reasons he had promised me, adding that I had expected him to send me the same, he excused himself by saying that he had done a lot of unforeseen ( 173 ) work and gave me to read a paper he had written, entitled: "Decision in the lawsuit brought by Mr. Schlinke against Mr. A. Fiedler and his daughter maiden Bertha Teusler." After reading through the paper, I reminded Pastor Kavel that he should have asked me if I had permission from my company to get engaged, which he admitted. To the second reason mentioned in the letter, as if the Bretheren in Germany could take reason for my marriage, I replied: that it would hardly be possible for any of them to look after my wife; I wouldn't consider myself to be such a great "lumen mundi [light of the world]" as to expect such a thing. When [I] asked Pastor Kavel when he would write to Dresden, he answered me quite unexpectedly: He would only write if I asked him to do so. I replied: I would certainly never ask him to do so again because I could not possibly contribute to exposing my bride to public censure. But I wouldn't mind if he wrote the matter to Pastor Wermelskirch. Then he: The flexibility? he still wants to practice. But I also took this back immediately because my bride could accuse me of encouraging her blame.

I did not receive the letter because it was not yet signed by Pastor Kavel himself or by an elder. At Fiedler's house I met Mr. Fiedler, who had just returned, and I was able to talk to him quite a bit alone. I told him that I had given Bertha a ring, to which he had no objection. I spent a few hours with Bertha in the first room that evening; while Julius Fiedler,

[from page 173 there is no longer a page number manually written; the numbering continues in the sequence of the present pages]

( 174 ) Füssli and Friedrich Kavel were talking in the second and the father was with the pastor. When the latter came back, he promised to visit me tomorrow and bring Pastor Kavel's letter with him.

November 8th, 1839.
But when I got up, Mr. Fiedler came to me with the above-mentioned letter in his pocket. To my astonishment, it was not yet signed and in the envelope there was an announcement that yesterday evening Pastor Kavel and the elder revealed that they could not change the decision to report the whole thing with Schlinke and my bride to my Company. At the same time, Mr. Fiedler had a letter to Schlinke, which in any case had the same content as mine. While I was reading the letters, Br. Teichelmann joined us and a long conversation followed between the three of us about Pastor Kavel's procedures in this and some previous cases. Mr. Fiedler was very angry with Pastor Kavel and said that he would write to him. After we had lunch with Br. Teichelmann, I went into town with Mr. Fiedler and then went to Anga's section, where we chatted confidentially about all kinds of things, especially about my future mother-in-law. Late in the evening I wrote a rude letter to Pastor Kavel.