"No, Albert, I never was made for that. Liberty is my bride, and I shall be faithful to her."
"I said the same thing," the lawyer rejoined, with a laugh; "but time brings one experience of this same bride's rather chilly nature, and if in addition one meets with the misfortune of falling in love, liberty loses all attraction and the whilom bachelor is glad enough to turn into an honest married man. I am just about to undergo this transformation."
"I condole with you."
"No need; it suits me extremely well. But you know all the story of my love and woe; what do you think of the future Frau Gersdorf?"
"I think her so charming that she excuses in a measure your desertion of your colours. She is lovely, with that rosy, laughing little face."
"Yes, my little Molly is an embodiment of sunshine," Albert said, heartily, his glance seeking out the young girl. "The barometer at her home points to 'stormy' at present; but although the court-councillor and his entire family, with the famous granduncle,--who, by the bye, is the worst of all,--should take the field against me, I am resolved to come off victorious."
"Herr Waltenberg, may I request you to escort my niece to supper?" said the president as he passed the young men.
"With pleasure," Waltenberg assented, hurrying away, with such sincere satisfaction expressed in his face, that Gersdorf could not help looking after him with a mocking smile.
"I doubt whether I shall long be the only one of us two to desert his colours," he said to himself as his friend joined Fräulein von Thurgau, looking like anything rather than a misogynist.