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Updated: May 21, 2025
"I have been out for a short walk," said Bertha. "Alone?" "Oh, no; with my boy." "Yes yes of course, there he is! Good evening, my little mortal!" he gazed away over Fritz's head as he said this "may I sit down for a moment beside you, Frau Bertha?" He pronounced her name with an ironic inflection and, without waiting for her to reply, he sat down on the bench.
Indeed, Marie's mother still listens with respectful approval at Kaffeeklatsch to Fritz's mother when she boasts of what her son is doing as a major over Turkish troops. German women have many estimable qualities, but a proper amount of independence and pride is noticeably foreign to their natures.
We perceive the first small cracks of incurable division in the royal household, traceable from Fritz's sixth or seventh year; a divulsion splitting ever wider, new offences super-adding themselves. This Fritz ought to fashion himself according to his father's pattern, and he does not.
I dare say I did wrong indeed, judging by later events, I know I did wrong. But I could not view the affair seriously enough to hold out against Mr. Engelman in the matter of the nosegay. He started when I mentioned the widow's name. "Not the mother of the girl whom Fritz wants to marry?" he exclaimed. "Yes, the same. Don't you admire Fritz's taste? Isn't Miss Minna a charming girl?"
After our Prussian Fritz's birth, the matter took a still closer form: "You, dear Princess Caroline, you have now two little Princesses again, either of whom might suit my little Fritzchen; let us take Amelia, the second of them, who is nearest his age?" "Agreed!" answered Princess Caroline again. Queen Sophie Dorothee of Prussia was always eager enough for treaty, and conclusion to her scheme.
But he would certainly ask, under what influence she was acting, in terms which would place the alternative between a downright falsehood, or a truthful answer. Minna was truth itself; in her youngest days, she had been one of those rare children who never take their easy refuge in a lie. What influence would be most likely to persuade her to deceive Fritz's father?
"I'll risk anything." "Most gallant gentleman! At the worst they'll only keep you a prisoner. Well, if you're not back in a couple of hours, I shall draw my conclusions. I shall know that there's a king in Strelsau." "But where shall I look for the king?" "Why, first in the palace, and secondly at Fritz von Tarlenheim's. I expect you'll find him at Fritz's, though."
"That is exactly where I feel a difficulty," Madame Fontaine replied. "To my mind, sir, Mr. David is not at all a desirable companion for your son. The admirable candor and simplicity of Fritz's disposition might suffer by association with a person of Mr. David's very peculiar character." "May I ask, Madame Fontaine, in what you think his character peculiar?"
The boy had pride, though his father had done his best to kill it. Once, after striking blows at Fritz's head before the assembled court, the King cried, "Had I been so treated by my father, I would have blown my brains out. But this fellow has no honor. He takes all that comes." Fritz could stand such treatment no longer.
To be sure they had used German wall paper, and atrociously ugly stuff it was, too. But it pleased their taste, no doubt. Mightily amazed some of Fritz's officers must have been, back in April, as they sat and took their ease in these luxurious quarters, to have Jock come tumbling in upon them, a grenade in each hand!
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