Stiefel, confirmed bachelor though he was, wasn't going to let himself be found wanting, on such a delightful occasion as this, at all events, in proper politeness towards the fair sex, least of all towards a woman whom he had begun to be so fond of, even when he was bringing her home to be married, and whom he liked twice as much now that she was the wife of such a dear friend, and was such a dear friend herself too. He therefore adroitly led her to join in the conversation (which had previously been too deep and scholarly for her) by using the three cap-blocks as stepping-stones over to the journal of fashions; only he slid back again sooner than he might have done to a more ancient journal of fashions, that of Rubenius on the 'Costume of the ancient Greeks and Romans.' He said he should be happy to lend her his sermons every Sunday, as advocates don't deal in theology much. And when she was looking on the floor at her feet for the snuffers which had fallen, he held the candle down that she might see. The next Sunday was an important day for the house (or rather rooms) of Siebenkæs, for it introduced thereto a grander character than any who have appeared hitherto, namely the Venner (Finance Councillor)--Mr. Everard Rosa von Meyern, a young member of the aristocracy, who went daily in and out at Heimlicher von Blaise's to "learn the routine of official business;" he was also engaged to be married to a poor niece of the Heimlicher's, who was being brought up and educated for his heart in another part of Germany. Thus the Venner was a character of consequence in the borough of Kuhschnappel as well as in our 'Thorn-piece,' and this in every political point of view. In a corporeal point of view he was much less so. His body was stuck through his flowered garments much like a piece of stick through a village nosegay; under the shining wing-covers of his waistcoat (in itself a perfect animal-picture)[23] there pulsated a thorax, perpendicular, if not absolutely concave, and his legs had, all told, about the same amount of calf as those wooden ones which stocking-makers put into their windows as an advertisement.