“Rolf, a brave soldier, but one who, in spite of his merits, would never have obtained the rank of officer without grandpapa’s protection, called upon us. He was a sort of servant in the house before I was born, making himself generally useful as only soldiers can. His sister was my nurse, my mother having died soon after I came into the world. Unfortunately, she had neither education nor character to fit her for the task. With the best intentions, she thoroughly spoilt me, a work in which she was assisted by her brother, Sergeant Rolf, who would sooner have thought of disobeying his colonel than of opposing any caprice of his ‘little Major,’ as he already called me. Well, when he got his pension as captain he stayed here a few days, and his company seemed to be a welcome change to grandfather; and perceiving that a third person would be an agreeable addition to our society, I proposed to him to take up his quarters here, as he could live on his pension in one place as well as another. My proposition was eagerly accepted, and I took the command, as he expresses it, whilst he did his best to cheer up the General, and the winter has passed less monotonously than I anticipated.
“Meantime Rolf has inherited some property in North Brabant, and now he insists upon paying his quota towards the housekeeping expenses, to which I have consented for the General’s sake, because he is so fond of delicacies. But you don’t know how I suffer when I see them rivalling each other in the pleasures of the table, and think of the humiliation and abasement of my grandfather——”
Fritz entered with the lamp, and asked if Freule had not rung for the tea. The General and the Captain followed. The conversation languished over the tea-table, and Francis became silent; when suddenly the Captain exclaimed, pointing to her hair—
“Ah, the lioness shakes her mane to frighten us!”
“It’s true,” she answered coolly; “excuse me, gentlemen.”
And away she went to her own room.
“It is curious how Francis has these attacks of nonchalance,” muttered the General.
“And just now, when we have a visitor whom she herself brought,” assented the Captain.
But to change the subject the General proposed a game at cards.