early proved to her that she would be
neither happy on earth nor blessed in heaven unless she renounced her
sinful love for a Lutheran, and especially for one who had once been an
actor.

To Elfinger's most eloquent attempts at dissuasion, the poor child had
only replied by tears and shakes of the head, and had answered the long
letters which her lover sent to her almost daily, by nicely-written
little notes, not altogether free from orthographical blunders, in
which she besought him in the most touching terms not to make her heart
still heavier, but rather to move to some other lodgings and never to
meet her again.

This correspondence had, of course, merely poured oil upon the fire, on
this as well as on the other side of the street. Nevertheless it really
did seem, after all, as though their love was not destined to overcome
the evil powers; and in his grief at this Elfinger began more and more
to lose his taste for the joys of Paradise, generally spending his
evenings at home, brooding over plans for the overthrow of the
priesthood--which resulted in his toiling through all the pamphlets
against the Vatican Council, and in his composing for some of the
smaller newspapers violent articles favoring the abolition of convents.

But, while his fate was trembling in the balance, his next-door
neighbor was still worse off; and, sad to relate, solely because of the
incredible worldly-mindedness of his sweetheart. Through his trusty
ally, the servant-girl, he learned that the only son of a rich brewer,
from one of the smaller cities of the region, was paying his attentions
to her; and the pretty little witch appeared to have refrained from
doing any of those things by which even the most obedient daughter may
show her aversion to a hated suitor. Rosenbusch, whose soul still clung
fondly to his romantic elopement project, refused, at first, to believe
in such villainous treachery. But when his letters remained unanswered,
the last one indeed being returned unopened by the post, he fell into a
terrible passion, spent whole nights in composing the most insulting
poems against brewers' sons and Philistines' daughters, and gave
himself up more and more to the most extravagant melancholy,
misanthropy, and dislike for work. He began to neglect his person too
in the most terrible way, wore, as his daily clothing, that ample
dress-coat of Edward Rossel's, which the latter had formally made over
to him after the wedding evening; an