We are indisputably a
historic family--let me add: 'Thank God'--and the Innstettens are not.
The Innstettens are merely old, belong to the oldest nobility, if you
like; but what does oldest nobility mean? I will not permit that a von
Briest, or even a figure in the wedding-eve performance, whom
everybody must recognize as the counterpart of our Effi--I will not
permit, I say, that a Briest either in person or through a
representative speak incessantly of 'High Lord.' Certainly not, unless
Innstetten were at least a disguised Hohenzollern; there are some, you
know. But he is not one and hence I can only repeat that it distorts
the whole situation."
For a long time von Briest really held fast to this view with
remarkable tenacity. But after the second rehearsal, at which Kaethchen
was half in costume, wearing a tight-fitting velvet bodice, he was so
carried away as to remark: "Kaethchen lies there beautifully," which
turn was pretty much the equivalent of a surrender, or at least
prepared the way for one. That all these things were kept secret from
Effi goes without saying. With more curiosity on her part, however, it
would have been wholly impossible. But she had so little desire to
find out about the preparations made and the surprises planned that
she declared to her mother with all emphasis: "I can wait and see,"
and, when Mrs. von Briest still doubted her, Effi closed the
conversation with repeated assurances that it was really true and her
mother might just as well believe it.
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