A strange coincidence

[igenlode]

From a 19th-century German novel:
Saint Michael by E.Werner

"Our coy little betrothed repents her treatment of poor Raoul yesterday, eh? Let it be a warning to you, Hertha. No man can endure such treatment, even at the hands of the woman he loves the best."

"Least of all, perhaps, at her hands. But do you imagine that Raoul really loves me?"

The general was startled by the tone of bitterness in which she spoke. "Has he not wooed and won you?"

"According to a family arrangement, in compliance with your express desire. I know the value of this love 'to order.'"

"Surely this is nothing new to you," said Steinrück, gravely. "You knew it all from the first. You both yielded to considerations deemed very important by those of our rank. There is no great amount of romance about such unions; but, so far as I know, you have never missed it."

What are the chances of encountering that precise relationship between a fictional 'Hertha' and a fictional 'Raoul'? ;-p

Comments

[betweensunandmoon]

Wow!

[igenlode]

Pretty unusual, given that the conjunction of the two names is always going to imply a culture clash -- in this case, Raoul is the outsider and the foreigner, being half-French in the North German military aristocracy, and regarded as therefore frivolously lightweight in comparison to the gloomy protagonist Michael, and, when what we can deduce to be the war of 1870 breaks out, being seen as having dangerously divided loyalties. Hertha, on the other hand, bears no relation to any of my characters, being a spoilt beauty who expects to have the adoration of any man she wants... oh, but she is an heiress, the only daughter of a Catholic South German Count.