Part 49 (1/2)
”But let him open them quite by himself, please; no a.s.sistance, I do beg!” the captain interrupted.
”Of course, Fatty, quite by himself.”
”But, Klare, how about that episode of the Gropphusen? That was a bit off the rails, wasn't it?”
”Nothing of the kind. Nothing but a mere pa.s.sing flirtation.”
Guntz shook his head thoughtfully.
”No, Klare,” he replied. ”I understand Reimers. He would never have anything to do with mere pa.s.sing flirtations. It is just the dear fellow's misfortune that he takes everything so d.a.m.ned seriously. It went pretty deep with him that time with the Gropphusen; you can believe me as to that.”
”Still, one does not cling for all eternity to such a useless sort of business.”
Guntz was not quite convinced.
”Well, we must hope not,” he said. ”And, really, the two would suit each other excellently.”
Walking up and down the room he continued: ”Yes, in all respects.
Reimers has an income of about seventy thousand marks, and the colonel would certainly be able to give his daughter a bit of money without having to pinch himself. I should say about twenty thousand. True, he is no Crsus; but then he will soon be made a general. Our dear Reimers will have to keep his pa.s.sion for books in check. Yes, yes! The thing would answer admirably.”
He stood still and knocked the ash off his cigar.
”Why are you laughing, you sly little woman?” he asked, glancing down at her.
”How funny you are, Fatty!” Klare answered. ”You accuse me quite sternly of the worst intentions, and then you make plan after plan, and even begin to reckon up their joint income!”
But Guntz parried the accusation gallantly:
”Just another compliment for you, my Klare. Only happy couples try to bring about other marriages.”
A short time afterwards, without any prompting from the Guntzes, Reimers said to his stout friend: ”Guntz, doesn't it strike you that Mariechen Falkenhein is a very nice girl?”
Guntz leant back in his chair reflectively, and answered: ”A nice girl?
how do you mean? Certainly she has a pretty face, her eyes are especially sweet, and she has a good figure. Just a little too slight.
For my taste, of course I mean.”
”No,” replied Reimers, ”I don't mean that so much. Certainly she is pretty. But, after all, that's a secondary matter. I mean more the effect of her personality. There seems to be something so sure, so comfortable, so restful about her. Don't you think so?”
”Well, you know, I have not made such detailed observations. But I daresay you are right. And I should say that she will make a splendid wife some day. Quick and accurate, without a trace of superficiality, with a strong instinct for housewifely order; a simple, clear, shrewd intellect--the man who wins her for his wife will be a lucky fellow!”
Reimers unconsciously drew himself up a little, and he said doubtfully:
”But surely she is still much too young.”
”Not a bit,” replied Guntz. ”She will be eighteen in the autumn, and she is not even engaged yet. And after that there would be the betrothal time of the educated European--not less than six months.
Well, that would bring her nearly up to twenty, and at twenty a woman in our geographical area is quite eligible for marriage.”
Reimers appeared to meditate upon this. Finally, however, he only replied by a prolonged ”H'm,” and dropped the subject.