if he were going to have both legs amputated within the next twenty-four hours. So Guste, the treacherous creature, had purposely said nothing to him about her fiance. He was to get the shock at the last moment! … Diederich took leave of Buck before they got to the house. Provided Kienast did not notice anything! Buck proposed that they should adjourn somewhere. "Apparently your future wife does not draw you irresistibly," said Diederich. "At this moment I'd much sooner have a cognac." Diederich laughed mockingly. "You always seem to be anxious for that." So that Kienast should not learn anything, he turned back again with Buck. "You see," he began abruptly, "my fiancee is another of the questions which I put to Fate." And as Diederich asked, "How do you mean?" he continued: "If I really become a lawyer in Netzig, then Guste Daimchen will be in her right place in my home. But is that certain? In view of other … circumstances which may come into my life, I have some one else in Berlin…"
"I heard something about an actress." Diederich blushed for Buck, who so cynically admitted this. "That is to say," he stammered, "I may have been mistaken."
"So you know," Buck concluded. "Now the situation is this. For the present I am tied up there and cannot look after Guste as I should. Would you not like to take charge of the poor girl a bit?" he asked with cool innocence.
"I am to—"
"Keep the pot stirred, so to speak, in which I have left things simmering … while I am busy elsewhere. We hit it off very well together.…"
"Thanks," said Diederich coldly. "Not quite so well as all that. Give somebody else the job. I take a more serious view of life." He turned and left him.
Besides Buck's immorality, his undignified familiarity was outrageous, after they had just proved themselves opponents
