Month 33: Pages 47-48

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

"Hopefully you will now pay a little more attention to your pastor."
     Fritz wasn't so sure: was it an honest opinion that spoke out of the words of the other brother

---47---

or hidden teasing?  He wanted to take it as the former.
     "And I am grateful to you," he replied, "that you have suggested this visit to me.  It will not have been my last."
     It was the only thing that Fritz spoke on the trip.  From then on, he was silent until they arrived home. 

[Adl.] Malkitten, 15 September 1913

     Dear Hans,
I would like to inform you to-day that after much consideration I have decided to give up my position here.  My two boys, who have well cut off in a just-held test, are going to high school now, and with a little girl of only six years old beginning again - I have little inclination - although one asks me about it urgently.  Generally, my initial experience and repeatedly exprest opinion of you has been right: my talents and abilities are suited more for the wifely practice than for the pedagogical field.  The successes that I gained here lay more in the talent and the diligent striving of my pupils than in me.
     Your letters, dear Hans, always give me a warm pleasure.  Alone I always have the feeling, as if near all of your joy, to work again in our beloved East Prussia, yet even a thin string sounds in them.

Grammatical Minutiae

This month's installment includes the beginning of a letter, which is exciting because it reveals the temporal setting of the novel (15 September 1913).  However, it's also frustrating because I have no idea what "Adl. Malkitten" means.  I'm assuming that "Adl." is an abbreviation, but I don't know of what.  Because it's alongside the date at the beginning of the letter, I'm assuming that Malkitten is a location, but I couldn't find an existing Malkitten, so either it's no longer extant or it's completely fictional.

The last sentence from this month's installment gave me some trouble, and I'm not sure it makes much sense.  There's an "ihnen" in the original text, but I don't know what its antecedent is.  It's plural, but there aren't any plural nouns in that sentence.  It might refer back to "deine Briefe" from the previous sentence, but there's quite a bit of space between them.