Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane & Mike Mitchell

Author:Theodor Fontane & Mike Mitchell [Fontane, Theodor & Mitchell, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Classics, Literary, World Literature, European, German, Literary Fiction
ISBN: 0199675643
Amazon: B00WBN4XVQ
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2015-04-08T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Effi was dissatisfied with herself, and was glad that it had been decided the rides together should be discontinued for the whole of the winter. When she thought over the things that had been said, touched on, hinted at during all those weeks and days, she could find nothing for which she should actually reproach herself. Crampas was a clever man, experienced, amusing, free, free in a good sense as well, and it would have been petty and tedious if she had been stiff towards him and stuck strictly to the rules of propriety all the time. No, she couldn’t blame herself for having fallen in with his tone, and yet she had a faint sense of having overcome a danger and congratulated herself that all of that was now presumably behind her. For it was unthinkable that they would see each other fairly frequently at home, the nature of the Crampas household made that as good as impossible, and meetings in the houses of the neighbouring noble families that were, of course, planned for the winter would be very rare and cursory. Effi worked all this out with growing satisfaction, eventually coming to the conclusion that giving up what she got out of her association with the Major would not be too great a loss. In addition to that, Innstetten told her his trips to Varzin would not take place that year, since the Prince was going to Friedrichsruh,* that he seemed to prefer more and more. From the one point of view, Innstetten said, he regretted that, from the other he was happy about it—he could now devote himself entirely to his family, and if she was agreeable, they could go through their Italian journey again with the notes he had made. To recapitulate it like that was the most important thing about a journey, only in that way could one assimilate it for good, only such later studies could make one fully and permanently aware of even things that one had only seen briefly, that one hardly realized had made any impression on one. He explained this in greater detail, adding that Gieshübler, who knew the ‘Italian boot’ right down to Palermo, had asked to be allowed to join them. Effi’s response—she would have far, far preferred a perfectly ordinary evening’s chat without the ‘Italian boot’ (even photographs were to be handed round)—was rather forced, but Innstetten, full of his plans, noticed nothing of that and went on, ‘Of course there won’t just be Gieshübler with us, Roswitha and Annie must be there too, and when I imagine that we’re going up the Canal Grande and can hear the gondolieri singing in the distance, while not ten feet away Roswitha is bending over Annie and singing “Buhküken von Halberstadt”* or something like that, they’ll be such lovely winter evenings, and you’ll be sitting there knitting me a big winter nightcap. What do you say to that, Effi?’

These evenings were not merely planned, they actually started and

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