never _would_
sit still, let my father be as angry as he liked.

"'But all my indoor life, and fretting and grieving did nothing for me;
I grew handsomer day by day, and since I had become indifferent to what
I wore, I seemed to be more admired than ever, most people having
probably thought before with Hans Lutz that I was an over-dressed doll.
But no letter came from the one I loved best, and no news of any kind;
and so from three to four years passed by, and I found that life is a
most wretched pastime when one has not got one's heart's desire.

"'Then, besides, there were constant disputes at home, for every fresh
offer of marriage was a new bone of contention. There were many of
these suitors--though, indeed, none of them were Counts--to whom my
father would most willingly have given me; there was a rich Russian,
who swore he would jump into the Rhine if he did not get me, but
afterwards preferred to drown himself in Champagne, and went about
Wiesbaden with ladies of all kinds. Then there was a young baron, who
was master of the horse to some prince, and was wild about horses as
well as about me, and there were numbers of worthy well-to-do people
who were all intolerable to me because I secretly compared them with my
Hans Lutz. My sister Lina was long ago married and happy, and I still
sat useless at home, and as my father was not the best of managers, and
my mother was sickly, we were often straitened enough, and while one
rich suitor after another went away rejected, want began to stare us in
the face. Now nothing sours the temper so much as not having enough to
eat, and what with unkind words and spiteful remarks, you may believe I
spent wretched days, and cried my eyes red at night.

"'At last my father lost all patience, and when another suitor appeared
who seemed to him worthy to carry away the jewel of beauty, since he
was able to bid high for it, he declared to me either I must consent,
or he would make me feel the whole weight of his anger. What he exactly
meant by that I really did not know, but I was glad of a change myself,
for I could no longer endure my father's anger and my mother's grief.
So I said that I would give my hand to Mr. So-and-so, provided no
message came from Hans Lutz in the course of the next three months.
This contented my parents, and made the bridegroom more than blessed;
he was actually idiotic with rapture, said the craziest things to me,
and in spite of my misery, it made me ag