e that what the girls liked best was his
great mass of coal black curls.

"The girls raved about Karl, and he could have had them all at his
feet if he would. I know, for I had two sisters older than myself, and
I heard how they and their friends used to talk about him. But Karl
had no eyes for any girl but Jenny, except it was his sister.

"Folks all said that Karl and Jenny would marry. Rachel--that's my
oldest sister--said so one night at the supper table, but our good
mother laughed at her. 'No, Rachel, they'll never marry,' she said.
'Jenny might be willing enough, but the old Baron will never let her
do it. Karl's father is rich alongside of poor people like us, but
poor enough compared with Jenny's father. Karl is no match for the
beautiful Jenny.'

"Then father spoke up. 'You forget, mother, that Heinrich Marx is the
best friend that old Baron von Westphalen has, and that the Baron is
as fond of Karl as of Jenny. And anyway he loves Jenny so much that
he'd be sure to let her marry whoever she loved, even if the man had
not a thaler to his name.'

"Soon Karl went away again to the University at Berlin, not back to
Bonn. Thought he'd get on better at Berlin, I suppose. He might have
been gone a year or more when his father came into father's little
shop one day while I was there. He said that Karl wasn't doing as well
at Berlin as he had expected. He tried to laugh it off, saying that
the boy was in love and would probably settle down to work soon and
come out all right, upon top as usual.

"It was then that we learned for the first time that Karl and Jenny
were betrothed, and that the old Baron had given his blessing to his
daughter and her lover. Very soon all the gossips of the town were
talking about it. Some said that there had been quite a romance about
it; that the young folks had been secretly engaged for nearly a year,
being afraid that the Baron would object. 'Twas even said that Karl
had been made ill by the strain of keeping the secret. Then, when at
last Karl wrote to old Westphalen about it, and asked for Jenny in a
manly fashion, the old fellow laughed and said that he had always
hoped it would turn out that way. So the silly young couple had
suffered a lot of pain which they could have avoided.

"Of course, lots of folks said that it wasn't a 'good match,' that
Jenny von Westphalen could have married somebody a lot richer than
Karl; but they all had to admit that she couldn't get a handsomer