es this,
the foundation of all moral society, that man has to settle with me, and
if I cannot become his master, I take care to settle myself out of his
way. Marriage is the beginning and the end of all culture. It makes the
savage mild; and the most cultivated has no better opportunity for
displaying his gentleness. Indissoluble it must be, because it brings so
much happiness that what small exceptional unhappiness it may bring
counts for nothing in the balance. And what do men mean by talking of
unhappiness? Impatience it is which from time to time comes over them,
and then they fancy themselves unhappy. Let them wait till the moment is
gone by, and then they will bless their good fortune that what has stood
so long continues standing. There never can be any adequate ground for
separation. The condition of man is pitched so high, in its joys and in
its sorrows, that the sum which two married people owe to each other
defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged
through all eternity.

"Its annoyances marriage may often have; I can well believe that, and it
is as it should be. We are all married to our consciences, and there are
times when we should be glad to be divorced from them; mine gives me
more annoyance than ever a man or a woman can give."

All this he poured out with the greatest vehemence: he would very likely
have gone on speaking longer, had not the sound of the postilions'
horns given notice of the arrival of the visitors, who, as if on a
concerted arrangement, drove into the castle-court from opposite sides
at the same moment. Mittler slipped away as their host hastened to
receive them, and desiring that his horse might be brought out
immediately, rode angrily off.

CHAPTER X

The visitors were welcomed and brought in. They were delighted to find
themselves again in the same house and in the same rooms where in early
times they had passed many happy days, but which they had not seen for a
long time. Their friends too were very glad to see them. The Count and
the Baroness had both those tall fine figures which please in middle
life almost better than in youth. If something of the first bloom had
faded off them, yet there was an air in their appearance which was
always irresistibly attractive. Their manners too were thoroughly
charming. Their free way of taking hold of life and dealing with it,
their happy humor, and apparent easy unembarrassment, communicated
itself