to obtain preferment in the army; but she was trying to console
herself by keeping in mind that a celebrated professor could, in time,
acquire a social rank almost equal to that of a colonel.

Her other four sons would become officers. Their father was preparing
the ground so that they might enter the Guard or some aristocratic
regiment without any of the members being able to vote against their
admission. The two daughters would surely marry, when they had reached
a suitable age with officers of the Hussars whose names bore the magic
"von" of petty nobility, haughty and charming gentlemen about whom the
daughter of Misia Petrona waxed most enthusiastic.

The establishment of the Hartrotts was in keeping with these new
relationships. In the home in Berlin, the servants wore knee-breeches
and white wigs on the nights of great banquets. Karl had bought an old
castle with pointed towers, ghosts in the cellars, and various legends
of assassinations, assaults and abductions which enlivened its history
in an interesting way. An architect, decorated with many foreign orders,
and bearing the title of "Councillor of Construction," was engaged
to modernize the mediaeval edifice without sacrificing its terrifying
aspect. The Romantica described in anticipation the receptions in the
gloomy salon, the light diffused by electricity, simulating torches,
the crackling of the emblazoned hearth with its imitation logs bristling
with flames of gas, all the splendor of modern luxury combined with the
souvenirs of an epoch of omnipotent nobility--the best, according to
her, in history. And the hunting parties, the future hunting parties!
. . . in an annex of sandy and loose soil with pine woods--in no way
comparable to the rich ground of their native ranch, but which had the
honor of being trodden centuries ago by the Princes of Brandenburg,
founders of the reigning house of Prussia. And all this advancement in a
single year! . . .

They had, of course, to compete with other oversea families who had
amassed enormous fortunes in the United States, Brazil or the Pacific
coast; but these were Germans "without lineage," coarse plebeians who
were struggling in vain to force themselves into the great world by
making donations to the imperial works. With all their millions, the
very most that they could ever hope to attain would be to marry their
daughters with ordinary soldiers. Whilst Karl! . . . The relatives of
Karl! . . . and the Romantica