and a nurse who would wrap his rheumatic limbs in cotton
wool. Deuce take it, he was by no means such an invalid. He was still
sailing erect, before the wind, with swelling canvas and fluttering
streamers. He was no hulk of which wreckers might take possession. If
he no longer desired to remain on the high seas, at least he could freely
choose the harbour where he preferred to cast anchor.

He mentally reviewed the images of the women who had recently made an
impression upon him, or on whom he was sure that he had produced an
impression, and asked himself with which of them he could probably spend
a life of constant intercourse. Always is a long time, and he knew that
a woman must possess remarkable qualities not to repel him in the long
run. He had a peculiar method of testing whether a woman was suited to
be his companion for life, and whether he could endure to have her
continually with him. He imagined that he was taking a wedding journey
with a wife through Italy, was alone with her six weeks, without any
other society, with no stimulus except her presence, and he pictured
these days in every detail. Several apparently thoroughly charming women
were in this way instantly rejected. One was beautiful and desirable,
but stupid as a pike, and he could not help laughing when, in fancy, he
saw himself standing with her before the works of art in Florence and
heard her remarks about paintings and statues. Another was clever, but
she talked too much. One could spend an hour with her pleasantly, but a
whole day, a whole week--brrr!

This one, after a few days, would long to return to her circle of
admirers and rivals, and under the dome of St. Peter's dream of the court
entertainments, adorers, and society gossip; that one, with her prosaic
nature, would transform the blue grotto of Capri into the office of a
chief auditor. Others stood the test better, but even with them doubts
arose, which grew stronger the more he thought of them. Perhaps he could
endure a week, a fortnight, with them. But six weeks, two months? No.
By that time they would surely have become indifferent, perhaps
intolerable. They would certainly have nothing more to offer him, he
nothing more to say to them.

In the proportion in which other women's images faded and vanished, one
stood forth more and more clearly, and finally filled his whole mental
field of vision. Fraeulein von Markwald--yes, with her the adventure
might be risked.