"Yes," said Nancy. "You could keep Anne-Marie...." She sighed deeply. "Of course she must not interrupt her lessons. I suppose you think I ought to go?"
"Of course," said Fräulein, who was practical. "A firm like that won't do anything without seeing you and talking business. But mind, mind they do not cheat! Authoresses are always being cheated."
Nancy smiled. "I shall try not to let them."
"Being English, perhaps they will not. In Berlin——" And here Fräulein repeated a discourse she had made many, many years ago in Wareside when Nancy's first poem had been read aloud. Fräulein remembered that day, and spoke of it now with tearful tenderness. She also believed she remembered bits of the poem:
"This morning in the garden
I caught the little birds;
This morning in the orchard
I picked the little words."
"What!" said Nancy. "Why did I 'pick the little words'?"
"Perhaps it was 'plucked,'" said Fräulein, looking vague.
"This morning in the garden
I caught the little words;
This morning in the orchard
I plucked ... or picked the little birds——"
—"or caught them," continued Fräulein, much moved.