rs some
of the most important landowners of the whole of Northern Germany.

These circumstances could not fail to react on Paul's character. He no
longer tried to look as much as possible like a smart officer, but
rather like a country gentleman of ancient lineage. The thick fair
mustache had abandoned its enterprising upward curl, and now hung down
straight and long. The model parting of the hair was in any case out of
the question, a distinguished baldness having taken the place of the
old luxuriance, and his figure had fulfilled all the promises of his
youth. In his dress Paul still cultivated extreme elegance, only that
it partook more of the bucolic now in style than of the drawing-room as
in former days. He wore high patent leather boots with small silver
spurs, well-fitting riding breeches, a gray coat with green facings and
large buckhorn buttons, a blue-and-white spotted silk necktie tied in a
loose knot with fluttering ends, an artistically crushed soft felt hat,
and in his dog-skin gloved hand a small riding-whip with a chased gold
head. With all its dandyism it was a model of good taste, and in no
single detail smacked of the parvenu, and that for the very good reason
that Paul was no parvenu, but a man who was conscious of having
attained to a position which was his by nature and by right. He had
never suffered from undue diffidence, and his success had naturally
increased his sense of his own value, which, however, he did not
display in any bumptious or aggressive manner as one who would force
reluctant acknowledgment of his merits, but quietly and naturally,
seeing that he received full and voluntary recognition from all sides.
He believed in himself, and was quite right to do so, for everybody
else believed in him too. He spoke with authority, for there was no one
about him who did not hang upon his lips with respect, and mostly with
admiration. He made assertions and gave his opinion with the assurance
of superior knowledge, but he had a right to do so, for it always
referred only to matters about which he knew, or was fully persuaded
that he knew, more than most people. Even his wealth did not go to his
head, but acted on him like a moderate amount of drink upon a man who
can stand a great deal. He enjoyed to the full the comforts and
amenities of life which his large income enabled him to procure, but he
did it for his own pleasure, not for the sake of what others would
think; for his own comfort, and