“Herr Crippel, how can you say that?” said Lotta.
“Is it not true, my dear?”
“In fourteen days! No, certainly not. It is out of the question.”
But, nevertheless, what Herr Crippel said came true, and on the next Sunday but one he took Lotta Schmidt home to his house as his wife.
“It was all because of the zither,” Lotta said to her old mother-in-law. “If he had not played the zither that night I should not have been here now.”