etween them such an affection should be
developed. Ida's mother, however, regarded it with grave disapproval,
and exacted from the unfortunate girl a promise that she would neither
see nor write to her humble suitor again. The result was a dangerous
illness: on her recovery from which her mother insisted on her accepting
for a husband Dr. Pfeiffer, a widower, with a grown-up son, but an
opulent and distinguished advocate in Lemberg, who was then on a visit to
Vienna. Though twenty-four years older than Ida, he was attracted by her
grace and simplicity, and offered his hand. Weary of home persecutions,
Ida accepted it, and the marriage took place on May 1st, 1820.

If she did not love her husband, she respected him, and their married
life was not unhappy. In a few months, however, her husband's integrity
led to a sad change of fortune. He had fully and fearlessly exposed the
corruption of the Austrian officials in Galicia, and had thus made many
enemies. He was compelled to give up his office as councillor, and,
deprived of his lucrative practice, to remove to Vienna in search of
employment. Through the treachery of a friend, Ida's fortune was lost,
and the ill-fated couple found themselves reduced to the most painful
exigencies. Vienna, Lemberg, Vienna again, Switzerland, everywhere Dr.
Pfeiffer sought work, and everywhere found himself baffled by some
malignant influence. "Heaven only knows," says Madame Pfeiffer in her
autobiography, "what I suffered during eighteen years of my married life;
not, indeed, from any ill-treatment on my husband's part, but from
poverty and want. I came of a wealthy family, and had been accustomed
from my earliest youth to order and comfort; and now I frequently knew
not where I should lay my head, or find a little money to buy the
commonest necessaries. I performed household drudgery, and endured cold
and hunger; I worked secretly for money, and gave lessons in drawing and
music; and yet, in spite of all my exertions, there were many days when I
could hardly put anything but dry bread before my poor children for their
dinner." These children were two sons, whose education their mother
entirely undertook, until, after old Madame Reyer's death in 1837, she
succeeded to an inheritance, which lifted the little family out of the
slough of poverty, and enabled her to provide her sons with good
teachers.

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As they grew up and engaged s