er came
from a Christian family, and was a Fraeulein Fliedermueller."

"Then, besides, I found you too--how shall I say?--too 'pretty' for a
man, and the others all said you were amiable. Pretty and amiable men
have always been intolerable to me. They are generally conscious of it,
and contemplate themselves in the glass at moments when they are not
watched, and comb their beard and even their eyebrows. And all the
while they care for no one but themselves; and, if they pretend to grow
sentimental over a woman, it is done in such a way that the unfortunate
person thus favored would rather receive a box on the ear than such
homage, if her heart is in the right place. Don't get angry,
Rosenbusch; it isn't your fault that you have such a pretty little nose
and are so amiable--for that you really are. But you will understand;
an old girl who is no longer pretty, and who never was considered
amiable--"

"Oh, Angelica!--"

"No, you mustn't interrupt me. It would be very stupid of me if I were
not wise enough to know how I look, and what impression I make upon
people after having had nearly thirty years in which to make my own
acquaintance. How old are you, Rosenbusch?"

"I shall be thirty-one on the fifth of August."

"Then there is scarcely thirteen months difference between us. Don't
you see, that in itself is an objection? But to proceed: your
flute-playing, your white mice, your many love-affairs; can you blame
me for looking upon you as a man who was not in the slightest degree
dangerous--to me, at least? I had formed a very different idea of the
man who was to win my heart, and, if I chanced to find such a one, I
knew at once that it would be an unfortunate affair if I regarded the
matter seriously. For such men want very different wives, and in that
they are quite right. So I intrenched my poor soul behind my sense of
humor, and, as you see, that was both a good and a bad thing to do;
good, because it has helped me over many a bitter hour; bad, because it
made me appear even less amiable than I really am at bottom. A woman
who has humor, who does not weigh each of her words--where are the men
who still believe that a good, womanly heart lies behind it all? The
conceited men, like yourself, for instance, are especially repelled by
such a one. Unless we cower in sweet bashfulness before your great
words and beards, we are not worthy to be loved by your great souls.
For that reason I was truly never more astonished