A later letter which he received from his brother announced that old Walther had discovered the inclination of the girl’s heart and that he and the old gentleman in the blue coat had decided that Apollonius’ brother should marry the girl.  The old gentleman’s “should” was a “must;” Apollonius knew that as well as his brother.  The girl’s affection had touched his brother; she was beautiful and good; should he oppose his father’s will for Apollonius’ sake, for the sake of a love that was without hope?  Being certain of Apollonius’ consent beforehand, he had resigned himself to the decree of heaven.

Throughout the first half of the following letter, in which he announced his marriage, this pious mood echoed.  After many cordial words of comfort came his brother’s apology, or rather justification, for having allowed two years to elapse between this letter and the last one.  Then followed a description of his domestic happiness; his young wife who still clung to him with all the fire of her girlish love, had borne him a girl and a boy.  In the mean time his father had been afflicted by an ailment of the eyes, and had grown constantly less able to conduct the business alone in his sovereign manner.  This had made him grow odder and odder.  After he had left the reins in his son’s hands for a time, the old imperative desire to rule, intensified by the monotony of enforced idleness, had caused him to rouse himself once more.  Finally, however, he had been obliged to realize that things could not go on in his way.  To subordinate himself to another merely as an advisory assistant, and particularly when the other was his own son who until recently had carried out his commands without being consulted and without any will of his own, this proved to be impossible for the old man.  He found occupation in the little garden.  There he could remove the old, think of something new, and again make room for something newer; and he did so.  Ruling unrestrictedly in the little green realm in which from now on no “why” might be heard, where, beside the law of nature, only one other governed and that his will, he forgot or seemed to forget that he had formerly borne a mightier sceptre.

But his brother’s following letters were not so full of the business and of the odd old gentleman as they were of the festivities of the shooting society of the home town and of a club which had been formed to keep its pleasures separate from those of the lower classes.  In all the descriptions of bird and target shooting, concerts and balls of which he and his young wife appeared as the centre, shone the utmost gratification of the writer’s vanity.  Only in a postscript to the last letter did he mention the more serious fact that the town wanted to have repairs made to the tower and roof of St. George’s, and that the work had been entrusted to him.  The old gentleman in the blue coat urged him to ask Apollonius to return to his home town and the business.  It was his brother’s opinion that Apollonius