Innstetten, who had taken only a short vacation, departed the
following morning, after promising to write every day. "Yes, you must
do that," Effi had said, and these words came from her heart. She had
for years known nothing more delightful than, for example, to receive
a large number of birthday letters. Everybody had to write her a
letter for that day. Such expressions as "Gertrude and Clara join me
in sending you heartiest congratulations," were tabooed. Gertrude and
Clara, if they wished to be considered friends, had to see to it that
they sent individual letters with separate postage stamps, and, if
possible, foreign ones, from Switzerland or Carlsbad, for her birthday
came in the traveling season.
Innstetten actually wrote every day, as he had promised. The thing
that made the receipt of his letters particularly pleasurable was the
circumstance that he expected in return only one very short letter
every week. This he received regularly and it was always full of
charming trifles, which never failed to delight him. Mrs. von Briest
undertook to carry on the correspondence with her future son-in-law
whenever there was any serious matter to be discussed, as, for
example, the settling of the details of the wedding, and questions of
the dowry and the furnishing of the new home. Innstetten was now
nearly three years in office, and his house in Kessin, while not
splendidly furnished, was nevertheless very well suited to his
station, and it seemed advisable to gain from correspondence with him
some idea of what he already had, in order not to buy anything
superfluous.
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