"You know I visited M---- on account of the vexatious lawsuit with my uncle Guntram which I inherited from my father, and concerning which I hoped to effect some sort of compromise. My uncle received me with the greatest cordiality, and we should speedily have arranged matters had it not been for my cousin Heinrich, who, being a newly-fledged lawyer, would not hear of any adjustment of the affair. I believe I could not have offended him more deeply than by voluntarily relinquishing my claims. Now he must put up with this offence, although it is given in a manner different from any that he could have foreseen. His zeal for litigation was of the greatest service to me, for it kept me in M---- when I thought my presence necessary at Altenheim. Thus weeks and even months passed, and I was no nearer the goal than at first, that is, so far as the lawsuit was concerned, otherwise my stay in M---- was entirely delightful to me. My uncle Guntram was all that he could be in the way of affectionate kindness, Heinrich extremely amiable in a cousinly way, and Adele--no, I will not write about Adele, for you would only laugh at me and call me a love-sick fool. Wait until you come to M----, as friendship demands you should do, to be present at my marriage, and you will understand how welcome any pretext was to me for a protracted stay here, and how willingly I spent day after day beneath my uncle's roof, passing the most of my time talking with Adele. She treated me in the kindest manner, but her innocent familiarity, which was almost like that she might show to a brother, made me anxious. A distant connection of yours, a certain Assessor von Hahn, frequents my uncle's house, and was evidently suing for my cousin's favour. I heard reports from all sides of a private betrothal between them, which was not to be announced until the Assessor had obtained the position of circuit judge, since my uncle greatly disapproved of long engagements. "I really could not perceive that Adele favoured the pretensions of the Assessor, who is a very well-disposed but rather ridiculous little man; but as all the world declared that it was a settled affair, and as even the Assessor himself let fall several hints to the same effect, I thought I should be forced to accept my fate. I should never have dared to tell my charming cousin how dear she was to me had not you, Arno, without knowing it, lent me your aid. "I had often talked of you to Adele, telling her of our delightful travels, and even describing to her your father, your sister Cecilia, and your surroundings at Castle Hohenwald, as I had learned to know them from yourself.