20 THE OPPER.MANNS with a frank, determined face, He was a righteous man and a stickler for precision. Which of them had first approached the other? At a meeting of the Association of Furniture Manu- facturers, chief clerk Brieger had spoken to rum about the in- creasing difficulties of his firm, Brieger had deliberately 100 him on to ask certain questions, It was no longer possible to figure out who had made the first advances. As usual, he was sitting here to make a proposal which was not of disadvantage to himselfbut which would, most likely, prove still more prof- itable to the other party. They did not want to admit that, He looked at the clock. He had been an officer of the Reserves at the front during the whole of the war and had learned punctuaiity from his mili- tary service. He had arrived a few minutes before eleven, Now he was sitting there and that stuck-up crowd were keeping him waiting. Tenminutes past eleven. His strongface dark- ened. Jf they kt him wait anothcr ten minutes, he would clear out and they could get thernselves out of their mess without him, Who was it he would have to deal with? Heinrich Wels was not a judge of men but he knew well enough where in the firm of Oppermann those in favour of bis project were to be found and where its adversaries. Gustav and Martin Opper- mann were both unbearably arrogant, typical Jews; it was barely possible to get on with thern. Chief clerk Brieger was a whole synagogue in himself, hut at least one could talk to him, They would probably turn up five or six strang. They rnight even have called in their legal adviser, They wouldn't make it easy for hirn. He would have to fight alone against five or six. No matter. He would manage it, Eleven twenty. He would wait another five minutes, They were letting hirn sit there till he took root. Another five min- utes, and then he would regarcl his proposals as lapsed. YOll can kiss my backside then, gentlemen.