"Why? What do you want to do?"
"I want to get married."
"What? You marry?"
"Yes, Miller, I am going to marry Bailiff Besserdich's Hanchen, who is now in service at the Schloss; and I thought if Heinrich Voss marries our Fieka, and our fathers-in-law have nothing against it, we could be married on the same day."
This was too much for the Miller: "You rascal...!" He jumped up and seized one of his boots.
"Stay, Miller;" said Friedrich, drawing himself up, "that word's neither fit for you nor fit for me. How things stand with me, I have known for three days, and how they stand with Heinrich and our Fieka I came to know yesterday afternoon; I was lying behind them in the waggon and heard everything they said."
"It would be a good thing, father," said the Miller's wife.
"You don't understand anything about it," cried the Miller, and strode about the room savagely.
"Well, Miller," said Friedrich, and he went to the door, "think the matter over; my father-in-law has been going about thinking of it ever since the day before yesterday."
"I will give you your character at once," cried the Miller after him, "but you are not to leave before midsummer."