He began to tell them what had brought the ancient spinster there.
"She actually wants to take away Fanny," he cried, "and keep her for ever." "Ho! oh! ah!" resounded on every side.
"And why?
I should like to know why?
Have I not always brought her up respectably?
Can any one say anything against me?
Can any one reproach me with anything?
Do not I treasure my daughters as the very light of my eyes?
Has any one ever heard an ill word fall from my mouth?
Am I a swindler, perhaps, who give my daughters such a bad example that the State feels bound to step in and take them out of my hands?
Well, gentlemen, say what you know of me! Am I a thief, or a brigand, or a blasphemer ?" And all the time he strode rapidly up and down the room like a stage hero, while his guests stood still and stared.
What he said, however, made a great impression, for all the young gentlemen now vanished from the house.

There was something in Aunt Teresa's threats which might have unpleasant consequences even for them.
When the family was alone again, there was a violent outburst of wrath against that meddlesome Aunt Teresa, and Mr.Meyer himself waxed so wroth that he felt bound to pour forth his grievances outside as well as inside the house.

He still possessed two or three acquaintances whom he had learnt to know in his official days: they were now leading counsel in the supreme court, eminent jurists whose opinions he could safely follow.

He had not seen them for a long time, but it now occurred to him that he might just as well look them up and be beforehand with Aunt Teresa in case she put her threat into execution.
His nearest acquaintance was Councillor Schmerz, a bachelor of about forty, a smooth-faced, quiet sort of man, whom he found in his garden grafting his pinks.

To him he confided his grievance, telling him all about Aunt Teresa and the shabby trick she threatened to play him--reporting him to the Prince Primate, forsooth! Mr.Schmerz smiled once or twice during this speech, and now and then warned Mr.Meyer, who was quite carried away by the force of his declamation, not to trample on his flower-beds, as they were planted with cockscombs and larkspurs.