"You intended, when the title was obtained, to embroider an altar-cloth at once."
"Yes, so we will. Did I ever say so? Ah! I forget everything. Ah, dear madame, stay with me always, advise me in everything. Have you a large, frame? Let us begin at once."
Fräulein Perini had everything ready, silk, worsted, gold-thread and silver-thread, frame and patterns. Frau Ceres actually made a few stitches, but then stopped and said:—
"I am trembling to-day; but I have commenced the altar-cloth, and now we will work on at it. You will help me, will you not?"
Fräulein Perini assented; she knew that she would have to do the whole herself, but Frau Ceres had now become somewhat calmer.
"Will you not send for the Priest, or hadn't we better go and visit him ourselves?"
"As you see fit."
"No, we had better be alone. Where is Manna, I wonder? She ought to come, she ought to be with her mother."
She rang and sent for Manna; but received for answer, that she had just gone to rest; she begged her mother to excuse her, she was very tired.
"But where is the Professorin? Oughtn't she to come and congratulate me?"