"And you call that a sharp corner to turn? I beg to disagree with you, Wedell; Rienaecker stands in a much more difficult position: he has 9000 marks a year and spends 12000, and that is the sharpest of all corners, at least sharper than the marriage corner. Marriage is no danger for Rienaecker, but a rescue. For that matter, I have seen it coming. And who is it then?" "A cousin!" "Naturally. A rescuer and a cousin are almost identical terms at present. And I will wager that her name is Paula. All cousins are named Paula these days." "But this one is not." "And her name?" "Katherine." "Katherine? Ah, now I know. Katherine Sellenthin. Hm! Not so bad, in fact a brilliant match. Old Sellenthin, he is the old man with the plaster over his eye, has six estates, and with the farms there are really thirteen. If divided in equal parts, Katherine will get the thirteenth thrown in. My congratulations." "Do you know her?" "Certainly. A wonderful flaxen-haired blonde with eyes as blue as forget-me-nots, but for all that she is not sentimental, and is less like the moon than like the sun. She was here at Frau Zuelow's Pension, and at fourteen she was already surrounded and courted." "At the Pension?" "Not really at the Pension and not every day, but on Sundays when she went to lunch with old Osten, the one whom you have just seen. Katherine, Katherine Sellenthin!... she was like a rail then, and that is what we used to call her, and she was the most charming little hoyden that you can imagine. I can still see her braid of hair, which we always called the distaff. And Rienaecker will now have a chance to spin it off. Well, why not? It will not be so difficult for him." "After all, it may be more difficult than many think," answered Wedell. "And while he certainly needs his finances improved, yet I am not sure that he would decide at once in favor of the blond beauty from his own province. For you must know that Rienaecker has for some time past enjoyed another tint, indeed ash-blond, and if what Balafre lately told me is true, he has been seriously considering whether he should not raise his blanchisseuse to the rank of la dame blanche. He sees no distinction between Castle Avenal and Castle Zehden. A castle is a castle and, you know, Rienaecker, who for that matter, goes his own way in many things, was always in favor of naturalness." "Yes," laughed Pitt. "That he was. But Balafre draws the long bow and invents interesting tales. You are sober, Wedell, and will not be ready to believe such made up nonsense." "No, it is not imaginary," said Wedell. "But I believe what I know. Rienaecker, in spite of his six feet, or perhaps because of them, is weak and easily guided and is peculiarly gentle and tenderhearted."