Martella might well feel anxious, for she was a living proof that our family was incomplete; she, too, had been obliged to accustom herself to constant sorrow, and to learn to lead a life tranquil and resigned.
Nearly all to whom invitations had been sent, promptly answered that they would come. My sister wrote that she would bring her daughter, and her future son-in-law; but, that, on account of his duties, her husband would be unable to leave home. My brother-in-law, the pastor, who lived in Alsace, was also unable to come.
With every letter that came, I felt as if I must read it to my wife. Who could so help me to celebrate such a day, as she would have done? The life of the best of children is really for themselves. It is only the wife who lives entirely for and with her husband--one life consisting of two lives inseparably united. Inseparably! They have been separated, and a portion yet lives, leading a fragmentary existence.
I succeeded in repressing my emotions, and prepared myself for the great joy which was yet vouchsafed me.
On his return from his short trip, Ludwig had much to tell us, giving us quite a medley of merry and sad experiences. He had met many of his old comrades; and, among others, had visited his most intimate friend, a Professor at the teachers' seminary, in a town of the Oberland. The Professor was a model of quiet unobtrusive learning.
"I am shaping my block of stone," were the Professor's words: "what place it may occupy in the great Pantheon I do not know; but, nevertheless, I fulfil my little task as well as I know how."
He felt quite sad to find one of his old comrades in the very position he had occupied twenty-five years before. He might have become one of the best of men, for he has a good wife, and fine children; but he is the slave of drink, and is intoxicated from morning till night. Indeed, in the country one must constantly renew his intellectual life, or there is danger of giving way to drunkenness.
Ludwig had also visited his uncle, the Inspector of the water-works at the Upper Rhine, under whom he had worked for a year. He regretted his inability to attend our festival, but promised to send his son; and Ludwig was quite pleased when he told us how his uncle had said:
"The Rhine seems as if lost, and does not know whither it should flow. It is against nature that one bank of a stream should belong to one country, and the opposite bank to another."
Sister Babette and her family were the first to arrive; and, shortly after their first greeting of Ludwig and his family, they inquired for Martella. She was delighted to find that they were so much interested in her, and also to obtain from them some little news in relation to Ernst's short stay with them. Even Pincher recognized the Alsatians.