CHAPTER XXV.
Wave after wave broke over the head of the drowning man.
The factory had now been in operation for some months.

The beet-root crop on the estate itself had been deficient, and the cultivation of it in the country round had proved unsuccessful.

Many of the small farmers had failed to fulfill their contracts, and others had brought in inferior produce.

There was a scarcity of beet-root as well as a scarcity of capital; the works stopped, the workmen dispersed.
Ehrenthal was gone off to the Polish property, and the baron was consumed by the fever of suspense.

At last came the dark day when Ehrenthal appeared before him, a letter from Commissary Walter in his hand.