Toni resisted all requests for a second invitation to her sanctum. She
first insisted on the solemn assurance that the gentlemen would
respect her presence and bring neither herself nor her house into
ill-repute. At last came the imperial county-counsellor himself--a
wealthy bachelor of fifty with the manners of an injured lady killer.
He came to beg for himself and the others and she dared not refuse
any longer.

The champagne festivals continued. With this difference: that Toni,
whenever the atmosphere reached a certain point of heated
intoxication, modestly withdrew to her bed-room. Thus she succeeded not
only in holding herself spotless but in being praised for her
retiring nature.

But she kindled a fire in the heads of these dissatisfied University
men who deemed themselves banished into a land of starvation, and in
the senses of the planters' sons. And this fire burned on and created
about her an atmosphere of madly fevered desire....

Finally it became the highest mark of distinction in the little town,
the sign of real connoisseurship in life, to have drunk a bottle of
champagne with "Germania," as they called her, although she bore
greater resemblance to some swarthier lady of Rome. Whoever was not
admitted to her circle cursed his lowliness and his futile life.

Of course, in spite of all precautions, it could not but be that her
reputation suffered. The daughter of the county-physician began to
avoid her, the wives of social equals followed suit. But no one dared
accuse her of improper relations with any of her adorers. It was even
known that the county-counsellor, desperate over her stern refusals,