The Fortune Hunter
 Dippel shook him off with much dignity.  "Don' touch me!" he growled. "I know what I'm 'bout. I'm goin' home."  Then to himself, but aloud: "Dippy, you're too full f'r utterance—you mus' shake this beat." Again to Feuerstein: 

 "G'night, Mr. Funkelshine—g'night. Sit there till I'm gone." 

 Feuerstein rose to follow and Dippel struck at him. The waiter seized each by the shoulder and flung them through the swinging doors. Dippel fell in a heap on the sidewalk, but Feuerstein succeeded in keeping to his feet. He went to the assistance of Dippel. 

 "Don't touch me," shouted Dippel. 

 "Police! Police!" 

 Feuerstein looked fearfully round, gave Dippel a kick and hurried away. When he glanced back from a safe distance Dippel was waving to and fro on his wobbling legs, talking to a cabman. 

 "Close-fisted devil," muttered Feuerstein.  "He couldn't forget his money even when he was drunk. What good is money to a brute like him?" And he gave a sniff of contempt for the vulgarity and meanness of Dippel and his kind. 

 Early the next morning he established a modus vivendi with his landlady by giving her ten dollars on account. He had an elaborate breakfast at Terrace Garden and went to Bloomingdale's, arriving at eleven precisely. Lena Ganser was already there, pretending to shop at a counter in full view of the appointed place. They went to Terrace Garden and sat in the Stube. He at once opened up his sudden romantic passion.  "All night I have walked the streets," he said, "dreaming of you."  When he had fully informed her of the state of his love-maddened mind toward her, he went on to his most congenial topic—himself. 

 "You have heard of the Freiherr von Feuerstein, the great soldier?" he asked her. 

 Lena had never heard of him. But she did not know who was German Emperor or even who was President of the United States. She, therefore, had to be extremely cautious. She nodded assent. 

 "My uncle," said Feuerstein impressively. His eyes became reflective. "Strange!" he exclaimed in tender accents, soliloquizing—"strange where romance will lead us. Instead of remaining at home, in ease and luxury, here am I—an actor—a wanderer—roaming the earth in search of the heart that Heaven intended should be wedded to mine."  He fixed his gaze upon Lena's fat face with the 
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