Jordan straightened up as stiff as a flag pole: "Do you mean to insinuate that my son is guilty of some criminal transaction?" he thundered forth, and struck the top of the table with the bones of his clenched fist.
Herr Zittel shrugged his shoulders: "It is, of course, possible that there has been some misunderstanding, or that some one has failed to perform his duty. But in any event the affair is serious. Something must be done at once, and if you leave me in the lurch I shall have to call in the police."
Jordan's face turned ashen pale. For some reason or other he began to fumble about in his long black coat for the pocket. The coat had no pocket, and yet he continued to feel for it with hasty fingers. He tried to speak, but his tongue refused to obey him; beads of perspiration settled on his brow.
Eleanore embraced him with solicitous affection: "Be calm, Father, don't imagine the worst. Sit down, and let us talk it over." She dried the perspiration from his forehead with her handkerchief, and then breathed a kiss on it.
Jordan fell on a chair; his powers of resistance were gone; he looked at Eleanore with beseeching tenseness. From the very first she had known what had happened and what would happen. But she dared not show him that she was without hope; she summoned all the power at her resourceful command to prevent the old man from having a paralytic stroke.
With the help of Herr Zittel she wrote out a telegram to Gerber. The answer, to be pre-paid, was to be sent to the General Agency of the Prudentia, and Eleanore was to go to the main office between eleven and twelve o'clock. She accompanied Herr Zittel to the front door, whereupon he said: "Do everything in your power to get the money. If the loss can be made good at once, Herr Diruf may be willing not to take the case to the courts."
Eleanore knew full well that it would be exceedingly difficult to get such a sum as this. Her father had no money in the bank; his employer had lost confidence in him because he could no longer exert himself; what he needed most of all was a rest.
She entered the room with a friendly expression on her face, and remarked quite vivaciously: "Now, Father, we will wait and see what Benno has to say; and in order that you may not worry so much, I will read something nice to you."
