sistent
diligence and would not allow himself to be drawn away by enthusiasts
into other fields. Strength of character was not, however, a new
phenomenon in his life, for as long ago as the days when he was an
active member of the "Tunnel" he had come in close contact with the
Kugler coterie in Berlin, where the so-called Munich school
originated, and yet he did not follow his friends in that eclectic
movement. So when the naturalistic school of writers began to win
enthusiastic support, even though he found himself in the main in
sympathy with their announced creed, he did not join them in practice.
He felt that what the literature of the Fatherland needed was
"originality," and he sought to attain it in his own way, apart from
storm and stress. As his mind matured through accumulated knowledge of
the world, and his heart mellowed through years of experience and
observation, he rose to a point of view above sentiment and prejudice,
where the fogs of passion melt away and the light of kindly wisdom
shines.

[Illustration: FONTANE MONUMENT AT NEU RUPPIN.]

* * * * *

_THEODOR FONTANE_

* * * * *

EFFI BRIEST (1895)

TRANSLATED AND ABRIDGED BY WILLIAM A. COOPER, A.M.

Associate Professor of German, Leland Stanford Jr. University

CHAPTER I

In front of the old manor house occupied by the von Briest family
since the days of Elector George William, the bright sunshine was
pouring down upon the village road, at the quiet hour of noon. The
wing of the mansion looking toward the garden and park cast its broad
shadow over a white and green checkered tile walk and extended out
over a large round bed, with a sundial in its centre and a border of
Indian shot and rhubarb. Some twenty paces further, and parallel to
the wing of the house, there ran a churchyard wall, entirely covered
with a small-leaved ivy, except at the place where an opening had been
made for a little white iron gate. Behind this arose the shingled
tower of Hohen-Cremmen, whose weather vane glistened in the sunshine,
having only recently been regilded. The front of the house, the wing,
and the churchyard wall formed, so to speak, a horseshoe, inclosing a
small ornamental garden, at the open side of which was seen a pond,
with a small footbridge and a tied-up boat. Close by was a swing, with
its crossboard hanging from two ropes at either end, and its frame
posts beginning to lea