many soldiers as he wants. Either we have an Emperor or we have not!"
Then Gottlieb Hornung stepped back and, with pugnaciously protruding jaw and wrinkled brow, gazed at the applauding audience. The Veterans' Association would not be deprived of the opportunity to march past him and Kunze with upraised beer glasses. Kunze received handshakes, Hornung stood there stolidly—and Diederich could not but feel rather bitterly that these two second-rate personalities had all the advantage of a situation which he had created. He had to leave to them the popular approval of the moment, for he knew better than these two simpletons where it was all going to lead. As the national candidate's sole reason for existence was to procure reinforcements for Napoleon Fischer, it was wiser not to go forward oneself. But Heuteufel was anxious to draw Diederich out. Pastor Zillich, the chairman, could not refuse any longer to allow him to take the floor. He began at once about the Infant Asylum; it was a matter of humanity and social conscience. What was the Emperor William Monument? A speculation, and vanity was not the most discreditable part of the speculators' calculations. … The contractors in the rear listened in a silence filled with painful feelings, which here and there found expression in a muffled murmur. Diederich was trembling. "There are people," Heuteufel declared, "who do not mind another million for the army, for they know how they can get some of it back to their own profit." Then Diederich jumped up. "I wish to say a word!" With cries of "Bravo!" "Ha, ha!* "Sit down," the contractors relieved their feelings. They yelled until Heuteufel made way for Diederich.
Diederich waited for some time before the storm of patriotic indignation had subsided. Then he began: "Gentlemen!" "Bravo!" shouted the contractors and Diederich had to wait again, in that atmosphere of feeling identical with his
