"The little five-year-old Marie--"
"An ugly name," observed Alma.
"I don't think so; at any rate its bearer was anything but ugly, Emil says; and to speak frankly, I am sure that in this respect he does not exaggerate, and the little lady, who naturally in the course of years grew up to maturity, really possessed all the admirable qualities which turned the head of the poor young fellow, who was then only twenty. And he was not alone; all the other young men employed in the business fared just the same. I forgot to say, or was just going to tell you, that the poor little orphan had been received in her uncle's house, the brother of her unhappy father, but a man who was exactly his opposite in every respect; plain, stern, pedantic, an excellent business-man of the old school, as Emil says, who had entered his counting-room and at that time risen to be head clerk. His wife was wonderfully well suited to him, that is, she was not one whit less plain, or less strict and pedantic, so the poor little girl could not have found the house exactly a bed of roses."
"In spite of all her admirers?"
"In spite of all her admirers. She inherited it from her father, who always aimed too high."
"Perhaps she did not know what she wanted."
"That is possible; at any rate, none of the young men found favor in her eyes, though Emil was slightly preferred; but only, he says, because he was the only Jew in the Christian establishment, and therefore in some degree rebuffed by the others--the position of the Jews thirty years ago, you must know, was even more precarious and uncomfortable than it is now, although even now everything is perhaps not quite what it should be. At any fate, she treated the man worst whose outward circumstances entitled him to the most consideration--namely, her cousin Eduard, the only son of the house, a quiet, shy young man, who loved her passionately. Emil says that even now it makes the tears come into his eyes when he thinks of the time that Eduard, who was his most intimate friend, spoke of what he suffered, not in pompous, high-sounding words, which would not have been at all like him, but so gently, so resignedly--"
"I can't bear these gentle, resigned men," said Alma.
"They seldom succeed, as poor Eduard's example shows. But to be sure, she refused very different people, who were by no means gentle and resigned--officers, barons, and counts: she was the wonder of the city, and the idol of all the young men, and she noticed them no more than the sun heeds the mist."
"You are really getting poetical," said Alma.