His manner was free and easy and like a man of the world’s, which did not fail to make a certain impression on Madame Permaneder; the more so that he nearly always turned to her as he spoke. His tone was almost apologetic when he went into detail upon the grounds for his desire to purchase. “Room!” he said. “We need more room. My house in Sand Street--you wouldn’t believe it, my dear madam, nor you, Herr Senator, but in fact, it is getting so small we can’t turn round in it. I’m not speaking of company. It only takes the family, and the Huneus, and the Möllendorpfs and my brother Moritz’s family, and there we are--in fact, packed in like sardines. So, then--well, why should we, you know!” He spoke in an almost fretful tone, while manner and gestures expressed: “You see for yourselves, there’s no reason why I should put up with that sort of thing, when there is plenty of money to do what we like!” “I thought of waiting,” he went on, “till Zerline and Bob should want a house. Then they could take mine, and I could find something larger for myself. But in fact--you know,” he interrupted himself, “my daughter Zerline has been engaged to Bob, my brother the attorney’s eldest, for years. The wedding won’t be put off much longer--two years at most. They are young--so much the better. Well--in fact--why should I wait for them and let slip a good chance when it offers? There would be no sense in that.” Everybody agreed. The conversation paused for a while on the subject of the approaching wedding. Marriages--advantageous marriages--between first cousins were not uncommon in the town, and this one excited no disapproval. The plans of the young pair were inquired into--with reference to the wedding journey. They thought of going to the Riviera, to Nice and so on. That was what they seemed to want to do--and why shouldn’t they, you know? The younger children were mentioned, and the Consul spoke of them with easy satisfaction, shrugging his shoulders. He himself had five children, and his brother Moritz had four sons and daughters. Yes, they were all flourishing, thanks. Why shouldn’t they be,--you know? In fact, they were all very well. And he came back to the growing up of the family, and to their narrow quarters. “Yes, this is something else entirely,” he said. “I’ve seen that already, on the way upstairs. This house is a pearl, certainly a pearl--if you can compare anything so large with anything so small, ha, ha! Why, even the hangings here--I own up to having had my eye on the hangings all the time I’ve been talking. A most charming room--in fact. When I think that you have passed all your life in these surroundings--in fact--” “With some interruptions,” said Frau Permaneder, in that extraordinarily throaty voice of which she sometimes availed herself.