f, mama?"

"Well, that is all right, Effi, I am glad to hear it. But there is
something else troubling you."

"Perhaps."

"Well, speak."

"You see, mama, the fact that he is older than I does no harm. Perhaps
that is a very good thing. After all he is not old and is well and
strong and is so soldierly and so keen. And I might almost say I am
altogether in favor of him, if he only--oh, if he were only a little
bit different."

"How, pray, Effi."

"Yes, how? Well, you must not laugh at me. It is something that I
only very recently overheard, over at the parsonage. We were talking
about Innstetten and all of a sudden old Mr. Niemeyer wrinkled his
forehead, in wrinkles of respect and admiration, of course, and said:
'Oh yes, the Baron. He is a man of character, a man of principles."

"And that he is, Effi."

"Certainly. And later, I believe, Niemeyer said he is even a man of
convictions. Now that, it seems to me, is something more. Alas, and
I--I have none. You see, mama, there is something about this that
worries me and makes me uneasy. He is so dear and good to me and so
considerate, but I am afraid of him."

CHAPTER V

The days of festivity at Hohen-Cremmen were past; all the guests had
departed, likewise the newly married couple, who left the evening of
the wedding day.

The nuptial-eve performance had pleased everybody, especially the
players, and Hulda had been the delight of all the young officers, not
only the Rathenow Hussars, but also their more critically inclined
comrades of the Alexander regiment. Indeed everything had gone well
and smoothly, almost better than expected. The only thing to be
regretted was that Bertha and Hertha had sobbed so violently that
Jahnke's Low German verses had been virtually lost. But even that had
made but little difference. A few fine connoisseurs had even expressed
the opinion that, "to tell the truth, forgetting what to say, sobbing,
and unintelligibility, together form the standard under which the most
decided victories are won, particularly in the case of pretty, curly
red heads." Cousin von Briest had won a signal triumph in his
self-composed role. He had appeared as one of Demuth's clerks, who had
found out that the young bride was planning to go to Italy immediately
after the wedding, for which reason he wished to deliver to her a
traveling trunk. This trunk proved, of course, to be a giant box of
bonbons from Hoevel's. The dancing had continued till t