“Not financially, or I shouldn’t have suggested the match. But she’s getting on, you know, and has no pretensions to brains or looks or anything of that sort.”

“You seem to forget that she’s my daughter.”

“That shows my generosity. But, seriously, I don’t see what there is against Wratislav. He has no debts⁠—at least, nothing worth speaking about.”

“But think of his reputation! If half the things they say about him are true⁠—”

“Probably three-quarters of them are. But what of it? You don’t want an archangel for a son-in-law.”

“I don’t want Wratislav. My poor Elsa would be miserable with him.”

“A little misery wouldn’t matter very much with her; it would go so well with the way she does her hair, and if she couldn’t get on with Wratislav she could always go and do good among the poor.”