With
the exception of occasional digressions these letters are solely
concerned with his relations to Kaethchen, and their outpourings
afterwards received their faithful echo in the incoherences of
Werther. Here is the beginning of a letter to Behrisch (October 13th),
in which he described his feelings as evoked by the appearance of two
rivals for the favours of Kaethchen. "Another night like this,
Behrisch, and, in spite of all my sins, I shan't have to go to hell.
You may have slept peacefully, but a jealous lover, who has drunk as
much champagne as is necessary to put his blood in a pleasant heat and
to inflame his imagination to the highest point! At first I could not
sleep, I tossed about in my bed, sprang up, raved; then I grew weary
and fell asleep." And he proceeds to relate a wild dream in which
Kaethchen was the distracting image; and he concludes: "There you have
Annette. She is a cursed lass!"[29] Yet on the same day or the day
following he could thus describe his mode of life in a letter to his
sister: "It is very philosophical," he writes; "I have given up
concerts, comedies, riding and driving, and have abandoned all
societies of young folks who might lead me into more company.
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