"He's a foolish old fop!" Nanette rejoined, saucily; "looking at me so and pinching my cheek. It's my belief he'd have liked a kiss himself."
"Well, you might have given him one, Nanette; I wouldn't have been jealous."
Nanette's face grew dark, and she would have made some cutting rejoinder, but she bethought herself in time that it behooved her to keep Wilhelm in good humour, so she contented herself with saying, "Thank you kindly for your permission, which I shall not need, however. The vain old fool! He looks like a bedizened monkey in his light summer costume. You can see with half an eye that he once weighed out sugar and sold molasses. He can't hide that for all the big diamond in his shirt-front. And then such language! 'Bai Chove!' and 'teuce of a vellow!' at every third word. It is scandalous that a girl who has always lived in the best families should have taken service with such riff-raff!"
In her zeal and irritation she had quite forgotten her resolution always to be amiable when Wilhelm was by; one glance into his honest face reminded her of this, and she forthwith controlled herself. None too soon, however; for Wilhelm had just made the discovery that pretty Nanette could be very cross and look almost ugly.
"I don't know what you mean, Nanette," he said, with much less warmth. "What has the good old man done to you? He is so good-hearted that I should think no one could be angry with him."
"I am not angry with him," Nanette answered, aware that she had made a blunder, and anxious to repair it if possible. "I see he is a very good-humoured old man; but when a girl has lived in the first families, it is very difficult for her to become accustomed to low-bred manners. If you were not here, Wilhelm, I could not stand it three days longer; but for your sake I will stay, if you will keep your promise to me. We have talked enough now, and I must go to my sewing, or Fräulein Eva will know where I have been."
She kissed the tips of her fingers to Wilhelm, whose irritation she had thus quickly appeased, and returning to the small room adjoining the drawing-room seated herself by the window and took up the sewing which she had put down upon Fräulein Schommer's return from driving.
CHAPTER III.
"You really are too severe with poor Nanette," Fräulein Aline von Schlicht said to the young heiress.
Eva Schommer was conscious that there was justice in her friend's reproof. Her impulsive temperament often led her to make use of hasty expressions which she regretted afterwards, especially if she had been actuated by anger, and she frequently seemed to show an insensibility to the feelings of others which was by no means part of her character. When she was irritated she would rebuke any omission of duty upon the part of her servants with an undeserved severity, and she admitted to herself that this had just been the case with Nanette. She had reproved the girl upon mere suspicion as sharply as if the fault had been proven. She was vexed with herself for her hastiness, but the dislike with which Nanette's whole conduct had inspired her, and her conviction that the girl had actually tried to play the part of eavesdropper, were by no means weakened.