But the affair
must be brought to a conclusion, he thought; he wanted to know where he
stood, once and for all; he was tired of hanging between door and hinge.
He'd tell Elsie that she must speak with her parents; by autumn the
banns must be published, or he'd leave at Christmas; he wouldn't be made
a fool of any longer.
CHAPTER XXI
HOW A TRIP TO A WATERING-PLACE SAILS THROUGH A CALCULATION
[Elsie and her mother go to spend a week at the Gurnigel, a fashionable
resort, leaving a heavenly peace behind them. Elsie attracts
extraordinary attention with her clothes, and is too stupid to
understand that she is being ridiculed to her face. At the same time her
hundred thousand francs dowry are not to be sneezed at, and these lure a
bird of prey in the shape of a cotton-dealer, who takes mother and
daughter off for a drive, and, making good use of his opportunity,
carries his point by storm. Elsie is in the seventh heaven, her mother
not quite so overjoyed.]
CHAPTER XXII
OF INWARD CONFLICTS, WHICH ARE TO BE ENDED BY AN ENGAGEMENT
[Joggeli will not hear to the affair, fearing to lose Uli. Freneli
chides Elsie for breaking her promise to Uli, and the latter is at first
completely stunned, overwhelmed with chagrin, rage, and disappointment.
He is only saved from some act of rash folly by Freneli, who counsels
him to put the mockers off the track by pretending utter indifference.
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