"Oh, no! We shall reach the capital by midnight."
"But your fast driving may hurt my wife."
"Don't let that worry you. Your wife will be as well taken care of as the queen herself."
"I don't know how it is, but when I look at this gentleman and hear him talk," said Hansei, looking Baum straight in the face, "I feel ever so queer."
"How so? Do I look so terrible?"
"God forbid! No, indeed! But the one I'm thinking of was a good-for-nothing fellow. No offense, I assure you. But old Zenza--there she is at the garden gate, watching us--had twins. One is named Thomas and the other was Wolfgang, or Jangerl, as they say hereabouts. Well, Jangerl joined the soldiers and went to America. It must have been some thirteen or fourteen years ago, and no one has ever heard of him since, and really--but you won't think ill of what I say?"
"Of course not! Go on."
"Well, Jangerl looked just like you to the very hair. No, not the hair, for his was red and his face wasn't as fine as yours, either; but taking it altogether, just as the devil takes the farmers"--Hansei was delighted with his joke, and the lackey joined in his laughter--"one might say that you look like each other. But you're sure you're not angry at what I've said?"
"Not at all," said Baum, looking at his watch. The clock in the church steeple was just striking five, and he said: "There's a difference of exactly one hour between your clock and that at the capital. Did this house belong to your parents?"
"No, I got it with my wife. That's to say, we still owe a mortgage of two hundred florins on it, but the farmer who holds it, doesn't press us."