But he had a very considerable respect for Herr
Doktor Meyers--a rank plebeian but the best doctor in Berlin--and when
that family adviser, as autocratic as himself, ordered the Frau Graefin
to go to a sanatorium in the Austrian Dolomites--but alone, mind
you!--and remain as long as he--I, myself, Herr Graf!--deemed advisable,
with no intercourse, personal or chirographical with her family, the
Head of the House of Niebuhr angrily gave his consent and sent for a
sister to chaperon his girls.
The countess remained until the eve of Mariette's wedding, and she
passed those six months in one of the superlatively beautiful mountain
resorts of Austria. She was solitary, for the most part, and she did an
excessive amount of thinking. She returned to her duties with a deep
disgust of life as she knew it, a cynical contempt for women, and a
profound sense of revolt. Her natural diplomacy she had increased
tenfold.
When the three girls, their eyes very large, and speaking in whispers,
although their father was at a yearly talk-fest with his old brothers in
arms, confided to their mother their resolution never in any
circumstances to adopt a household tyrant of their own, she nodded
understandingly.
"Leave it to me," she said. "Your father can be managed, little as he
suspects it.
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