"Here I am, mamma; now tell me everything, but quickly, I entreat you."
She looked down on the weeping woman with a face that was deathly pale, standing motionless before her in her light summer costume. Only the strings of her bonnet, which were tied on the side in a simple bow, rose and fell quickly, and bore witness to her great agitation.
"I can't tell her," sobbed Mrs. Baumhagen, "you tell her, Jenny."
Gertrude turned to her sister at once. She cast down her eyes and wound the black velvet ribbon of her morning-dress nervously round her finger.
"Your husband is in a very unpleasant situation," she began in a low tone.
"In what respect?" asked Gertrude.
"It is a disagreeable affair, but nothing to make such solemn faces over," burst out the old gentleman, who was standing at the window.
"He had--" Jenny hesitated again, "a conversation with Wolff yesterday."
"I know it," replied Gertrude.
"Wolff had a claim on him which your husband will not recognize and--"