"Yes, he took his time about marrying, but he made a dazzling match at
last. For a man of his years it was no easy matter to win such a wife as
Adelheid, young, beautiful, rich--"
"And of common birth," added Schoenau.
"Stuff and nonsense! Who asks any questions now-a-days about birth when an
immense fortune stands behind it? Herbert can use money now, too; he has
been hampered for means his life long, and now, as ambassador, he needs
more to keep up the position than he could possibly supply. But my
brother need never be ashamed of his father-in-law. Stahlberg was at the
head of one of our greatest industries, and a man of honor, through and
through. It was a pity he died so soon after his daughter's marriage.
At all events they made a very sensible choice."
"So that's what you call a sensible choice, do you, when a girl of
eighteen marries a man old enough to be her father?" asked Schoenau, who,
in the heat of discussion, came back to his sister-in-law again. "To be
sure she has a high place in society now, as the wife of His Excellency,
the Ambassador, and is a baroness and all that. But to me this
beautiful, cool Adelheid, with her 'sensible' ideas, which would do a
grandmother credit, is not at all sympathetic. A thoughtless maiden, who
falls over head and ears in love, and then declares to her parents,
'This one, or none,' suits me far better.
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