These few words exercised a cheering effect upon the Kalzow family. The Regierungsrath had already mobilised a line of victorious arguments against Blanden's reprehensible political views; they were ready to advance at the double so soon as the signal was given. The attack should commence at dessert, if the declaration of war need not be withheld on account of considerations of policy. This was now the case; everything was disembodied; the most telling proofs were dismissed to their homes; the peaceful mood prevailed so completely, that the Regierungsrath condescended to the most extensive admissions as regards politically emancipated nations. The Kreisgerichtsrath, however, stared anew at the Caudine Passes into which his opponent's logic seemed to have wandered. The Regierungsräthin was seized with a most unusual love of enterprise; she made the most various plans and projects, and first thought over an arrangement of the afternoon party, which should give the young people in the forest the utmost liberty possible for an undisturbed meeting. Eva herself was happy; her life was sunnily bright again. The lowering shadow had passed away without dimming it. The walk in the forest was undertaken in the happiest mood; the little party of seaside visitors had furnished itself with everything that was necessary. Knitting; packets of coffee and sugar, cakes of every kind, formed the provisions which the careful mothers carried with them, concerning themselves less about the sacred shadows and dwellings of sweet enchantment, than about the arrangements for the afternoon--coffee, which should be prepared at the hospitable hearth of the little forest house. The tall trees rustled, the birds sang, the flowers bloomed, but the respected ladies only heard the coffee-cups rattle in imagination. Blanden conversed a great deal with the Rath and Räthin, although he came more and more to the conclusion that the interest which he felt in Eva could not be extended to her parents without an effort. The Rath was a pedant who at heart had only a mind for figures and all worldly matters that could be reduced to calculations; the Räthin, too, was accustomed to look upon everything from its business side. In addition, neither was free from that envy which is often an hereditary evil in officials' families, from the envy of those fortunate persons' incomes which are not restricted to small official salaries: a few sallies upon the rich banker's wife, if she walked on in front at a sufficient distance, upon the ostentatious display of her wealth, upon the attempts at being literary which pervaded the whole house, convinced Blanden that the Kalzow family, despite the consciousness of their exalted position, yet in truth belonged to those unhappy persons who are excluded from all the higher enjoyments of life.