The cotton-dealer loses no time in coming in state to secure his prize;
Joggeli is quite overcome by his smooth tongue, but requests a fortnight
for deliberation with his son and others.]
CHAPTER XXIII
OF SUBSEQUENT EMBARRASSMENTS WHICH RESULT FROM THE ENGAGEMENT
[Uli's behavior staggers the gossips, but his assumed indifference soon
becomes genuine; none the less, he is resolved to give up his place at
Christmas. Johannes and Trinette are both beside themselves; the reports
about the prospective son-in-law are conflicting and doubtful. But Elsie
is so wild, and the cotton-dealer so persuasive, that the parents
finally give reluctant consent to the marriage. Elsie constantly accuses
Freneli of flirting with her husband, who is not insensible to Freneli's
beauty and charm; she resolves to leave Slough Farm also, since Elsie is
no longer to be controlled and Freneli is subjected to her unbridled
temper. The old mistress is in utter consternation at the imminent loss
of her two best helpers, Uli and Freneli; and new sorrow comes to her
through the son-in-law, who guts the house of its stores on pretense of
putting the money out at interest, and keeps a hawk's eye on all her
housekeeping.]
CHAPTER XXIV
OF ANOTHER TRIP, WHICH DOES NOT DESTROY A CALCULATION, BUT UNEXPECTEDLY
CONCLUDES ONE
ALL this weighed on the good mother's mind, and when she reflected that
Uli and Freneli would both leave besides, that her son-in-law would then
get the reins wholly into his hands, that she would have to run the
house on nothing, be stingy to the poor, and be held accountable for
every cup of flour and for every cake she baked, such a feeling of
misery came over her that she had to sit down and cry, shedding tears
enough to wash her hands in, until even Joggeli came out and told her
not to cry so--that everybody would hear her and would wonder what was
the matter.
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