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Updated: May 29, 2025
Notwithstanding this bit of philosophy, I read Catharine's letter slowly to him. When I had ended, he took it, and for a long time gazed at it dreamily, and then handed it back, saying: "There! Josephel. She is a good girl, and a sensible one, and will never marry any one but you." "Do you really think so?" "Yes; you may rely upon her; she will never marry a Passauf.
The clinking of glasses was heard coming from a room which opened on the Rue de Tilly, and under the windows of this was a deep cellar resounding with the cooper's hammer. The sweet smell of the new March beer filled the air, and Zimmer, with a look of satisfaction, cried: "Yes, here I came six years ago with Ferré and stout Rousillon. How glad I am to see it all again, Josephel!
His eyes twinkled when I spoke Alsatian to him, and he pricked up his ears at once. If I asked him in our tongue he was willing to give me everything he had, but he had only a clasp of the hand, which cracked the bones in mine to give. He called me Josephel, as they did at home, and said: "Josephel, be careful how you swallow the medicines they give you, only take what you know.
"Instead of catching a fever in the hospital, or losing a leg or arm, like hundreds of others, here we are quietly seated in the shade; we are well fed, and can smoke when we have any tobacco; and still you cry. What more do you want, Josephel?" Then I told him of Catharine; of our walks at Quatre-Vents; of our promises; of all my former life, which then seemed a dream.
The increasing heat presaged a fine year and often, when looking at the beautiful scenery around, I thought of Phalsbourg, and the tears came to my eyes. "I would like to know what makes you cry so, Josephel," said Zimmer.
Why do we wear sabres, if not to use them and do our country honor? "I had no reply to make. "From that day, Josephel, the thought of marriage never troubled me. Don't talk to me of a soldier who has a wife to think of. Look at our generals who are married, do they fight as they used to?
All that does not smell good is good for nothing. If they would give us a bottle of Rikevir every day we would soon be well; but it is easier to spoil our digestion with a handful of vile boiled herbs, than to bring us a little of the good white wine of Alsace." When I told him I was afraid of dying of the fever, he looked angry with his great gray eyes, and said: "Josephel, you are a fool.
But when I first received a furlough and reached home, what did I hear? Margrédel had been three months married to a shoemaker, named Passauf." "You may imagine my wrath, Josephel; I could not see clearly; I wanted to demolish everything; and, as they told me that Passauf was at the Grand-Cerf brewery, thither I started, looking neither to the right nor left.
As I finished reading this, Zimmer arrived, and in my joy, I said: "Sit down, Zimmer, and I will read you my sweetheart's letter. You will see whether she is a Margrédel." "Let me light my pipe first," he answered; and having done so, he added: "Go on, Josephel, but I warn you that I am an old bird, and do not believe all I hear; women are more cunning than we."
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