Schlinke: If there hadn't been someone behind it, it would probably have been a yes.

Me: What does he mean by that?

Schlinke: If a wedge hadn't driven it off.

Me: no wedge ( 164 ) drove him off, I didn't know it, and when he interjected, something like that didn't go unnoticed, his closest neighbors didn't know it either.

We almost got into a verbal argument because I accused him of being an ungallant man to act against his alleged lover like he was doing here. Then it was time to “ask for forgiveness,” during which Bertha left. Schlinke tried to shake my hand with his face turned away, but let her fall unconscious. He then went out close behind Bertha, which caused me to follow [him], but I no longer saw him.

The joy of accompanying my Bertha home as she now appeared to me was without limits. She told me the course of the investigation as follows:

After Pastor Kavel gave a prayer, Schlinke gave his lecture using the same words that she and [her] father had said. He would then have wished, since he was completely alone, to take Weimann to his assistance, which Pastor Kavel and others would have found unnecessary, since he (Kavel) would not treat Mr. Fiedler any more lightly than he would treat anyone else. The verdict given by the Pastor and [Mr.] Seeländer would have been that it was indefinite or conditional and that Schlinke therefore had no certainty. Weimann also mentioned the deposit that she had given him. This if ( 165 ) and but was repeated over and over, but Mrs. Schliefke received a harsh warning not to get involved in such matters.

I still have to point out that Schlinke thought of writing a short letter to Hamburg if he didn't get it right, to which I and others laughed and Pastor Kavel replied that he wasn't afraid of his threats. Nobody bothered to ask what he meant by that, but I found out later that he wanted to sue me at the Hamburg Mission Association.

There were indescribable moments that I spent in Bertha's company in the evenings, sometimes in her arms. --

I didn't go to bed until 3 a.m. because Mr. Füssli was lying drunk in my bed and couldn't be woken up.

November 1st, 1839.
I stayed in Klemzig for lunch today. Bertha and I shelled green peas in the morning, with every opportunity for entertainment. She would like our engagement