Anton asked about their neighbor's daughter, Thoma's old playmate.
Sadly she told him how she had broken with her only friend. Anger and
shame reddened her cheeks as she related to him how her old playmate
had, on her wedding day, worn a wreath which she had no right to wear.
Thoma's lips quivered when she said:
"They say that Cushion Kate's mother was forced to stand at the church
door with a straw wreath on her head, and a straw girdle round her
waist. That was hard, but just. But for the girl to lie so, before God
and man; to accept an honor to which she had no right. To know it
herself and yet be so bold----. There, that is just like Vetturi. I
have no patience nor friendship with a liar, whether rich or poor, man
or woman. He who will not take the responsibility of his own acts may
go to perdition. Indeed, it is not necessary to tell him so, for he has
already gone there. You laugh? You are right! Such an honorable man as
you are doesn't need to be lectured. Now I don't need my playmate nor
anything else while I have you and father. No princess could be happier
than I."
They went on hand in hand. When they reached the farm-house, her
mother, who had come straight home, called to them from the window to
wait until everything should be ready for the visitors, who would soon
be there with their congratulations.
So the two seated themselves in the garden back of the house, on the
terrace beyond the cherry-tree, and the blossoms on the tree were not
richer than the happy thoughts of the young couple.
While they were here under the cherry-tree, Cushion Kate was sitting by
her son; he said:
"Mother, I must get away from here. I will go to Alsace, into a
factory."
"And you will leave me alone," complained the mother for the hundredth
time; and for the hundredth time related, as though it were a comfort,
that Vetturi's grandfather had been one of the Reutershoefen family; and
though he received his portion as a younger son, neither he nor his
descendants had ever been able to get along. Vetturi let his mother
talk, but still insisted that he would go.
"Mother, I'm a burden to you. It makes me ashamed."
"You're not a burden to me, and you shouldn't be ashamed to stay with
your mother. What have I left in the world if you go away? I shall
never want to get up again. I shall never want to make the fire. If you
go away you must take me along."
"We'll see, mother. But first, I will have my pay from Landolin; this
very day I will have it."
With these words he tore himself away, and hurried to the farm-house.