The sound of the dinner-bell brought Godfrey Baldrian, or the Methodist, as Braesig called him.  Lina blushed and turned away from him, not in anger, but because she remembered the confession she had just made in the garret.  And Braesig said to himself:  “That’s very odd now!  Lina seems to have taken the infection, but how can she care for a scare-crow of a Methodist?” Braesig expressed himself too strongly, but still it must be acknowledged that Godfrey was no beauty.  Nature had not given him many personal advantages, and he did not use those that he had in the wisest possible way.  For example his hair.  He had a thick head of yellow hair that would have provoked no criticism, and indeed would have looked quite nice if it had only been cut properly, but unfortunately he had taken the pictures of the beloved disciple John as his model, and had parted his hair down the middle, and brushed it into ringlets at the ends, though the upper part of his head showed that the real nature of his hair was to be straight.  I have nothing to say against little boys of ten or even twelve going about with curls, and the mothers of these same little boys would have still less objection to it than I should, for they delight in stroking the curls lovingly out of their children’s faces, and in combing them out smooth when visitors come to the house.  Some mothers have even gone so far, when their children’s hair did not curl naturally, as to screw it up in paper or use tongs, but that was a mistake on their part.  If it were the fashion, I should have nothing to say against even old people wearing curls, for it looks very nice in some ancient pictures, but there are two remarks I should like to make while on this subject, and these are:  a man with thin legs ought never to wear tight trousers, and he whose hair does not curl naturally should cut it short.  Our poor Godfrey’s hair, which hung down his back, was burnt to a sort of dun color by the sun, and as he liked it to look smooth and tidy, he put a good deal of pomade on it, which greased his coat-collar considerably.

[Illustration:  THE BRIDAL PAIR AT THE CIVIL MARRIAGE OFFICE From the Painting by Benjamin Vautier]

Beneath this wealth of hair was a small pale face with an expression of suffering on it, which always made Braesig ask sympathizingly what shoemaker he employed, and whether he was troubled with corns.  The rest of his figure was in keeping with his face.  He was tall, narrow-chested, and angular, and that part of the human body which shows whether a man enjoys the good things of life, was altogether wanting in him.  Indeed he was so hollowed out where the useful and necessary digesting apparatus is wont to show its existence by a gentle roundness of form, that he might be said to be shaped like the inside of Mrs. Nuessler’s baking-trough.  For this reason Braesig regarded him as a sort of wonder in natural history, for he ate as much as a ploughman without producing any visible effect.  Let no one imagine