Page:Tales by Musæus, Tieck, Richter, Volume 2.djvu/36

28 with his wife; and for two elder daughters, with their husbands: Leopold, the younger, was maliciously busied in increasing the disorder, and deepening the tumult; perplexing all, while he pretended to be furthering it. Agatha, his still unmarried sister, was in vain endeavouring to make him reasonable, and persuade him simply to do nothing, and to let the rest have peace; but her mother said: “Never mind him and his folly; for today a little more or less of it amounts to nothing; only this I beg of one and all of you, that as I have so much to think about already, you would trouble me with no fresh tidings, unless it be of something that especially concerns us. I care not whether any one have let some china fall, whether one spoon or two spoons are wanting, whether any of the stranger servants have been breaking windows; with all such freaks as these, I beg you would not vex me by recounting them. Were these days of tumult over, we will reckon matters; not till then.”

“Bravely spoken, mother!” cried her son; “these sentiments are worthy of a governor. And if it chance that any of the maids should break her neck; the cook get tipsy, or set the chimney on fire; the butler, for joy, let all the malmsey run upon the floor, or down his throat, you shall not hear a word of such small tricks. If, indeed, an earthquake were to overset the house! that, my dear mother, could not be kept secret.”

“When will he leave his folly!” said the mother: “What must thy sisters think, when they find thee every jot as riotous as when they left thee two years ago?”

“They must do justice to my force of character,” said Leopold, “and grant that I am not so changeable as they or their husbands, who have altered so much within these few years, and so little to their advantage.”

The bridegroom now entered, and inquired for the bride. Her maid was sent to call her. “Has Leopold made my request to you, my dear mother?” said he.

“I did, forsooth!” said Leopold. “There is such confusion here among us, not one of them can think a reasonable thought.”

The bride entered, and the young pair joyfully saluted one another. “The request I meant,” continued the bridegroom, “is this: That you would not take it ill, if I should bring an-