Of course the affair made talk for miles around, and people told much more than there was to tell.  There were two parties:  one thought the parents were rightly served, the other thought Uli would get his deserts with his rich wife.  The longer it lasted, and it was over a year now, the more probable seemed his success; the more the servants submitted to Uli and ranged themselves on the side of the presumptive son-in-law, so that the farm took on a more and more prosperous appearance and Uli became more and more indispensable.  Even Joggeli, into whose money-bags the cash profit flowed, and who could easily figure what twenty additional cords of fodder and a thousand sheaves of grain meant, choked down his anger and shut one eye, comforting himself by saying that he would use Uli as long as possible; and if matters ever got serious, why then there would still be time enough.  Once when Johannes, having heard the gossip, came along, and cursed and swore and demanded that Uli be discharged, Joggeli would not hear to it; as long as he lived he would give orders here, and Johannes would be glad to have Uli if he could get him; what went on here was none of his business, and if they wanted to give Elsie to Uli that was none of his business either.  He needn’t think he’d inherit everything; for the time being everything that they still had and that he hadn’t wormed out of ’em was theirs; the more Johannes carried on, the sooner Elsie would have to marry—­not that it would have to be Uli; there were others too.  They knew well enough how much he loved them; if he just had the money he’d never ask again after father and mother and Elsie; and they could all marry again for all he cared, and if to tramps or gipsies it would be all one to him.

Thus Joggeli talked to his son in his nagging, coughing way, so that the mother grew quite anxious, and interrupted:  Johannes needn’t be afraid; that wouldn’t happen, for she was still at the helm and Elsie wouldn’t force them to everything, and Uli was a good lad, and so on.  Then Johannes wanted to talk with Uli himself, but he was not to be found; he had gone out to get a cow, it, was said.  Trinette, this time much more beautifully sulphur-yellow than Elsie had been, strutted around her with contemptuous mien and turned-up nose, and finally said, “Fie and for shame, how common you’re making yourself!  To take up with a servant!  It’s a disgrace for the whole family!  If my folks had known that my husband’s sister would marry a servant, they’d have given him the mitten like a flash; they didn’t like him any too well as it was; but I was fool enough to want him absolutely.  We can’t count you as one of the family any more, and then you can see where you’ll find a roof for your head; you can’t stay here any more—­I say this once and for all.  Faugh, to have a love-affair with a servant!  You give me the creeps; I can’t bear to look at you any more.  Ugh, aren’t you ashamed to the bottom of your soul, and don’t you feel like crawling into the ground?”