THE SILVER ARROW

At the threshold of Gottlieb's house a number of the chief burgesses of
Cologne had corporated spontaneously to condole with him. As he came
near, they raised a hubbub of gratulation. Strong were the expressions of
abhorrence and disgust of Werner's troop in which these excellent
citizens clothed their outraged feelings; for the insult to Gottlieb was
the insult of all. The Rhinestream taxes were provoking enough to endure;
but that the licence of these free-booting bands should extend to the
homes of free and peaceful men, loyal subjects of the Emperor, was a sign
that the evil had reached from pricks to pokes, as the saying went, and
must now be met as became burgesses of ancient Cologne, and by joint
action destroyed.

'In! in, all of you!' said Gottlieb, broadening his smile to suit the
many. 'We 'll talk about that in-doors. Meantime, I've got a hero to
introduce to you: flesh and blood! no old woman's coin and young girl's
dream-o'day: the honest thing, and a rarity, my masters. All that over
some good Rhine-juice from above Bacharach. In, and welcome, friends!'

Gottlieb drew the stranger along with him under the carved old oak-wood
portals, and the rest paired, and reverentially entered in his wake.
Margarita, to make up for this want of courtesy, formed herself the last
of the procession. She may have had another motive, for she took occasion
there to whisper something to Farina, bringing sun and cloud over his
countenance in rapid flushes. He seemed to remonstrate in dumb show; but
she, with an attitude of silence, signified her wish to seal the