"I suppose you think I expected him, because I stayed at home alone?"
"Well,—I did think that possibly you expected something."
"I would have gone to church with my aunt though my head was splitting had I thought that Herr Valcarm would have come here while she was away."
"Mind I have not blamed you. It is a great shame to give a girl an old lover like Peter Steinmarc, and ask her to marry him. I wouldn't have married Peter Steinmarc for all the uncles and all the aunts in creation; nor yet for father,—though father would never have thought of such a thing. I think a girl should choose a lover for herself, though how she is to do so if she is to be kept moping at home always, I cannot tell. If I were treated as you are I think I should ask somebody to jump over the river to me."
"I have asked nobody. But, Fanny, how did you know it?"
"A little bird saw him."
"But, Fanny, do tell me."
"Max saw him get across the river with his own eyes." Max Bogen was the happy man who on the morrow was to make Fanny Heisse his wife.
"Heavens and earth!"
"But, Linda, you need not be afraid of Max. Of all men in the world he is the very last to tell tales."