the meeting of the sexes, were not then in existence. It was only in the secrecy of the marriage chamber that the meeting of the two sexes could take place with propriety to explain their mutual feelings. Notwithstanding these restrictions, things took their course as well then as now. Christenings, weddings and burials, especially in a city like Bremen, were the privileged occasions for negociating love affairs; as the old proverb says, No marriage is consummated but another is planned. An impoverished spendthrift, however, being not a desirable son or brother-in-law, our hero was invited neither to weddings, christenings nor burials. The bye-way of influencing the lady’s maid, waiting woman, or some other subordidinate personage was in Frank’s case likewise blocked up, for mother Brigitta kept neither one nor the other; she carried on her little trade in lint and yarn herself, and was nearly as inseparable from her daughter as her shadow.
Under such circumstances, it was impossible for Frank to open his heart to his beloved, either by speaking or writing; but he soon
