very uncertain whether the gentleman will
meet with a rich party in Breslau, although he has got ennobled. But
further, such city ladies as these have so little knowledge of country
housekeeping that they do not even know a cow or an ox, nor what cheese
or curds are. But the gentleman's household requires a mistress who has
been brought up to it from her youth; such a marriage also is the only
means of forming his children in time into country nobles.' With this
view he proposed a lady of the neighbourhood, and offered himself to be
the wooer. 'She is pretty, a good housekeeper, has some fortune, and is
of old family; it will be impossible for the gentleman to find all that
together in the city.' When I asked him what was the extent of her
means, he boasted that it was 2000 thalers. I certainly doubted this,
even then, as it was so large a marriage dower for the country, that
any baron would have snapped at it; yet I let myself be persuaded at
last, as the lady was not ill-educated, and my new nobility had driven
all sound sense out of my brain. I soon found that the above pretended
2000 thalers sank to 400; even these were pending in a doubtful
lawsuit, which would scarcely leave as much as would amount to the
costs incurred, or as would pay for nuptials suitable to my position.
Nevertheless, in the beginning I loved her on account of her good
looks, and everything was knocked out of my head. As she had brought
with her, however, no jewels, clothes, or other female ornaments, I
inquired once of my lady mother-in-law where the chains, rings, and two
taffeta dresses were, in which I had found my love dressed when I wooed
her. But she answered me with a jeering smile, that if I had got her
only in her shift I ought to be content, and feel thankful that such a
noble family had demeaned itself so far as to give me their child, and
they would still have trouble enough to wipe off this disgrace among
their friends, who would decidedly not have consented to this marriage.
But as concerned the dresses and ornaments, I must know that they had
other daughters to think of and provide for. It was, besides, the
custom in the country to procure a dress and ornaments which might do
for two or three daughters; when one of them was smartly attired, it
was the duty of the others to attend to the housekeeping, or if guests
arrived, to feign illness, and content themselves with bed, till it was
their turn. Therefore I must be satisfied, and