THE OPPERMJlNNS really a shame that EIsehen had to run about in such an out- grown coat, Frau Hoppegart had already made pointed re- marks about it, The child had outgrown the coat all around. "Y our young one looks like a bursting sausage," Frau Hoppe- gart had pertinently observed. It was time that Elschen's eoat be passed on to Bob. Frau Wolfsohn had begun her story be- fore Telramund had accused EIsa of Brabant. When Lohen- grin challenged Telramund to battle, she was dealing with the amount that Elschen's coat would probably cost. She esti- mated it at from eight to ten marks, Naturally, Herr Wolf- sohn made a fuss. But Frau Wolfsohn saw at onee that he was not taking it tragieally. By the end of the first aet of Lohen- grin, they had agreed on buying the little coat by Christmas. Frau Wolfsohn eleared away the meal, Markus Wolfsohn sat down again in the black wingchair, finished reading his newspaper, let it fall, and while Lohengrin and EIsa cele- brated their wedding and the smell of the Kasseler Rippespeer and the sauerkraut still lingered pleasantly in the room, he looked thoughtfully at a eertain greyish-brown stain on the wall near the eeiling. Very shortly after the Wolfsohns had taken possession of the Hat this stain had appeared on the wall. It had been quite tiny to begin with. But now it had got big- ger. It was just above a remarkable picture called "The Waves at Play," which represented gods and goddesses swimrning about and playing tag. The picture came from the art depart- ment of Oppermann's Furniture Stores. Herr Wolfsohn had been allowed to have it extraordinarily eheap in spite of the fine frame. A month ago the distanee between the picture and the stain had been at least as wide as two fists. Now it was, at most, only as wide as one. Herr Wolfsohn would have given a good deal to know whether, and if so to what extent, the stain showed itself on the other side of the wall too, in Herr Zarnke's Hat. But that was unfortunately impossible. There's no dealing with people like that, They throw one out of mov-