"Everything is in God's hands," said my father.
Mother sighed again, and father said:
"And what could we do? Anything better? If I only could have gotten well, and earned something, and we had had at least dry bread in the house——"
He broke off; I had a feeling that something wept within him.
"If she had been a year or two younger, I would have risked it all—perhaps even bought lottery tickets."
And I said nothing.
———
My seventy-year-old bridegroom gave my father a few hundred gulden for clothes for the wedding, and me a check for one hundred and fifty gulden.
People said, "A fine match."
I recovered my companions. The one with the satin skirt and the watch and chain came two or three times a day.