a girl, and she could not forgive Magda for having a boy. Magda, who was at first mildly interested in the money question, traced the beginning of hostilities to the time when Emma appeared with a daring hat from Berlin. Magda remarked that Emma was now favoured by Diederich in the most shameful fashion. Emma had her own flat in Gausenfeld where she gave tea parties. The amount of her dress allowance was nothing less than an insult to her married sister. Magda had to witness the advantage which her marriage had conferred upon her being turned into the very opposite, and she accused Diederich of having meanly got rid of her just before his success had begun. If Emma could still not find a husband there appeared to be good reasons for it—which were even being whispered about in Netzig. Magda saw no reason why she should not say them out loud. Inge Tietz brought the story to Gausenfeld, but at the same time she brought with her a weapon against Magda, because she happened to meet the midwife at the Kienasts', and the first child was born hardly six months after they were married. A terrible commotion ensued, telephonic vituperation from one house to the other, threats of legal proceedings, for which material was collected by each lady's acquiring the other's servants.
In due course Diederich was once more in a position to say: "My house is my castle." The family quarrels were settled and the household flourished exceedingly. After Gretchen, who was born in 1894, and Horst in 1895, came Kraft in 1896, Like a model father, Diederich kept an account for every child, even before it was born, and the first thing he entered up was the cost of the midwife and the expenses of providing for each child. His view of married life was very strict. Horst came into the world with great difficulty. When it was all over Diederich informed his wife that, if it had been necessary to choose, he would simply have allowed her to die, "painful as that course would have been," he added. "But the race is
