And she did find it possible; for the girl's rare beauty and grace speedily won the heart of the anxious woman who had really come to separate the lovers.

True, they were required to wait a few years to test the sincerity of their affection.

But it withstood the proof, and the young man, who had been sent to Bordeaux to acquire in a commercial house the ability to manage his father's banking business, did not hesitate an instant when his beautiful fiancee caught the smallpox and wrote that her smooth face would probably be disfigured by the malignant disease, but answered that what he loved was not only her beauty but the purity and goodness of her tender heart.
This had been a severe test, and it was to be rewarded: not the smallest scar remained to recall the illness.

When my father at last made my mother his wife, the burgomaster of her native city told him that he gave to his keeping the pearl of Rotterdam.

Post-horses took the young couple in the most magnificent weather to the distant Prussian capital.
It must have been a delightful journey, but when the horses were changed in Potsdam the bride and groom received news that the latter's father was dead.
So my parents entered a house of mourning.