ot upbraid himself about
anything, for he gives as much as he receives. What do people want from
the world? Happiness. That is the aim of my life, just as it is the aim
of the rich woman's. She has money, and for happiness she lacks love; I
have love, and for happiness I lack money. We make an equal exchange of
what we own. It is the most beautiful supplement to a dual
incompleteness."

"It is in this way then that you would offer what you call love to a
rich girl! A love cleverly conducted, carefully mapped out--a love
which one could control, and on no account offer to a poor girl."

"Rubbish! The love of every man who is in his right mind is carefully
planned. Would you be in love with a king's daughter? It is to be hoped
not. You could keep out of the way of the king's daughter. Why can I
not keep out of the way of the poor girl?"

"That means that the princess' rank is as much a hindrance to love as
the poverty of the work-girl."

"I swear to you, Wilhelm, that if I were as rich, or as independent as
you, I would not think of a dowry. But I am a poor devil. If I were so
unfortunate as to fall in love with a poor girl, I would try to get the
better of the feeling. I would say to myself, better endure a short
time of unhappiness and disappointment than that she and I should be
condemned through life to the keenest want, which, with prosaic
certainty, would smother love."

While Paul argued with such ardor and earnestness, he was thinking all
the time of Fraulein Malvine Marker, the pretty girl with whom he had
danced so often, and he fondled tenderly with his right hand the ribbon
and cotillion order hidden under his waistcoat. He did not notice that
Wilhelm's expression of face was painfully distorted, nor that his
words wounded him deeply. They had come to the Brandenburger Thor, and
were walking over the Pariser Platz. Under the lindens they were
surrounded at once by noise and bustle. The streets were full of rowdy
bands of men who sang and shouted all together, now pushing one another
in violent rudeness, now shouting "Health to the New Year," here
knocking off an angry Philistine's hat, there surrounding and embracing
some honest man who was wearily making his way homeward; insulting the
police by imitating their military ways, laying hold of their sticks,
talking pompously to the night-watchman, and otherwise playing the
fool. After the silence of the Koniggratzer Strasse, the drunken
turmoil of this noi