"And so," said Lambert, "as the danger is threatening, I wish as soon as possible to be united to Catherine forever."
"Forever!" said the minister earnestly. "This I also fully understand. Also short and well, dear young friend, I will gladly serve you, as it is my office and my heartfelt wish. We cannot here always observe the forms prescribed by the church, but God sees the heart. So I think to-morrow, satisfied with a single proclamation of the bans, we will attend to the marriage immediately after public worship. Are you satisfied with that? Good; and then I must ask you yet one thing, viz.: That you this evening take the lady to whom you are engaged to your Aunt Ditmar's and leave her there until to-morrow, and from there bring her to the wedding. I repeat, God looks at the heart, but appearances sway our judgment, and so for the people's sake I wish you would follow my advice."
"I will gladly do it, worthy sir," said Lambert. "I will at once speak to my aunt about it."
"There she comes now," said the minister.
Aunt Ursul had been actively helping Herkimer's women in the house, which the labor of entertaining so many guests at once made necessary. She now declared that, with her consent, not another pitcher of beer or glass of rum should be furnished. "I know my people, and if anything is to come out of the consultation, you must begin now, for an hour hence you might as well preach reason to horses. Say this to Herkimer, dominie. I will look after my old man. You are welcome to go with me, Lambert. He has already asked about you--something that he doesn't do every day. But the French you know bring him into harness. He is to-day quite changed."
Lambert went to his uncle with his aunt, but could not discover any change in him. The old man kept sitting in the same corner on the bench, the fur cap drawn far down on his forehead. His sunken head was scarcely raised in returning Lambert's salutation with a silent nod. However, the otherwise half-closed eyes looked for a moment from under the heavy eyebrows in a peculiar glance, but his thoughts must have wandered far away. He appeared not to hear what Lambert said to him.
"Only let him be," said Aunt Ursul; "he now has other things in his head, and for us it is high time that we at last come to the business. It will likely go like a mixture of cabbage and turnips."
Aunt Ursul appeared to be right. The noise kept increasing. They went around with pitchers and flasks in their hands, and drank to one another, and talked and screamed at each other, till suddenly first one then another shouted: "Still!" "Quiet!" Now the well-known form of the minister appeared, as they crowded through one another. He had climbed on a table and stood there. He had quit turning his snuff-box about in his fingers and waited until they should be ready to listen to him. "Still!" "Quiet!" sounded forth more authoritatively than before. But quiet was not forthcoming. In certain distant groups the loud talking continued, and a coarse voice cried: "What does the dominie want?"
"What I want," called the minister, "I will soon tell you. I beg you, back there, that you will at length keep your mouths shut and bring your wisdom, if you have any, to market at the right time and to the right place."
The rough word awakened laughter everywhere, but after the laughter it became still.