He went down to the cellar, presently to reappear with a dusty
bottle of Johannisberger Cabinet. He pointed proudly to the
seal. ``Bronze!'' he exclaimed. ``It is wine like gold. It
must be drunk slowly.'' He drew the cork and poured the wine
with great ceremony, and they all drank with much touching of
glasses and bowing and exchanging of good wishes, now in German,
now in English, again in both. And the last toast, the one drunk
with the greatest enthusiasm, was Brauner's favorite famous
``Arbeit und Liebe und Heim!''

From that time forth Hilda began to look at Otto from a different
point of view. And everything depends on point of view.


Then--the house in which Schwartz and Heilig had their shop was
burned. And when their safe was drawn from the ruins, they found
that their insurance had expired four days before the fire. It
was Schwartz's business to look after the insurance, but Otto had
never before failed to oversee. His mind had been in such
confusion that he had forgotten.

He stared at the papers, stunned by the disaster. Schwartz wrung
his hands and burst into tears. ``I saw that you were in
trouble,'' he wailed, ``and that upset me. It's my fault. I've
ruined us both.''

There was nothing left of their business or capital, nothing but
seven hundred dollars in debts to the importers of whom they
bought.