So he was. And what else?

LOTH

I tell you these things just as I heard them, for I assume that it is of
some importance to you to be acquainted with the exact nature of the
slander.

HOFFMANN

Quite right. And so?

LOTH

So far as I could make out this Mueller was said to have had the contract
for the construction of a stretch of mountain railroad here.

HOFFMANN

Yes, with a wretched capital of ten thousand crowns. When he came to see
that the money wouldn't go far enough, he was in haste to make a catch of
one of the Witzdorf farmers' daughters; the honour was to have fallen to
my wife.

LOTH

They said that he had his arrangement with the daughter, and you had made
yours with the father.--Next he shot himself, didn't he?--And you
finished the construction of his section of the road and made a great
deal of money out of it?