"
"Take it for what you will, best Hofrat!" cried Veronica; "perhaps for
a very stupid dream."
"That I nowise do," replied Hofrat Heerbrand; "for I know well that
Anselmus himself is possessed by secret powers, which vex him and
drive him on to all imaginable mad freaks."
Conrector Paulmann could stand it no longer; he broke loose: "Hold!
For the love of Heaven, hold! Are we again overtaken with the cursed
punch, or has Anselmus' madness come over us too? Herr Hofrat, what
stuff is this you are talking? I will suppose, however, that it is
love which haunts your brain; this soon comes to rights in marriage;
otherwise I should be apprehensive that you too had fallen into some
shade of madness, most honored Herr Hofrat; then what would become
of the future branches of the family, inheriting the _malum_ of their
parents? But now I give my paternal blessing to this happy union, and
permit you as bride and bridegroom to take a kiss."
This happened forthwith; and thus before the presented soup had
grown cold, was a formal betrothment concluded. In a few weeks, Frau
Hofraetin Heerbrand was actually, as she had been in vision, sitting in
the balcony of a fine house in the Neumarkt, and looking down with a
smile on the beaux, who, passing by, turned their glasses up to her,
and said: "She is a heavenly woman, the Hofraetin Heerbrand."
TWELFTH VIGIL
Account of the Freehold Property to which Anselmus removed, as
son-in-law of Archivarius Lindhorst; and how he lives there with
Serpentina.
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