en set the
table._]

WEILER.

My! Like a squirrel!

SOPHY.

Weiler means to pay you a compliment, Mary. He has a peculiar manner.

WEILER.

That is true. It does not matter whether the flattery is coarse or fine.
If a woman only notices that one means to flatter her, she is satisfied.
It is just as when boys stroke a kitten. Whether they pet it gently or
roughly, whether it likes it or not, it cannot help purring.

MARY.

And I presume you mean to pet me with this comparison.

WEILER.

If you feel obliged to purr it must have been a petting.

MARY (looking out of the window).

He is coming, mother.

SOPHY.

Who? Robert?

WEILER.

I had better be off to my wood-cutters. Otherwise the old man will make
a row.

[Exit.]

SOPHY (calling after him).

If you cannot come in I will save your portion. An uncomfortable fellow!
And it is not likely that he will acquire polite manners at this late
day. That is a relic of his better days. And for that reason your father
is indulgent with him because they were old comrades. Godfrey also was
one of them. When he had wasted his property in drink he fell in with
Stein.

[_Surveying the table_.]

Here at the head the father of the bridegroom; next to him your father;
then the good droll pastor. If it had not been for him, Robert would
have gone long ago.

MARY.

Mother, at that time Robert was so wild, so impetuous--

SOPHY.

You are right. At that time the pastor and we could scarcely
keep him. [_Counts once more the afore-mentioned persons_.] Then here
Mr. Moeller; and there your godfather, my cousin Mr. Wilkens; then I
myself here; there Robert and you; finally, at the foot, Andrew and
William. How the time passes! If I think back to my engagement day! Then
I was not as happy as I am today.

MARY.

Mother, I wonder whether every girl that is to become a bride feels as I
do? SOPHY. Not every one has such good cause to be glad as you have.

MARY.

But is it gladness that I feel? I am so depressed, mother, so--

SOPHY.

Of course. You are like the flower on which clings a dewdrop. It hangs
its head, and yet the dew is no burden.

MARY.

I feel as if it were wrong of me to leave my father, even if it is to go
with Robert.

SOPHY.

The Bible says, "A woman shall leave father and mother and cleave to her
husband."--But my case was quite different from yours. Your father was a
stately man, no longer quite young, but tall and straight like