human
I wish it were otherwise, sighed Wolff.
gpt
You do not know how hard these times are, Els! Nor how many thoughts beset my brain, since my father has placed me in charge of all his new enterprises.
human
Always something new, replied Els, with a shade of reproach in her tone.
gpt
What an omnivorous appetite this Eysvogel business possesses! Ullmann Nutzel said lately: 'Wherever one wants to buy, the bird-- [vogel]--has been ahead and snapped up everything in Venice and Milan. And the young one is even sharper at a bargain,' he added.
human
Because I want to make a warm nest for you, dearest,
gpt
As if we were shopkeepers anxious to secure customers! said the girl, laughing.
human
I think the old Eysvogel house must have enough big stoves to warm its son and his wife. At the Tuckers the business supports seven, with their wives and children. What more do we want? I believe that we love each other sincerely, and though I understand life better than Eva, to whom poverty and happiness are synonymous, I don't need, like the women of your family, gold plates for my breakfast porridge or a bed of Levantine damask for my lapdog. And the dowry my father will give me would supply the daughters of ten knights.
gpt
I know it, sweetheart, interrupted Wolff dejectedly;
human
Then be so! she exclaimed cheerily.
gpt
What you would call 'the smallest,' others term wealth. You want more than competence, and I--the saints know-would be perfectly content with 'good.' Many a man has been shipwrecked on the cliffs of 'better' and 'best.'
human
I am coming in now.
gpt
And the business? she asked mischievously.
human
Let it go as it will, he answered eagerly, waving his hand. But the next instant he dropped it again, saying thoughtfully:
gpt
No, no; it won't do, there is too much at stake.
human
Is the matter really so serious? Won't the monster grant you even a good-night kiss?
gpt
No, he answered firmly.
human
Your menservants have gone, and before the maid could open----There is the moon rising above the linden already. It won't do. But I'll see you to-morrow and, please God, with a lighter heart. We may have good news this very day.
gpt
Of the wares from Venice and Milan?
human
Yes, sweetheart. Two waggon trains will meet at Verona. The first messenger came from Ingolstadt, the second from Munich, and the one from Landshut has been here since day before yesterday. Another should have arrived this morning, but the intense heat yesterday, or some cause--at any rate there is reason for anxiety. You don't know what is at stake.
gpt
But peace was proclaimed yesterday, said Els,
human
The strongest, answered Wolff.
gpt
The first wain could not arrive before to-morrow morning.
human
You see! cried the girl gaily.
gpt
Just wait patiently. When you are once mine I'll teach you not to look on the dark side. O Wolff, why is everything made so much harder for us than for others? Now this evening, it would have been so pleasant to go to the ball with you.
human
Yet, how often, dearest, I have urged you in vain---- he began, but she hastily interrupted
gpt
Yes, it was certainly no fault of yours, but one of us must remain with my mother, and Eva----
human
Yesterday she complained to me with tears in her eyes that she would be forced to go to this dance, which she detested.
gpt
That is the very reason she ought to go, explained Els.
human
She is eighteen years old, and has never yet been induced to enter into any of the pleasures other girls enjoy. When she isn't in the convent she is always at home, or with Aunt Kunigunde or one of the nuns in the woods and fields. If she wants to take the veil later, who can prevent it, but the abbess herself advises that she should have at least a glimpse of the world before leaving it. Few need it more, it seems to me, than our Eva.
gpt
Certainly, Wolff assented.
human
Such a lovely creature! I know no girl more beautiful in all Nuremberg.
gpt
Oh! you----,
human
You just told me that you preferred 'good' to 'better,' and so doubtless 'fair' to 'fairer,' and you are beautiful, Els, in person and in soul. As for Eva, I admire, in pictures of madonnas and angels, those wonderful saintly eyes with their uplifted gaze and marvellously long lashes, the slight droop of the little head, and all the other charms; yet I gladly dispense with them in my heart's darling and future wife. But you, Els-- if our Lord would permit me to fashion out of divine clay a life companion after my own heart, do you know how she would look?
gpt
Like me--exactly like Els Ortlieb, of course,
human
A correct guess, with all due modesty, Wolff answered gaily.
gpt
But take care that she does not surpass your wishes. For you know, if the little saint should meet at the dance some handsome fellow whom she likes better than the garb of a nun, and becomes a good Nuremberg wife, the excess of angelic virtue will vanish; and if I had a brother--in serious earnest-- I would send him to your Eva.
human
And, cried Els,