aying, that it was
certainly permitted to love the dead, but that nothing more could be
done to benefit them, whereas a great deal might be done for the
living; and that she ought, at last, to yield about the affair of Adam
and Martina, I depicted to her the delight she would take in her
grandson; I tried to persuade her, that in reality she had sent for me
on this very account, but felt a certain reluctance to own this
honestly to me, but--I do believe a wolf must be lurking very near
there--the Roettmaennin broke out into a loud howl, that she could only
have learned from a wolf; it really made me shudder with horror, and I
thought to myself, she will die on the spot, for sure am I that her
rage will choke her; she clutched the wall in her fury, and scratched
it with her nails, and at last sank back; however she very soon started
up again, and exclaimed: 'I thank God that I am still alive, and I
trust He will spare my life for many a year to come, that, even if I
cannot leave my bed, I may still have strength to cry out and to
protest, and with my last breath I will cry out and protest, that
never, never shall that miserable beggar's daughter, who herself led my
Adam astray, become the mistress of this house. Why, in these days, are
there no longer men to be found, to send out of the world such a
wretched creature, and her child into the bargain? Pretty clergymen we
have now! all lazy, good-for-nothing black coats; they have no longer
the fear of God before their eyes, for here is a Pastor who actually
recommends a reward for sin and wickedness. Martina ought rather to
stand at the church door, with a wreath of straw on her head, to do
public penance. But here she shall never come; no! not if a thousand
such--such hypocritical parsons were to pretend they had a message from
Heaven; and if they were to wring my neck for it, my last cry would be,
she shan't come here--she shan't come here: I will not suffer it, and
this very day I will take care to settle that point.'

"The father and son having been startled out of their sleep by the
savage scream of the Roettmaennin, now hurried into the room, and the old
man spoke to me just as if I had intruded myself of my own accord into
his house, and begged me distinctly to understand that he would not
allow his wife to be tormented, let Schilder-David send whom he would.
Adam stood with clasped hands and looked beseechingly at me. I had no
idea that the young man could look so