its sale may hereafter bring; and, besides, the family have no other roof over their heads. All my endeavors, during the last week, to persuade them to leave this province, have been in vain. They are desperately resolved to await their fate here. The baron's pride objects to a return to his former neighborhood, and the ladies will not leave him."
"Then at least send them to the neighboring town, and do not expose them to the assault of every drunken band of boors."