"Amalie was a young girl--so was Luise--but then there was the queen of Spain! However, in that case it was clear as noonday how little poets deserved to be trusted, for that a man should fall in love with his stepmother could only take place in the world of imagination where genius, drawn away from the earth, intoxicated with inspiration, soars aloft. Not in vain had she, a year and a half before, written a school composition on 'Genius and Reality,' in which she had treated the question in a most exhaustive manner." She next tries her friend Elly, a girl of her own age, but much more experienced in the ways of the world. "'Listen, dear, I want to ask you a very important question. You're in love, aren't you?' "'Yes'; replied Elly. "'And you're sure the man's in love with you?' "'Why do you say "man"?' asked Elly. 'Curt is my ideal. A little time ago it was Bruno--and before that it was Alfred--but now it's Curt, Yet he's not a man.' "'What is he, then?' "'He's a _young_ man.' "'Oh! that's it, is it? No, he's certainly not a man.' And Hertha's eyes shone: she knew what a 'man' looked like. 'Well, darling,' she went on, 'do you think that a "man," or a _young_ man--it's all the same--could possibly love a married woman?' "'Of course--naturally he would,' replied Elly, with perfect calmness. "Hertha smiled indulgently at such want of intelligence. "'No, no, little one,' she said. 'I don't mean his own wife, but a woman who is the wife of another?' "'So do I! replied Elly. "'And that seems to you quite a matter of course?' "'My dear child, I didn't think you were so innocent! said Elly; 'everybody knows as much as that. And formerly it was even worse. A true knight always loved another man's wife: it was a great crime to love his own wife. He would cut off his right hand for the stranger's sake, and would die for her, pressing her blue favour to his lips; for you see at that time they always wore her blue favour. You'll find it in every history of literature.' "Hertha became very thoughtful. 'Ah! in those days!' she said, with the ghost of a smile; 'in those days men went to tournaments and stabbed each other in sport with their lances.' "'And to-day,' whispered Elly, 'men shoot each other dead with pistols.' "Hertha felt as if she had been stabbed to the heart, and the little pink and white daughter of Eve continued, 'I think it must be quite delightful when one is married to know that some one is hopelessly in love with you. It's quite certain that most unhappy love affairs arise in that way.' "The next day Hertha questioned her grandmother. "'Grandmother, I'm grown up now, aren't I?' "'Yes--so, so,' answered the old lady. "'And probably I shall soon be married.' "'You!' shouted her grandmother, in deadly terror. Doubtless the wretched child had come to confide in her the addresses of some booby of a neighbour.