sk.

She spoke kindly and heartily: she said she had not ridiculed me--Oh, I
don't remember the rest--she gave me her hand, and----

I cannot write it; you shall hear all about it sometime, and, even if I
don't describe it, you know just the same: I, Emil Knopf, girls' tutor
through so many generations, am engaged to an angel. That is a
hackneyed phrase. Who knows whether angels could stand the teachers'
examination?

I say with Herr Weidmann: I should just like to know how men can manage
not to believe in God. Could only human understanding devise such a
story as this? I had not the slightest idea where she came from, or who
she was; and now she is put aboard the same ship for me, or you may
say, I am put on board, and now the war breaks out, and she has an
uncle in America--It is a fine thing that there is an uncle in America.
I think I have met my father-in-law. And do you know what is the best
thing?

To have a beloved one to live through a storm.

In the midst of the storm, and it was no ordinary one, I thought, How
would it have been, if you had been obliged to sink into the sea alone,
and had never known what it is to kiss a maiden's lips, and how it
feels to have a soft hand stroke your face, and even to be told, "You
are handsome,"--just think of it! I, Emil Knopf, famous as the least
dangerous of men, I am handsome! Oh, how blind were all mothers and
daughters in the blessed land of Uniformingen! Rosalie has a little
mirror, and when I look into it, I am really handsome--I am pleased
with myself. But do not think I have gone mad; I am in full possession
of my mental powers. Herr Major, I pledge myself to explain to you the
law of the centre of gravity and of the line of gravitation. I retain
my understanding intact.

One thing, however, is hard for me. I find that I am no poet. If I
were, I should now, of necessity, compose such poems that the whole
world would hear of nothing else. The sailors could not refrain from
singing them, nor the soldiers, coming away from the parade ground, nor
the white-handed young lady at the piano, nor the journeyman by the
roadside, when he takes off his oil-cloth hat and lays his head on his
pack. Oh, I feel as if I must have something which should appease the
hunger of the whole world, crying to all men, "Do you not see how
beautiful the world is?"

But now I beg for a wedding gift. You and Fraeulein Milch must have your
photographs taken, for my sake. Oh, excuse my w