VI

obviously the occasion of your marriage. If it hadn’t been for Klamm you wouldn’t have been unhappy and wouldn’t have been sitting doing nothing in the garden, if it hadn’t been for Klamm Hans wouldn’t have seen you sitting there, if it hadn’t been that you were unhappy a shy man like Hans would never have ventured to speak, if it hadn’t been for Klamm Hans would never have found you in tears, if it hadn’t been for Klamm the good old uncle would never have seen you sitting there together peacefully, if it hadn’t been for Klamm you wouldn’t have been indifferent to what life still offered you, and therefore would never have married Hans. Now in all this there’s enough of Klamm already, it seems to me. But that’s not all. If you hadn’t been trying to forget, you certainly wouldn’t have overtaxed your strength so much and done so splendidly with the inn. So Klamm was there too. But apart from that Klamm is also the root cause of your illness, for before your marriage your heart was already worn out with your hopeless passion for him. The only question that remains now is, what made Hans’ relatives so eager for the marriage? You yourself said just now that to be Klamm’s mistress is a distinction that can’t be lost, so it may have been that that attracted them. But besides that, I imagine, they had the hope that the lucky star that led you to