"As I said, Willy will be here in a week," she was saying. "He had not quite finished with his harvest work, but it will soon end, and then he will be ready for the betrothal. The affair has long been settled between us, but I decidedly advocated the delay, for a young girl of sixteen or seventeen years has all sorts of childish tricks still in her head, and cannot preside well over an orderly household. But Antonie is now twenty years old and Willy twenty-seven; this suits exactly. You are satisfied, are you not, brother, that we now arrange the betrothal of our children?"
"Quite satisfied," affirmed the Chief Forester; "and we are of the same opinion in all else concerning it. Half of my money will fall to my son after my death, the other half to my daughter, and you can also be at rest about the dower which I have set apart for the wedding."
"Yes, you have not been stingy about it. As to Willy, you know he has had possession of the Burgsdorf estates for three years. The money, according to the will, remains in my hands. After my death it will, of course, fall to him. The young couple will not be in need. Sufficient care has been taken for that; therefore all is decided."
"Yes, decided. We will celebrate the betrothal now and the wedding in the spring."
The thus far clear sky was darkened now by the first cloud. Frau von Eschenhagen shook her head and said dictatorially:
"That will not do, the wedding must occur in the winter, for Willy will not have time to marry in the spring."
"Nonsense! One always has time to marry," declared Schonan, just as dictatorially.
"Not in the country," persisted Frau Regine; "there the motto is, first work and then pleasure. It has always been so with us, and Willy has learned it, too."
"But I emphatically beg that he will make an exception in the case of his young wife, otherwise the deuce may take him!" cried the Chief angrily. "Besides, you know my conditions, Regine. My girl has not seen your son for two years; if he does not please her, she shall have a free choice."
He had attacked his sister-in-law in a most sensitive spot. She straightened herself to her fullest height in her offended motherly pride.
"My dear Moritz, I credit your daughter with some taste at least. Besides, I believe in the old custom of parents choosing for their children. It was so in our time and we have fared well with it. What do young people know of such important things? But you have always allowed your children their own way too much. One can see there is no mother in the house."
