e shown you and had him buried in it. The Berlin
Pastor is said to have remarked: 'The Chinaman might just as well have
been buried in the Christian churchyard, for he was a very good man
and exactly as good as the rest.' Whom he really meant by the rest,
Gieshuebler says nobody quite knew."

"Well, in this matter I am absolutely against the pastor. Nobody ought
to say such things, for they are dangerous and unbecoming. Even
Niemeyer would not have said that."

"The poor pastor, whose name, by the way, was Trippel, was very
seriously criticised for it, and it was truly a blessing that he soon
afterward died, for he would have lost his position otherwise. The
city was opposed to him, just as you are, in spite of the fact that
they had called him, and the Consistory, of course, was even more
antagonistic."

"Trippel, you say? Then, I presume, there is some connection between
him and the pastor's widow, Mrs. Trippel, whom we are to see this
evening."

"Certainly there is a connection. He was her husband, and the father
of Miss Trippelli."

Effi laughed. "Of Miss Trippelli! At last I see the whole affair in a
clear light. That she was born in Kessin, Gieshuebler wrote me, you
remember. But I thought she was the daughter of an Italian consul. We
have so many foreign names here, you know. And now I find she is good
German and a descendant of Trippel. Is she so superior that she could
venture to Italianize her name in this fashion?"

"The daring shall inherit the earth. Moreover she is quite good. She
spent a few years in Paris with the famous Madame Viardot, and there
made the acquaintance of the Russian Prince. Russian Princes, you
know, are very enlightened, are above petty class prejudices, and
Kotschukoff and Gieshuebler--whom she calls uncle, by the way, and one
might almost call him a born uncle--it is, strictly speaking, these
two who have made little Marie Trippel what she is. It was Gieshuebler
who induced her to go to Paris and Kotschukoff made her over into
Marietta Trippelli."

"Ah, Geert, what a charming story this is and what a humdrum life I
have led in Hohen-Cremmen! Never a thing out of the ordinary."

Innstetten took her hand and said: "You must not speak thus, Effi.
With respect to ghosts one may take whatever attitude one likes. But
beware of 'out of the ordinary' things, or what is loosely called out
of the ordinary. That which appears to you so enticing, even a life
such as Miss Trippelli lead