e already made my choice.
The man who is going to lead me to the altar is called Daniel Nothafft.
He loves me perhaps even more than I deserve, and I will make him a good
wife. This is my unalterable decision, and you yourself will certainly
come to see that it is nobler to obey the impulses of one's own heart
than to allow one's self to be led on and blinded by material
considerations. Your loving daughter, Dorothea."

Andreas Doederlein had a sinking spell. The letter slipped from his
fingers and fell to the floor. Trembling in his whole body, he walked up
to the covered table, took a glass and hurled it against the wall. The
glass broke into a thousand pieces. "I will choke you, you impious
toad!" he panted, shook his clenched fist, went to Dorothea's room, and,
seized with boundless wrath, upset the chairs and the little dressing
table.

The maid, terrified, ran into the living room. She saw Dorothea's letter
lying on the floor, picked it up, and read it. When she heard her mad
master returning, she ran down stairs to the ground floor, rang Herr
Carovius's bell, and showed him the letter. His face turned yellow as he
read it. The maid uttered a shrill, piercing cry, snatched the letter
from Herr Carovius's hands, and ran out into the court, for she heard
Andreas Doederlein stumbling down the steps. He wanted to call the police
and have them lock up the abductor of his daughter. Catching sight of
Herr Carovius in the hall, he stopped and fixed his eyes on him. In them
there was a sea of anger; and yet it was obvious that Andreas Doederlein
was eager to ask a question or two. It seemed indeed that just one
conciliatory statement, even a single gesture on the part of the man
whom he had scrupulously avoided for years, would make bye-gones be
bye-gones and convert two implacable foes into friends, colleagues
indeed in the business of revenge and punishment.

But Herr Carovius was done with the world. His face was distorted;
grimaces of unrelieved meanness furrowed his brow; his contempt knew no
bounds. He turned about and slammed the door leading into his apartment
with a bang that showed his intention of shutting himself up in his own
stronghold.

Andreas Doederlein got as far as the entrance to the Town Hall. There he
was suddenly seized with grave doubts. He stared at the pavement for a
while, sad and sinister, and then started back home. His steps were not
half so impetuous as they had been on the way over; they