"Well, well, that's all very fine and practical. But you can't carry such jokes too far. Let _me_ arrange matters. I have some knowledge of these affairs, though, I admit, so important a case has never come to me before. I will endeavour to hasten the wedding as much as possible--for the reasons I have already mentioned. I will also ask for all possible secrecy, at least until his resignation has been accepted. Then nothing need stand in the way of securing the banns, since getting an adequate trousseau need concern us in only a lesser degree. As for your conduct, my dear child, I advise you for the present to remain as undecided, as maidenly, as fresh as possible. The only change I suggest is to use better soap. Everything else may continue to be just as it is. Perhaps you will have to be placed with another family. In that case it will be necessary, of course, to get an outfit, for which the sum realised from the sale of your mother's effects, amounting to--one moment, please." He opened a large account book lying on a rack next to his desk, "amounting to--A, B, C, Czepanek--amounting to one hundred and thirty-six marks and seventy-five pfennig, will come in very handy. Æsthetic enjoyment of the circumstances leads me to place my own purse also at your disposal. Well, so much for the time preceding the wedding! As to the incomparably more important time following, I should not like you to leave my office before I had given you a few delicate hints, although _unfortunately_, I must deny myself the pleasure of--" He paused a moment, and rubbed his hands, while an epicurean, satyr's smile widened his broad face. "The pleasure of taking a mother's place and giving you the advice with which a mother usually sends off a bride." This time Lilly understood him, and her hot shame seemed to spread a red mist before her eyes. "You may trust me implicitly in such matters as a will, life insurance, and alimony in case of divorce, provided, of course, you are the innocent party--or even, in a sense, a bit guilty. You were not placed in my keeping for nothing. However, there is _one_ circumstance--which circumstance has to be taken most frequently into consideration in marriages like yours--_one_ circumstance in which my professional skill, I am sorry to say, cannot provide you with adequate security. As to that, you must keep your eyes wide open for yourself. We human beings have been put in this world, my child, to do what gives us pleasure. Whoever says the reverse steals the sun from your heaven. But I warn you of three things: first, exchange no superfluous glances; second, demand no superfluous rendering of accounts; third, make no superfluous confessions. You cannot fully comprehend this yet--" As a matter of fact Lilly comprehended not a single word. "But when the occasion arises, think of what I've said. The recollection may prove useful. And--here's something very important--do you love jewels?" "I cannot say I have ever seen any."