``Yes--yes!'' she cried. ``That will do! Thank you--thank you!'' And as the knock came at the door she opened it. She had intended to be reproachful, but she could not. This splendid, romantic creature, with his graceful hat and his golden hair and his velvet collar, was too compelling, too overpowering. Her adoring love put her at a hopeless disadvantage. ``Oh-- Mr. Feuerstein,'' she murmured, her color coming and going with the rise and fall of her bosom.
Mr. Feuerstein majestically removed his hat and turned a look of haughty inquiry upon Otto. Otto's fists clenched-- he longed to discuss the situation in the only way which seemed to him to meet its requirements.
``Hilda,'' said the actor, when he thought there had been a long enough pause for an imposing entrance, ``I have come to end the deception--to make you, before the world, as you are before Almighty God, my affianced bride.''
``You--you mustn't,'' implored Hilda, her fears getting the better of her awe.
``If my parents learn now--just now, they will--oh, it will be hopeless!''
``I can not delay, angel of my heart!'' He gave her the look that is the theatrical convention for love beyond words. ``It must be settled at once. I must know my fate. I must put destiny to the touch and know happiness or--hell!''
``Bah!'' thought Otto. ``He has to hurry matters--he must be in trouble. He's got to raise the wind at once.''
``Mr. Feuerstein--Carl!'' pleaded Hilda. ``PLEASE try to be practical.'' She went up to him, and Otto turned away, unable to bear the sight of that look of love, tenderness and trust. ``You must not--at least, not right away.'' She turned to Otto.
``Help me, Otto. Explain to him.''
Heilig tried to put courtesy in his voice as he said to Mr. Feuerstein: ``Miss Brauner is right. You'll only wreck her--her happiness. We're plain people down here and don't understand these fine, grand ways. You must pass as my friend whom I brought here--but I make one condition.'' He drew a long breath and looked at Hilda. For the first time she heard him, the real Otto Heilig, speak. ``Hilda,'' he went on, ``I don't want to hurt you-- I'd do anything for you, except hurt you. And I can't stand for this fel--for Mr. Feuerstein, unless you'll promise me you won't marry him, no matter what he may say, until your father has had a chance to find out who and what he is.''
Mr. Feuerstein drew himself up grandly. ``Who is this person, Miss Brauner?'' he demanded with haughty coldness.
``He don't know any better,'' she replied hurriedly. ``He's an old friend. Trust me, Mr. Feuer--Carl! Everything depends on it.''
``I can not tolerate this coarse hand between me and the woman I love. No more deception! Carl Feuerstein''--how he did roll out that name!--``can guard his own honor and his own destiny.''
The door into the private hall opened and in came Brauner and his wife, fine pictures of homely content triumphing over the discomforts of Sunday clothes. They looked at Mr. Feuerstein with candidly questioning surprise. Avenue A is not afraid to look, and speak, its mind. Otto came forward. ``This is Mr. Feuerstein,'' he said.
At once Brauner showed that he was satisfied, and Mrs. Brauner beamed. ``Oh, a friend of yours,'' Brauner said, extending his hand. ``Glad to see any friend of Otto's.''
Mr. Feuerstein advanced impressively and bowed first over Brauner's hand, then over Mrs. Brauner's. ``I am not a friend of this--young man,'' he said with the dignity of a Hoheit. ``I have come here to propose for the honor of your daughter's hand in marriage.''
Mr. Feuerstein noted the stupefied expression of the delicatessen dealer and his wife, and glanced from Otto to Hilda with a triumphant smile. But Hilda was under no delusion. She shivered and moved nearer to Otto. She felt that he was her hope in this crisis which the mad love of her hero-lover had forced. Brauner was the more angry because he had been thus taken by surprise.
``What nonsense is this?'' he growled, shaking his head violently. ``My daughter is engaged to a plain man like ourselves.''
At this Heilig came forward again, pale and sad, but calm. ``No, Mr. Brauner-- she is not engaged. I'm sure she loves this gentleman, and I want her to be happy. I can not be anything to her but her friend. And I want you to give him a chance to show himself worthy of her.''
Brauner burst out furiously at Hilda. The very presence of this gaudy, useless-looking creature under his roof was an insult to his three gods of honor and happiness-- his ``Arbeit und Liebe und Heim.''
``What does this mean?'' he shouted.
``Where did you find this crazy fellow? Who brought him here?''
Hilda flared. ``I love him, father! He's a noble, good man. I shall always love him. Listen to Otto--it'll break my heart if you frown on my marrying the man I love.'' There was a touch of Mr. Feuerstein in her words and tone.
``Let's have our game, Mr. Brauner,'' interrupted Otto. ``All this can be settled afterward. Why spoil our afternoon?''
Brauner examined Mr. Feuerstein, who was posing as a statue of gloomy wrath.
``Who are you?'' he demanded in the insulting tone which exactly expressed his state of mind.
Mr. Feuerstein cast up his eyes. ``For Hilda's sake!'' he murmured audibly. Then he made a great show of choking down his wrath. ``I, sir, am of an ancient Prussian family--a gentleman.
I saw your peerless daughter, sought an introduction, careless who or what she was in birth and fortune. Love, the leveler, had conquered me. I--''
``Do you work?'' Brauner broke in. ``What are your prospects?
What have you got? What's your character? Have you any respectable friends who can vouch for you? You've wandered into the wrong part of town. Down here we don't give our daughters to strangers or do-nothings or rascals. We believe in love--yes.
But we also have a little common sense and self-respect.''
