"Dear Herr Kräuger," said the burgomeister, "I sent for you, that you might give me information on a few points. The widow Kählert and the weaver Schmidt live with you?"
"Yes, Herr Burgomeister, they live in the back of my house."
"As I hear, weaver Schmidt is going to marry widow Kählert. Does the woman know that there are some legal hindrances in the way of Schmidt's contracting a second marriage?"
"Yes, Herr Burgomeister; I don't know about that last; I don't trouble myself about the people; but, you know, these women folks! if these is a courtship in the air, they are like the bees, and bring the news into the house,--well, Herr Burgomeister, you won't take it ill, mine is naturally no better than the rest; well, she came in lately, and said the business was so far settled that Kählertsch was quite determined about it, but the weaver wasn't ready yet. And Frau Kählert told Frau Bochert, she had cooked and washed for him over a year, and it was time he were making his preparations; but it was all the fault of that baggage his divorced wife, who came and teased the weaver to take her back again. If she should come again, however, she would trip her up, and the weaver might cook and wash for himself."
"The widow Kählert must be very foolish," said the burgomeister, "to want to marry that man. She has a little something, enough to live on; but he has nothing in the world but his loom; that came out in the evidence, at the divorce."
"Yes, it was so then. But, you see, Herr Burgomeister, I don't trouble myself about him,--if he pays his rent, I have no further business with him, and he has always done that honestly; and he has rented, for this year past, a little room of mine, that opens into his, and my wife says she went in there once, with Frau Kählert, and it was very nicely fitted up, with a sofa, and pictures on the wall."
"He must have had a good deal to do then, and have earned a good deal."
"Eh, Herr Burgomeister, a weaver! and it is such a noisy business, they can tell, all over the neighborhood, when the old loom stands still, and there are a good many days, when I don't hear its music. No, he must have something laid up."
"Then he lives very comfortably?"
"Yes, indeed! He has his fresh meat every day, and I told my wife, 'You shall see,' I said, 'it is only because of the nice mutton and beef that Kählertsch wants to marry him.'"