The three ladies liked him immensely.  Frau Brohl took him at once to her heart, and that was the chief consideration.  His appearance made a good impression on her.  He was strongly built, not too thin, in fact, showing signs of a respectable probable stoutness in later life; his face was full, and his complexion healthy, his mustache carefully trimmed, and his hair closely cropped; he certainly dressed well.  The young men of her former rich acquaintances were of the same type, so also was the late F.A.  Brohl when she first met him.  He was gentlemanly, without a doubt, and he must be well off to employ such a good tailor and friseur.  She also noticed, with an immense satisfaction, that he had a due appreciation of fancy work.  He did not, like some superficial people, regard these housewifely creations as merely pretty or useful things, but appreciated them as works of art, and wondered at the difficulty of these marvelous fabrications.  Complicated lace-work, or embroidered pictures, filled him with amazement, even if applique had no effect on him.  When Frau Brohl noticed these marks of distinction in him, she did not hesitate to invite him to dinner on Sunday—­at first occasionally, and afterward regularly, and with increasing pleasure she noticed that in other ways he also reached the ideal she had imagined in him.  He had a good appetite, and it was not necessary for him to say in words how much he enjoyed the dishes set before him, every look and gesture showed it plainly.  He evinced a warm sympathy for family events, even when they did not concern him in any way, and he had the same genuine esteem for rich people, which had been handed down for three generations in the Brohl-Marker families.  She thought that he showed no disinclination to be her granddaughter’s husband, only at first she pondered over his calling in life.  She knew perfectly well that the highest professorship could only earn in a year what an ordinary ship-broker made in a month.  At the same time she reflected that even a merchant made a bad job of it sometimes, as her son-in-law’s example had shown her only too plainly; that the title “Professor” sounded very well, and if he did not make very much money at most, at least he could not lose it, and she came to the conclusion that in the circumstances a professor could make his wife very happy.  Frau Marker had nothing to say about the matter, and was quite prepared to accept a son-in-law from her mother’s hand, as she had formerly accepted a husband, so the fact that Paul had not made a very favorable impression on her did not matter very much.

There remained only Malvine—­but just there lay the difficulty.  The girl was always kind and friendly to Paul, she took his homage without any coquetry or apparent disinclination; when they went out walking she took his arm quite unaffectedly; when they were invited to meet in society, by a tacit agreement he took her in to dinner, had the privilege of the greater part of the dances, and was her partner