upon him. Sometimes I ran down to meet him, and would ask, "Have you
nothing for me?" "No, Mr. Joseph," he would reply as he looked over
his letters. Then I would go sadly back, and Father Goulden, who had
been looking on, would say:

"Have a little patience, child! have patience, it will come. It is not
war time now."

"But he has had time to answer a dozen times, Mr. Goulden."

"Do you think he has nobody's affairs to attend to but yours? He
receives hundreds of such letters every day--and each one receives his
answer in his turn. And then everything is in confusion from top to
bottom. Come, come! we are not alone in the world--many other brave
fellows are waiting for their permits to be married."

I knew he was right, but I said to myself, "If that minister only knew
how happy he would make us by just writing ten words, I am sure he
would do it at once. How we would bless him, Catherine and I, Aunt
Gredel and all of us." But wait we must.

Of course I had resumed my old habit of going to Quatre Vents on
Sundays. On these mornings I was always awake early--I do not know
what roused me. At first I thought I was a soldier again; this made me
shiver. Then I would open my eyes, look at the ceiling, and think,
"Why you are at home with Father Goulden, at Pfalzbourg, in your own
little room. To-day is Sunday, and you are going to see Catherine."
By this time I was wide awake, and could see Catherine with her
blooming cheeks and blue eyes. I wanted to get up at once and dress
myself and set off. But the clocks had just struck four, and the city
gates were still shut. I was obliged to wait, and this annoyed me very
much. In order to keep patience I began to recall our courtship,
remembering the first days, how we feared the conscription and the
drawing of the unlucky number, with its "fit for service;" the old
guard Werner, at the mayor's, the leave-taking, the journey to Mayence,
and the broad Capougnerstrasse where the good woman gave me a
foot-bath, Frankfort and Erfurth farther on, where I received my first
letter, two days before the battle, the Russians, the
Prussians--everything in fact--and then I would weep, but the thought
of Catherine was always uppermost.

When the clock struck five I jumped from my bed, washed and shaved and
dressed myself, then Father Goulden, still behind his big curtains,
would put out his nose and say:

"I hear you! I hear you! You have been rolling and tumbling fo