“So you do believe in them?”

“Certainly I believe in them.  There are such things.  But I don’t quite believe in those we had in Kessin.  Has Johanna shown you her Chinaman yet?”

“What Chinaman?”

“Why, ours.  Before she left our old house she pulled him off the back of the chair upstairs and put him in her purse.  I caught a glimpse of him not long ago when she was changing a mark for me.  She was embarrassed, but confessed.”

“Oh, Geert, you ought not to have told me that.  Now there is such a thing in our house again.”

“Tell her to burn it up.”

“No, I don’t want to; it would not do any good anyhow.  But I will ask Roswitha—­”

“What?  Oh, I understand, I can imagine what you are thinking of.  You will ask her to buy a picture of a saint and put it also in the purse.  Is that about it?”

Effi nodded.

“Well, do what you like, but do not tell anybody.”

* * * * *

Effi finally said she would rather not do it, and they went on talking about all sorts of little things, till the plans for their summer journey gradually crowded out other interests.  They rode back to the “Great Star” and then walked home by the Korso Boulevard and the broad Frederick William Street.

They planned to take their vacation at the end of July and go to the Bavarian Alps, as the Passion Play was to be given again this year at Oberammergau.  But it could not be done, as Privy Councillor von Wuellersdorf, whom Innstetten had known for some time and who was now his special colleague, fell sick suddenly and Innstetten had to stay and take his place.  Not until the middle of August was everything again running smoothly and a vacation journey possible.  It was too late then to go to Oberammergau, so they fixed upon a sojourn on the island of Ruegen.  “First, of course, Stralsund, with Schill, whom you know, and with Scheele, whom you don’t know.  Scheele discovered oxygen, but you don’t need to know that.  Then from Stralsund to Bergen and the Rugard, where Wuellersdorf said one can get a good view of the whole island, and thence between the Big and the Little Jasmund Bodden to Sassnitz.  Going to Ruegen means going to Sassnitz.  Binz might perhaps be possible, too, but, to quote Wuellersdorf again, there are so many small pebbles and shells on the beach, and we want to go bathing.”

Effi agreed to everything planned by Innstetten, especially that the whole household should be broken up for four weeks, Roswitha going with Annie to Hohen-Cremmen, and Johanna visiting her younger half-brother, who had a sawmill near Pasewalk.  Thus everybody was well provided for.

At the beginning of the following week they set out and the same evening were in Sassnitz.  Over the hostelry was the sign, “Hotel Fahrenheit.”  “I hope the prices are according to Reaumur,” added Innstetten, as he read the name, and the two took an evening walk along the beach cliffs in the best of humor.  From a projecting rock they looked out upon the bay quivering in the moonlight.  Effi was entranced.  “Ah, Geert, why, this is Capri, it is Sorrento.  Yes, let us stay here, but not in the hotel, of course.  The waiters are too aristocratic for me and I feel ashamed to ask for a bottle of soda water.”