"You're a clever one! Well, if you like, come here, daughter-in-law.
Does that name suit you?"
In reply Amrei flung herself upon him.
"Am I not to be asked at all?" complained the mother with a radiant face.
The old man had become quite saucy in his joy. He took Amrei by the hand, and asked, in a satirical imitation of a clergyman's voice:
"Now I demand of you, honorable Cordula Catherine, called Dame
Landfried, will you take this—" and he whispered to the girl aside:
"What is your Christian name?"
"Amrei."
Then the Farmer continued in the same tone:
"Will you take this Amrei Josenhans, of Haldenbrunn to be your daughter-in-law, and never let her have a word to say, as you do to your husband, feed her badly, abuse her, oppress her, and as they say, bully her generally?"
The old fellow seemed beside himself; some strange revulsion had taken place within him. And while Amrei hung around the mother's neck, and would not let her go, the old man struck his red cane on the table and cried: