n Malvine's than in that of her grandmother. On his side there
was evidently nothing to dread. He felt he had a defender and support
in Frau Brohl. The old lady kept a sharp lookout on her little world
with her dim-sighted eyes. She noticed that Malvine was unable to
withstand the charm which Wilhelm exercised over her, and she could not
bring herself to be angry with the girl. She herself liked the young
man extremely, admired his handsome face, his fine voice, his modest,
unassuming manners, but she felt instinctively that he belonged to
quite a different world from herself, and that in a sense they would
always be strangers. When he spoke she could not follow his thoughts,
although she felt that they were very profound; when she spoke he
listened with the greatest politeness, but nothing more came of it. He
tried to be attentive to her stories about engagements and separations,
he was entirely uninterested in rich people, he did not praise the best
dishes at table, and he even went so far as not to conceal his aversion
for the design of the horrible knight in cross-stitch. Beside all this,
his clothes were bad, and although he had a house of his own, it was
only a little one. No, Wilhelm as a relation was not to be thought of.
He was not of their own flesh and blood, like that good, delightful
Paul Haber.

It was not in Paul's nature to wait patiently in suspense, and he
determined to put an end to his uncertainty. Malvine seemed to him as
desirable as ever, and he had built up in his mind a future, of which
Malvine and her sixty thousand thalers were the foundation. He must
know whether she were for him or not; in the one case to transform his
castle in the air into reality without loss of time, and in the other
case not to waste the best years of his life in aimless disappointment;
not to let other opportunities slip by. He was not quite clear,
however, on one point, To whom should he make his proposal? To Frau
Brohl? That would be the most practicable way, no doubt, as the bent,
pale old lady, with the soft, sighing voice, ruled everything in the
house, and if she promised the hand of her grand-daughter, she would
certainly keep her word. But it went against the grain to put any
constraint on the girl, and he felt that he would be ashamed to answer
"No," if Frau Brohl were to ask him if he had already spoken to
Malvine. Then if he were to go in a straightforward way to Malvine, and
say, "I can no longer hide from