"We have invited him--and have quite forgotten the one thing!"
"The poor dinner, do you mean? Oh, people are used to that at the seaside; Spartan fare is the rule here!"
"No, no! We have forgotten to ask--"
"What then, in the world?"
"If Herr von Blanden is not already married?"
The Regierungsrath's chin jumped into his cravat with a slight shock of alarm.
"You are right, Miranda! We are very foolish!"
"He is no longer a youth; I should put him down as being thirty years old, and a man of that age, of his brilliant position, looked up to, rich--nothing else can be possible--he must have had a wife long since!"
Lost in sad thought, both walked silently side by side.
"But if I consider it properly," said Kalzow, "it cannot well be so. He would have taken his wife with him to the sea."