manage it? There was a
visitors' list on the table, and turning it over I found that none of
them, in the nature of things, could be well off. They all gave their
occupations, and the majority were _Apotheker_ and _Photographen_. There
were two _Herren Pianofabrikanten_, several _Lehrer_, a _Herr
Geheimcalculator_ whatever that is, many _Bankbeamten_ or clerks, and
one surely who must have found the place beyond his means, a _Herr
Schriftsteller_. All these had wives and children with them, 'I can't
make it out,' I said to Charlotte.

'What can't you make out?'

'How these people contrive to stay weeks in a dear hotel like this.'

'Oh, it is quite simple. The _Badereise_ is the great event of the year.
They save up for it all the rest of the year. They live at home as
frugally as possible so that for one magnificent month they can pretend
to waiters and chambermaids and the other visitors that they are richer
than they are. It is very foolish, sadly foolish. It is one of the
things I am trying to persuade women to give up.'

'But you are doing it yourself.'

'But surely there is a difference in the method. Besides, I was run
down.'

'Well, so I should think were the poor mothers of families by the time
they have kept house frugally for a year. And if it makes them happy,
why not?'

'Just that is another of the things I am working to persuade them to
give up.'

'What, being happy?'

'No, being mothers of families.'

'My dear Charlotte,' I murmured; and mused in silence on the six
Bernhards.

'Of unwieldily big ones, of course I mean.'

'And what do you understand by unwieldily big ones?' I asked, still
musing on the Bernhards.

'Any number above three. And for most of these women even three is
excessive.'

The images of the six Bernhards troubled me so much that I could not
speak.

'Look,' said Charlotte, 'at the women here. All of them, or any of them.
The one at the opposite table, for instance. Do you see the bulk of the
poor soul? Do you see how difficult existence must be made for her by
that circumstance alone? How life can be nothing to her but
uninterrupted panting?'

'Perhaps she doesn't walk enough,' I suggested. 'She ought to walk round
Ruegen once a year instead of casting anchor in the flesh-pots of
Sellin.'

'She looks fifty,' continued Charlotte. 'And why does she look fifty?'

'Perhaps because she is fifty.'

'Nonsense. She is quite young. But those four awful children are her