) "And how have I obtained all this? Chiefly by knowing how to choose my aquaintances.

It goes without saying that one must be conscientious and methodical.

" Berg smiled with a sense of his superiority over a weak woman, and paused, reflecting that this dear wife of his was after all but a weak woman who could not understand all that constitutes a man's dignity, what it was ein Mann zu sein.

* Vera at the same time smiling with a sense of superiority over her good, conscientious husband, who all the same understood life wrongly, as according to Vera all men did.

Berg, judging by his wife, thought all women weak and foolish.