It annoyed her no end to see Franz getting more cheerful, while she had hardly any power to torment him now. Seeing Aunt Adelheid insisted on having fresh flowers round that dead baby’s photograph every Sunday, I simply took to arranging them on Sundays myself, without stopping to ask her. For Franz, it was like being released from a curse, and Aunt Adelheid lost interest in the wreathing of the picture. At last there came a Sunday when it got no wreath at all, because she had forgotten to buy the fresh flowers.Of course she soon ferreted out the fact that there was something going on between Franz and me. Well, we didn’t go to much trouble to hide it. Franz told her we were planning to get married in one or two years’ time, and how could she actually object? Hitherto Franz had been giving his mother his entire salary, getting just a little bit of pocket money now and then. Now he gave her only half of it, and saved up the rest of the money for our future. We were thinking of opening a shop some day.
