came to her house, and she ruled like a small queen over a large settlement of dependents.  And all this she owed to her dear Paul, who, during the seven years of their married life, had never given her one moment’s pain, never cost her eyes a single tear.  Out of her grateful acknowledgment that Wilhelm had materially assisted in the founding of her agreeable destiny, and the unconscious lingering remains of her former attachment, there had sprung up a very tender friendship for him, the unusual warmth of which would have at once betrayed its hidden origin to the experienced analyst of the heart.  She wanted to see him happy, she considered earnestly what was lacking to him to make him so, and was sure that it could only be a rich and pretty wife.  This happiness then she determined to procure for him, an easy enough task, as her set contained a large selection of “goldfish.”

If he would only meet them halfway!  The young ladies, obviously very well disposed toward him, could not make the first advances.  And yet on the following Thursday he sat there in the midst of the gay chatter just as quiet and wooden as on the first occasion, made no advances to any of the girls, singled out no one from the rest.  After that Malvine was obliged to make a pause in her well-intentioned maneuvres, for the third Thursday was Christmas Eve, and her time was taken up in preparations for the Christmas-tree.

For this festive occasion Frau Brohl and Frau Marker came over from Berlin, as had been their custom ever since Paul had taken the house on the Uhlenhorst.  Frau Marker had grown very stout, and her hair showed the first silvery threads, otherwise she was blooming and as silent as ever.  Old Frau Brohl was simply astounding.  She had not changed in the smallest degree, time had no power over her, she was just as doubled up and colorless. and her movements just as slow as ever, her brown eyes had the same tired droop, and her low, complaining voice the old tone of suffering.  But her appetite had grown, if anything, rather larger, and, apart from one or two colds in the winter, she had not known an hour’s illness during the whole time.

Needless to say, the grandmother did not come empty-handed.  She brought two cases with her, one of which contained a large quantity of excellent bottled fruit, which Malvine still preferred to any her own highly-paid cook could prepare, while the other was filled with a choice collection of fancy work.  On these treasures being unpacked, it was discovered that the inventive genius of the old lady of seventy was still undiminished.  For the master of the house there was a game-bag made of interwoven strips of blue and red leather, somewhat in the Indian manner, very curious, and of course, impracticable Malvine received a silklace veil, the pattern in large marsh-mallows—­a graceful play upon her name.

Frau Brohl had worked at this masterpiece for a year and a half.  For little Willy, in consideration of the aristocratic propensities one might expect, or at any late encourage, in the heir to a large estate, there was a Flobert rifle, the strap of which was ornamented after an entirely new method by cutting out thin layers of the leather and inserting gilt arabesques and figures.  For the house in general there were some ingenious arrangements in fir cones and small shells.