The waiters and hotel
guests looked odd, and seemed to swim in a kind of rosy twilight. In
the sky there seemed to be three times as many stars as usual. When
the Ellrichs had withdrawn he went toward midnight alone into the
fir woods, and heard unknown birds sing, caught strange and magic
harmonies in the rustling of the branches, and felt as if he walked
on air. He went to bed in the gray of early dawn, after writing from
his overflowing heart the following letter to his friend Haber in
Berlin:
"MY DEAREST PAUL: I am happy as I never thought of being happy. I
love an unspeakably beautiful sweet brown maiden, and I really think
she loves me too. Do not ask me to describe her. No words or brush
could do it. You will see her and worship her. Oh, Paul, I could
shout and jump or cry like a child. It is too foolish, and yet so
unspeakably splendid, I can hardly understand how the dull, stupid
people in this house can sleep so indifferently while she is under
the same roof. If only you were here! I can hardly bear my happiness
alone. I write this in great haste. Always your
"WlLHELM."
Four days later the post brought this answer from his friend:
"Well, you are done for, that is certain, my dear Wilhelm. Confound
it, you have gone in for it with a vengeance! I always thought that
when you did catch fire, you would give no end of a blaze.
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