uld 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 Cr[oe]sus; but then he will soon be made a general. Our dear
Reimers will have to keep his passion 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!" Klaere 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 Guentz parried the accusation gallantly:

"Just another compliment for you, my Klaere. Only happy couples try to
bring about other marriages."

A short time afterwards, without any prompting from the Guentzes,
Reimers said to his stout friend: "Guentz, doesn't it strike you that
Mariechen Falkenhein is a very nice girl?"

Guentz 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 Guentz. "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.

But the ladies of the regiment had soon a fresh subject for gossip.
Lieutenant R