g
cliffs. It was very beautiful and Effi said so; but, when she looked
across the glittering surface, she saw again, toward the south, the
brightly shining roofs of the long-stretched-out village, whose name
had given her such a start earlier in the morning.

Even without any knowledge or suspicion of what was occupying her,
Innstetten saw clearly that she was having no joy or satisfaction. "I
am sorry, Effi, that you derive no real pleasure from these things
here. You cannot forget the Hertha Lake, and still less the
stones."

[Illustration: _Permission F Bruckmann A.-G. Munich_
BATHING BOYS Adolph von Menzel]

She nodded. "It is as you say, and I must confess that I have seen
nothing in my life that made me feel so sad. Let us give up entirely
our search for rooms. I can't stay here."

"And yesterday it seemed to you a Gulf of Naples and everything
beautiful you could think of."

"Yes, yesterday."

"And today? No longer a trace of Sorrento?"

"Still one trace, but only one. It is Sorrento on the point of dying."

"Very well, then, Effi," said Innstetten, reaching her his hand. "I do
not want to worry you with Ruegen and so let us give it up. Settled. It
is not necessary for us to tie ourselves up to Stubbenkammer or
Sassnitz or farther down that way. But whither?"

"I suggest that we stay a day longer and wait for the steamer that
comes from Stettin tomorrow on its way to Copenhagen. It is said to be
so pleasurable there and I can't tell you how I long for something
pleasurable. Here I feel as though I could never laugh again in all my
life and had never laughed at all, and you know how I like to laugh."

Innstetten showed himself full of sympathy with her state, the more
readily, as he considered her right in many regards. Really
everything, though beautiful, was melancholy.

They waited for the Stettin boat and in the very early morning of the
third day they landed in Copenhagen. Two hours later they were in the
Thorwaldsen Museum, and Effi said: "Yes, Geert, this is beautiful and
I am glad we set out for here." Soon thereafter they went to dinner
and at the table made the acquaintance of a Jutland family, opposite
them, whose daughter, Thora von Penz, was as pretty as a picture and
attracted immediately the attention and admiration of both Innstetten
and Effi. Effi could not stop looking at her large blue eyes and
flaxen blonde hair, and when they left the table an hour and a half
later the Penz f