"Yes! Didn't some soldier come interfering and carry her off?" said the smith. "I wasn't there. I had too much to do at the time to make a holiday."
"Holiday! Marx!" said the pastor sternly. "It was a solemn duty we had to perform, and we were shamefully interrupted."
The tailor's eyes glinted as he said—
"I can picture him now dusting your gown for you!"
The pastor looked, as he felt, very angry.
"I don't know what became of her."
"Well!" said the smith, "I shouldn't advise you to go too near old Reinheit, her father. He's in an awful fume against you, pastor. Of course at the time he thought it was all for her good, but he did not expect you would go to the length of whipping the poor girl."
"How else should one persuade the devil out of a woman?" asked Pastor Rad.
"Ah!" said the tailor. "We are not learned in these matters. Now if you had been married to her, no one would have complained. There is no better way."
"There was a good deal of talk before that that you were cocking your cap at her!" said the smith slowly.