She was out of humor, when she came in to supper, and he was gay, so that their moods were discordant. "So, dear Frida," said he, "now we are comfortably settled, I think it is time for us to make our visits in the neighborhood." "Yes, Axel, but to whom?" "Well, I think first our nearest neighbors." "Our Pastor, first of all." "Why yes, there, too,--later." "Who else is there, in the neighborhood?" asked the young wife, reckoning over as if thinking aloud, "the landlord Pomuchelskopp, and the pächter[3] Nüssler." "Dear Frida," said Axel, looking more serious, "you must be jesting about the pächter Nüssler, we can have no intercourse with pächter people." "I do not agree with you," said Frida, quietly, "I look more at the man, than at his rank. It may not be the same here, as with us, in Prussia; but in my father's house, we were intimate with several pächter families, why not here? Frau Nüssler seems to be a very nice woman." "My inspector's sister. I cannot visit her; it would not be suitable." "But the landlord Pomuchelskopp?" "Of course; the man is a proprietor, is wealthy, is a deputy, as well as myself--" "And is notorious, in the whole region, and his wife yet more so. No, Axel, I shall not visit there." "My dear child----" "No, Axel. If the pächter Nüssler had bought the Gurlitz estate, would he be another person, and would you visit him?" "That has nothing to do with the case. I shall _not_ visit the pächter," said Axel, angrily. "Nor I the landlord, I have an aversion to the family," said Frida, putting down her trump, also. "Frida!" begged Axel. "No, Axel," said she, decidedly, "I will go with you to Gurlitz, to-morrow, but I shall stop at the Pastor's." That was the conclusion; there was no quarrel about it, but each remained fixed in the same decision. How readily and gladly would she have yielded, if she had not sat down to supper with the uneasy feeling that Axel was lacking in insight to understand a business, and in firmness to carry it out; and how readily and gladly would Axel have yielded, and stayed away from Pomuchelskopp's, if it had not been always in his mind that Pomuchelskopp was a rich man, and he must keep on good terms with him, because he might be useful; how readily and gladly he would have called at the Nüsslers', but for the foolish opinions he had imbibed, in his regiment. But it was done; and could not be undone, the first beginning of discord had entered the house, and the door stood half-open for the rest to follow; for discord is like one of those dragon's tails that children play with, there is a long thread, and bit after bit is fastened to it, and though each bit is a mere nothing, it makes a great bunch, when it is rolled up in a heap, and it is hard to disentangle, for there is neither beginning nor end to be found.