Entry #1, September 15, 1896

By the Biographer:I have been looking quite thoughrouly through the chest, and most of the entries have dates on them. As far as I can tell, this is the earliest one. The writing is pretty clear in most spots, so this entry is quite accurate.

I believe was Mother was unmistakeably right, as usual. Having to make one's living in this wide world is quite a fearful prospect. Now that my last term here at the Universitat in Nuremberg, I must look to put my brush and canvas to work. Though I ache to travel to Berlin as soon as I may, home awaits me, and Father, Mother, and especially Lilia would scarce forgive me if I did not revisit them. I finished preparing my baggage for to leave over an hour ago, and sit here at the train station awating the train's arrival. A fortnight I will spend in Wurzburg(hopefully resting), and then head for the capital with Craig. Herr Malstus suggested we first scour the city for available positions, and if no results present themselves, resort to painting in the Einkaufszentrumes and sell to interested pedestrians I had hoped he could recommend me to some of his colleagues, but he has refused since I will not accept his daughter's hand in "holy matrimony," as he calls it. Gretchen being her name, she must be the proudest, sickliest girl I have ever beheld. As I am her father's most accomplished student, and no suitor in sight at the ripe old age of thirty-one, Herr Malstus has tried every conceivable scheme, and I am ashamed to say, plot, to marry her off to me. though she confides in all her friends that I am the light of her eyes and the sun of her soul, I have doubts that are well founded, I believe. her owlish eyes and brushing brows are much too deep, for me, as if through them my life is but as a book to her. And time and time again the matchmakers(completely ignoring who they are matchmaking for), forget I am engaged to Lilia! When I mustered the courage to invite her for some time to the Universitat, dirty looks and sultry remarks were her gifts from Gretchen, though the Professor was "gentlemanly enough to hide his stark disgust beneath a perhaps too thick a facade of politeness. But now I must lay my pen down, for the train approaches and I must embark. Will write more when I arrive in Wurzburg.

Rufus Cuyler,
September 15, 1896