let and ride off on stolen horses. Later, they discover that Biedermeier is himself in debt to one Nathan Ipelmeyer and being pressured to pay back the money he had borrowed. Robert sarcastically remarks to Bertram, "We've stepped right into the midst of the business relations of two especially fine gentlemen." The clever Robert explains to Bertram that Biedermeier borrowed the money to support Lieps's Inn only in order to make Lieps and his daughter dependent upon Biedermeier, thus forcing Lenchen to marry him. Robert and Bertram, grateful for the hospitality they received from Lieps and his daughter, again decide to help. They sell the stolen horses and go to Berlin to con Ipelmeyer. We see them in Berlin, dressed like gentlemen, where they contrive to greet each other in a restaurant Ipelmeyer frequents. We see him sitting there-corpulent, repellent looking, hook-nosed, and bearded, with flashy clothes and jewelry, ordering caviar. The rogues con him into believing that Bertram is a professor of music, giving lessons to Robert, who is passed off as a Count ("the Count of Monte Cristo"). Ipelmeyer, an obvious social climber, invites them to a costume ball. We know that Ipelmeyer is Jewish from an infamous exchange: he leans forward and says to Bertram, "But first I have to tell you a big secret: I am an Israelite." The corpulent Bertram immediately replies, "Then I have to tell you a big secret as well-I have a [big] belly." This retort implies that Ipelmeyer is obviously Jewish by his looks. We now see Ipelmeyer in his garishly ornate house, on the night of the masked ball. He gives directions to his servant Jacques, saying, "I beg you to get rid of your Jewish pronunciation." Ipelmeyer then turns as his wife enters and ironically says "Oi!" She is also enormously obese, hook-nosed, and gaudily dressed with flashy jewelry. When she asks him (in Yiddish) how she looks, he replies, "From the front you look nebbish like Catherine the Great, and from the back you look healthy like Napoleon." She objects, saying th