"You know we expected the tutor on the 6th."
"Then he will surely be here in the course of the day."
"I wish he would fail to keep his appointment. It would be a good reason for getting rid of him. I confess I cannot reconcile myself to your idea of having a tutor. We should have been wiser to engage a governess for Fritzchen. A cultivated, well-born young woman is a pleasant addition to one's household; she could easily have taught Fritzchen all he need learn for a couple of years, and it would have been well for our romp Lieschen to acknowledge a more strict control than yours."
"Do you imagine that Lieschen would have submitted to it? You know I thought at first of engaging a governess for Fritzchen, but our experiences with Lieschen's governesses were too terrible. I could not try that experiment again. If Liese drove her governess to desperation when she was a child of seven, it is hardly likely that she would be very docile as a girl of seventeen. She is too unaccustomed to control. No, no, it is better as it is. And I may as well tell you, Fritz, although I know how you will laugh at me, that when I wrote to Director Kramser I made it a stipulation that the young man whom he should send to us must be positively ugly. This I did in view of the position I wished him to occupy with regard to Liese, who is to take music-lessons of him."
"Oh, Emma, Emma! what an extraordinary idea!" Herr von Osternau exclaimed, with a laugh.
"It is impossible to be too prudent," Frau von Osternau said, gravely. "Lieschen has an antipathy to everything ugly, there could be no danger for her in an ugly, awkward man. Director Kramser is, as you know, an old friend of mine, he used to be tutor to my brother Karl----"
"I remember him," her husband interrupted her. "I used to see him at your father's before we were married. A very unattractive, awkward young man, but in spite of that he has had a very successful career, I believe."
"He certainly is rather awkward, but very good-humoured, and as honest and good a man as ever lived. I have great confidence in him. I told him so in my letter, and frankly confessed to him the reason why I wanted an ugly tutor. I did not wish that there should be any danger for Liese in taking music-lessons of him, and I am quite sure that Kramser will have had a regard for my wishes in this respect."
"No doubt of it, so far as ugliness is concerned," her husband rejoined, with a laugh. "Speak of an angel, and you hear the rustle of his wings; there comes the tutor. Come to the window, Emma; there, I am certain, comes your protégé across the court-yard. Heavens! what a scarecrow!"
Frau von Osternau hastened to her husband's side and looked out of the open window. His exclamation had made her curious; she too had a slight shock, and could not but admit that 'scarecrow' was not too strong an expression, when she saw the young man who had entered the court-yard by the gate between the barns, and was now leisurely coming towards the castle across the deserted quadrangle. He was still too far off to allow of her distinguishing his features, but his figure was certainly suggestive of a scarecrow. With his clothes hanging loosely upon his long limbs and the tails of his black coat dangling against his legs, the man looked like a caricature. His tall, rusty hat, as well as his coat, seemed the relic of a bygone age. With a shabby old travelling-bag hung over his shoulder on the end of a stick, he sauntered slowly along, casting curious glances about him. Herr von Osternau continued to stare at the strange figure as it gradually approached the castle. "Most certainly your friend has obeyed your directions with regard to the ugliness, Emma. And we are to have this scarecrow living beneath our roof and eating at our table? Why my food will choke me with that thing before my eyes!"