In the year 1819, when Ida was twenty-two years old, Doctor Pfeiffer, one of the most distinguished advocates in Lemberg, and a widower, moreover, with a grown-up son, was introduced to the Reyers. He staid in Vienna a few days for professional purposes, and at his departure recommended his son, who was studying law at the University of Vienna, to the notice of the family.
About four weeks afterward came a letter from Dr. Pfeiffer, containing a formal proposal for Ida’s hand. As he had only exchanged a few words with her on totally unimportant subjects, she had not the least anticipation of an offer in that direction; but her mother did not fail to remind her of the promise she had made to accept the next suitor who came forward.
“I promised to consider the matter,” she says in her diary. “Dr. Pfeiffer seemed to me a very intelligent, well-educated man; but a circumstance that told far more in his favor in my estimation was that he lived a hundred miles from Vienna, and was twenty-four years older than I.”
A week afterward she consented to the marriage on the condition that she should be allowed to acquaint Dr. Pfeiffer with the real state of her affections. This she did in a long letter, in which she concealed nothing from her suitor, evidently indulging the hope that he would abandon his pursuit of her; but Dr. Pfeiffer at once replied, expressing himself not in the least surprised to hear that a maiden of twenty-two years had already loved. The honest, candid avowal of this passage in her life made Ida appear in his eyes all the more worthy of respect; and he avowed his intention of persisting in his suit, feeling assured that he should never have cause to regret it.
The difficult duty of acquainting T—— with this change in her destiny now devolved upon Ida. This duty she fulfilled by means of a few lines, and it will readily be imagined that they were painful ones. The answer was conceived in the manliest spirit, full of self-abnegation and nobility of mind. T—— repeatedly declared that he would never forget her, and would never marry. He kept his word.
The marriage with Dr. Pfeiffer was celebrated on the 1st of May, 1820, and a week afterward the newly-wedded couple departed for Lemberg. The journey brought relief by reviving in the young wife the old predilection for traveling, and allowing the pair an opportunity of becoming better acquainted. Ida found that her husband possessed high principle, candor, and intelligence; and if it was beyond her power to love him, she could not withhold from him respect and hearty appreciation, especially as he showed as much affection as delicacy in his conduct toward her. She was resolved to fulfill her duties honorably, and looked forward with a certain amount of tranquillity to the future.
Dr. Pfeiffer was one of those straightforward, independent-spirited men who attack and expose wrong wherever they find it, and make no secret of their sentiments.
In the official routine in Galicia in those days there were many weak points, and the number of dishonest and venal employés was not small. In an important lawsuit which he brought to a triumphant conclusion, Dr. Pfeiffer discovered peculation of the gravest kind. This he fearlessly and unflinchingly denounced to the highest authorities in Vienna. An investigation was ordered; Dr. Pfeiffer’s accusations were found to be well-grounded, and several officials were dismissed, and others moved.
Very disagreeable results, however, accrued to Dr. Pfeiffer himself. By his report of these delinquencies he had drawn down upon himself the enmity of the majority of official personages; and this enmity was so frequently and so openly manifested, that Dr. Pfeiffer found himself compelled to resign his appointment as councilor, for he found that his advocacy, so far from benefiting his clients, became absolutely prejudicial to their interests.
“My husband,” writes Ida Pfeiffer, “had foreseen all this; but it went against his nature to shut his eyes to flagrant injustice. In the same year he resigned his office, and, after he had arranged his private affairs, we removed, in 1821, to Vienna, where, trusting to his skill and knowledge, he hoped to have no difficulty in obtaining employment. But his reputation had preceded him: his sentiments and his mode of action were as well known in Vienna as at Lemberg, and he was looked upon with suspicion as a restless character and an enemy of existing institutions. All his applications for employment in agencies, etc., were consequently unavailing. Posts which he had solicited in vain were continually given away to the most insignificant and least talented of the profession.”