"What I want of you?" replied the stranger, with a sneer. "Sir, you know very well what I want of you. I want my money! I want the five hundred dollars you have been owing me for the last twelve months. I trusted your word and your name; I furnished you my best wines--my choicest champagne and the most exquisite delicacies for your dinner parties. You have treated your friends; that was all right enough, but it should have been done at your expense, and not at mine. For that reason I am here, and you must pay me. For the hundredth and last time, I demand my money!"
"And if I now tell you for the hundredth, but not the last time, that I have not got any money?"
"Then I shall go to the war department and attach your salary."
"Ah, my dear friend, there you would be altogether too late," exclaimed Gentz, laughing. "My honorable landlord has outstripped you as far as that is concerned; he has attached my salary for a whole year, and I believe it is even insufficient to cover what I owe him."
"But in the d--l's name, sir, you must find some other means of satisfying my claim, for I tell you I shall not leave this room without getting my money."
"My dear Mr. Werner, pray do not shout so dreadfully," said Gentz, anxiously; "my ears are very sensitive, and such shouting terrifies me as much as a thunderstorm. I am quite willing to pay you, only point out to me a way to do it!"
"Borrow money of other people and then pay me!"
"My dear sir, that is a way I have exhausted long ago. There is no one willing to advance me money either on interest or on my word of honor."
"But how in the d--l's name are you going to pay me then, sir?"
"That is exactly what I don't know yet, but after a while I shall know, and that time will come very soon. For I tell you, sir, these days of humiliations and debts will soon cease for me. I shall occupy an exalted and brilliant position; the young king will give it to me, and--"
"Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Wemer, interrupting him; "do not feed me with such empty hopes after I have fed you with delicacies and quenched your thirst with my champagne."
"My dear sir, I have not partaken all alone of your good cheer; my friends have helped me, and now you ask me alone to pay the whole bill. That is contrary to natural law and to political economy."
"Mr. Counsellor, are you mocking me with your political economy?
What do you know about economy?"
"Ah, I am quite familiar with it, and my book on English finances has brought me fame and honor."
"It would have been better for you, Mr. Counsellor, if you had attended to your own finances. All Berlin knows in what condition they are." "Nevertheless, there were always excellent men putting a noble trust in me, and believing that I would repay the money I borrowed of them. You are one of those excellent men, Mr. Werner, and I shall never forget it. Have a little patience, and I will pay you principal and interest."
