"Beside her sits Lori; she has a pair of sparkling eyes; she is the enfant terrible; but such an impudent imp I could not hereafter, as a professor, take into any good society. She scoffs at everything, and is not even witty. Then follow the two youngest, Gretchen and Marie; Gretchen is still like a blank sheet of paper, and Marie even wears short petticoats, and frilled garments."
"Certainly," replied Kuhl. "You cannot wait until the understanding of the one, and the skirts of the other, have grown. Indeed, it is not easy to make a choice here; but who vouches for it that your readings of character are correct! If I should advise you, I must convince myself."
"Very well; then I will introduce you to the Professor, and at the same time to his family."
"In any case my conceptions of these seven girls will then cross the threshold of knowledge with greater facility," replied Kuhl, with an allusion to Herbart's Philosophy, which drew a significant smile from his friend; "but tell me, how does this follower of Herbart come to a Samland bathing place?"
"For one thing, it is a species of pilgrimage to the city of Pure Reason, where Herbart stood so long upon Kant's rostrum, with his blue frock coat, and elegant riding-boots; secondly, he followed a friend's invitation. You, of course, know that worthy Herbartian who always goes to his lectures with a red umbrella, such as the late Lampe, Kant's servant, carried, and looks upon this red umbrella which he places upon a bench, and which gradually transforms itself by some optical delusion into a living being, as the third person, in order to form a college. At present he is bathing; the only student, who is accustomed to listen to him, is also bathing, only the red umbrella is missing; otherwise the college would be complete in the waves of the East Sea."
"You triumph, you Hegelites," replied Kuhl, solemnly; "but the day will come, when even Hegel will be expounded to empty benches:
'When this Imperial Troy
And Priam's race and Priam's royal self
Shall in one common ruin be o'erthrown.'"
Kuhl was soon introduced to Professor Baute and the seven girls. The upholder of polygamy was naturally not in the least degree confused by this female Pleiades. He took advantage of the knowledge which he had already gained as to how the land lay, for very adroit manœuvres by which to win the seven ladies' good-will.
He spoke of the Caucasian beauties' plaits interwoven with pearls with Euphrasia, with Ophelia of the gentle rustle of the weeping birches in the hollow way in the evening's crimson light, with Emma of the worthlessness of the Neukuhren laundresses, especially with respect to shirt fronts; in a short time he was even so successful as to cause Albertina to interrupt her inflexible silence by some silliness, which fully explained her taciturnity; Lori, with great tact, made an allusion to both the Fräuleins Dornau, acknowledged by Doctor Kuhl with a slight bow; Gretchen to say she would learn French, and Marie catch butterflies with him; in short, when the Doctor took leave, all seven voices were unanimous in declaring that he was a most charming man, and Doctor Reising was sadly placed in the shade by him.