He would first go to the Jew Pfefferkorn once more to persuade him to defer his claims, and then, before the meeting of the Council, would repair to the Ortliebs, to commit to Herr Ernst the destiny of the Eysvogel firm and his partner Wolff, on which also depended the welfare of the young merchant's betrothed bride.

If the father remained obdurate, if he resented the wrong he had inflicted yesterday upon him and his daughter, he was a lost man; for he had already availed himself of the good will of all those whose doors usually stood open to him.

Doubtless the news of his recent severe losses were in every one's mouth, and the letter which he had just received threatened him with an indictment.
The luckless Siebenburg's creditors, too, would now be added to his own.
It was all very well for him to say that he would settle his debts him self.

As soon as it was rumoured abroad that he had gambled away the estate of Tannenreuth, whose value gave the creditors some security, they would rise as one man, and the house assailed would be his, Casper Eysvogel's.
The harried man's thoughts of his son-in-law were by no means the most kindly.
Meanwhile the latter set out for the second distasteful interview of the morning.
His purpose was to make some arrangement with Heinz Schorlin about the lost estate and obtain definite knowledge concerning his quarrel with him, of which he remembered nothing except that intoxication and jealousy had carried him further than would have happened otherwise.
He had undoubtedly spoken insultingly of Els; his words, when uttered against a lady, had been sharper than beseemed a knight.

Yet was not any one who found a maiden alone at night with this man justified in doubting her virtue?
In the depths of his soul he believed in her innocence, yet he avoided confessing it.