If he had not caught her, she would have fallen backward into the room, for she had leaned--a living bulwark--against the door, defending the entrance with her body against two men, one of whom was trying to push her away, while the other, standing further back, was restraining his companion from grasping Frau Muller all too roughly.

In the daring man who did not shrink from laying sacrilegious hands upon the furious and snorting landlady, Wilhelm instantly recognized the mechanic whom he had seen at Frau Wander's.

At sight of him the man raised his hat politely, and before the gasping Frau Muller, who was simply choking with excitement, could find her tongue, he said: "Beg pardon, I am sure, Herr Doctor, for disturbing you; but we really must speak to you.

I knew from Herr Stubbe that you are always at home at this hour, so I would not let the lady send us away." "The lady indeed!" Frau Muller managed at last to exclaim.

"Now he talks about ladies, and a minute ago he had the impudence--" "You must excuse us, madam," said the workman with the utmost civility; "we meant no harm, and we simply must speak to the Herr Doctor." "Come in," said Wilhelm curtly, and not overwarmly, while he pressed the still angrily glaring Frau Muller's hand gratefully.
The second visitor now mentioned his name--it was that of one of the most prominent leaders of the Social Democrats in Germany.