more discretion."

At this the girl laughed rather haughtily. Her heart was still free,
and simply running over with the happiness of earth. No matter what was
said to her, she heard only half of it. She seemed to have wrapped
herself up in a sort of chrysalis. Her soul was round as a ball,
without any angles on which cares could be hung, or cracks into which
they could insinuate themselves--a fair ball of crystal, with light
shining all about and through it.

It is a wonderful thing, the perfect egoism of early youth, the way it
has no ears for the words of reason and wisdom, and only half an ear
for anything else. Like a distant noise and bustle sound the world's
doings amid the undisturbed content of self-centred youth and beauty.

But quite respectable personages came wandering all the long way up the
hill. Herr Oehmchen and Herr Leinhose were indefatigable. With them
came not seldom the young widow with the heart-shaped face, in the wise
conviction that the dangerous maiden could at worst take only one of
her well-nourished boarders from her, and that it would pay her to keep
on good terms with both.

Besides these a courtier often came up, a man who had in the
neighborhood of Weimar a rather heavily mortgaged estate. But he had
also faultless manners, an extraordinarily small head and aristocratic
hands. He could look back upon a long line of ancestors, who had all
nibbled away something of his property and his personality; there was
little of either left, and it was extremely sensible of him to think of
supplementing them. He was superior to all the others when it came to a
question of form, and so made a great impression on them. They
considered him a dangerous rival, and rejoiced when he was obliged to
stay in his town house--for he went to court--when they had anything on
like a sleigh-ride or a dance; in fact, they arranged such things if
possible on days when they knew he would have to be absent.

Dances, musical evenings, masked balls, sewing-circles were abundant
that winter in Weimar, and the pretty Rauchfuss girl was asked to
everything--now it was one paying attention to her, now another. She
had plenty of cavaliers: all the marriageable merchants' sons of the
town, young lawyers--in brief, the wooers recruited themselves from the
entire circle of the townspeople, and even beyond it. The hunt was on,
and every one joined it who could.

She loved dancing. It seemed to her the most glorious thing i