The Kanzleiräthin deemed Eva's behaviour extremely unbecoming and would have given Herr von Blanden credit for better taste, or, at least, more discrimination, as a man of his years ought not to pay attention to so young a girl: her dear Minna was six or eight years older; the habit of making false statements about the year of her birth and baptismal certificate, had made her mother herself uncertain about it. Minna possessed that steadiness which is befitting a good housewife; her physical beauty also was perfectly capable of bearing comparison with that of slender Eva, as her figure was plump, and her eyes were not full of that unhealthy enthusiasm which Eva's too large pupils betrayed. And then, Minna owned a mother who rejoiced in an immaculate character; Eva, certainly, had two such relations, but the present one, a mother according to the country's laws, is disagreeable enough, and about the other it is best to be silent. Minna herself was too good-hearted to feel envy or jealousy; she was only mournful, and Salomon once found her in tears, sitting beneath the weeping willows. He did not so calmly bear the unworthy preference which Eva granted to an elderly gentleman, who surely already belonged to the Philistines, instead of bestowing her favours upon fresh, joyous youth. It is true, Eva had never been unfriendly towards him, but what was this friendliness to him? Young wealthy Salomon might count upon occupying the first place in the heart of a Regierungsrath's daughter. Herr von Blanden might also be rich, but was he as young and had he such a future before him as Salomon? "It is incredible, mamma!" said he to his sympathising mother, "they are walking together again, talking confidentially. That Blanden, who is more than thirty years old, and has passed through many a storm, and what has he done in the world? Certainly, he has a cut upon his right cheek, a proof that he has studied; but apart from that cut he has gained hardly any merit, and can he actually be termed handsome, mamma?" "He is a fine-looking man, though," said the banker's wife.