“Yes, he is that.”

“But—­”

“But he is a tomfool.  And that is not the kind of a man we women love, not even when we are still half children, as you have always thought me and perhaps still do, in spite of my progress.  Tomfoolery is not what we want.  Men must be men.”

“It’s well you say so.  My, a man surely has to mind his p’s and q’s.  Fortunately I can say I have just had an experience that looks as though I had minded my p’s and q’s, or at least I shall be expected to in the future—­Tell me, what is your idea of a ministry?”

“A ministry?  Well, it may be one of two things.  It may be people, wise men of high rank, who rule the state; and it may be merely a house, a palace, a Palazzo Strozzi or Pitti, or, if these are not fitting, any other.  You see I have not taken my Italian journey in vain.”

“And could you make up your mind to live in such a palace?  I mean in such a ministry?”

“For heaven’s sake, Geert, they have not made you a minister, have they?  Gieshuebler said something of the sort.  And the Prince is all-powerful.  Heavens, he has accomplished it at last and I am only eighteen.”

Innstetten laughed.  “No, Effi, not a minister; we have not risen to that yet.  But perhaps I may yet develop a variety of gifts that would make such a thing not impossible.”

“So not just yet, not yet a minister?”

“No.  And, to tell the truth, we are not even to live in the ministry, but I shall go daily to the ministry, as I now go to our district council office, and I shall make reports to the minister and travel with him, when he inspects the provincial offices.  And you will be the wife of a head clerk of a ministerial department and live in Berlin, and in six months you will hardly remember that you have been here in Kessin, where you have had nothing but Gieshuebler and the dunes and the ‘Plantation.’”

Effi did not say a word, but her eyes kept getting larger and larger.  About the corners of her mouth there was a nervous twitching and her whole slender body trembled.  Suddenly she slid from her seat down to Innstetten’s feet, clasped her arms around his knees and said in a tone, as though she were praying:  “Thank God!”

Innstetten turned pale.  What was that?  Something that had come over him weeks before, but had swiftly passed away, only to come back from time to time, returned again now and spoke so plainly out of his eyes that it startled Effi.  She had allowed herself to be carried away by a beautiful feeling, differing but little from a confession of her guilt, and had told more than she dared.  She must offset it, must find some way of escape, at whatever cost.

“Get up, Effi.  What is the matter with you?”

Effi arose quickly.  However, she did not sit down on the sofa again, but drew up a high-backed chair, apparently because she did not feel strong enough to hold herself up without support.