It was proposed to put the whole management of the repairs in Apollonius’ hands.  In order not to hurt his brother’s feelings, he begged the council to arrange differently.  He was so anxious not to hurt his brother that he did not even say why he asked this.  His work in Cologne had accustomed him to act independently; he foresaw that his brother, as he had found him again, would be the cause of many a hindrance.  He knew that he was taking a heavy burden upon himself when he promised the inspector that the work itself should not suffer by reason of the two-headed management.  The honest man, who guessed Apollonius’ purpose and only respected him the more on that account, obtained the consent of the council for him, and silently resolved that wherever it should be necessary he would take the part of his favorite and uphold the latter’s orders against those of his brother.

It was a difficult task that Apollonius had set himself; it was much more difficult than he knew.  His presence at home had not pleased his brother from the beginning; Apollonius attributed that to the influence of his sister-in-law; since then he had grown even more estranged from him—­and no wonder!  Apollonius had already become acquainted with his brother’s vanity and greed for honor, and what had happened since then had made the latter feel himself slighted in favor of Apollonius.  His sister-in-law’s dislike Apollonius thought he could overcome in time by honest endeavor, his brother’s injured greed of honor by outward subordination.  If there was no further obstacle in the way, he might hope to perform the task, difficult as it seemed.  But what lay between him and his brother was something different, very different, from what he thought; and that he did not know it only made it more dangerous.  It was a suspicion, born of the consciousness of guilt.  Whatever he did to clear the apparent obstacles out of the way could only increase the real one.

Apollonius soon saw that the system to which he had become accustomed in Cologne, the rapid and carefully planned cooeperation, did not exist here, nor even such methodical management as his father had formerly maintained.  The slater had to wait for fifteen minutes and longer at a time for the slates; the tenders dawdled and had a good excuse for doing so in the slackness and laziness of the cutters and sorters.  His brother laughed half compassionately at Apollonius’ complaint.  Such system as he demanded did not exist anywhere and was not even possible.  In his own mind he made fun again of the dreamer who was so unpractical.  And even if the system had been possible the work was done by the day.  Wasted time was paid for just the same as that properly applied.  And when Apollonius himself tried to put an end to the old method of jogging along, his brother saw in him again the time-server of the inspector and the council, while he saw himself as the straightforward man who disdained such tricks.  He persuaded himself