"Tell...? Not in so many words, but when we went for walks together in the park or went out in the evening on the lake, why, he practically spoke of nothing but her—of course without mentioning her name ... and the better he liked me—men really are such awfully funny people—the more jealous he became about the other woman.... But if it were only that? What young man isn't involved in a serious love affair? Do you think by any chance, mamma, that George Wergenthin is not?"
"In a serious one ... no, that will never happen to him. He's too cold, too superior for that ... he hasn't got enough temperament."
"That's exactly why," explained Else, airing her knowledge of human nature. "He'll slip into some whirlpool or other and get taken out of his depth without his having noticed it, and some fine day he'll get married ... out of sheer indolence ... to some person or other who'll probably be absolutely indifferent to him."
"You must have a definite suspicion," said Frau Ehrenberg.
"I have."
"Marianne?"
"Marianne! but that's been over a long time, mamma. And that was never anything particularly serious, either."
"Well, who is it then?"
"Well whom do you think, mamma?"
"I have no idea."