repeated she.
“Ja, ja!” cried Hans, delightedly,
“Nach ihm nur geh' ich
Aus dem Haus!”
“What does that mean?” said Dalton, with impatience. “It's Gretchen's song, papa,” said Nelly.
“His figure I gaze on,
O'er and o'er;
His step I follow
From the door.”
“I hope it isn't in love the creature is,” said Dalton; and he laughed heartily at the conceit, turning at the same time his look from the dwarf, to bestow a most complacent glance at the remains of his own once handsome stature. “Oh dear! oh dear!” sighed he; “isn't it wonderful, but there isn't a creth or a cripple that walks the earth that hasn't a sweetheart!”
A cough, purposely loud enough to announce his presence, here came from the courier in the antechamber, and Dalton remembered that the letter had not yet been despatched.
“Give it to him, Nelly,” said he, curtly.
She took the letter in her hand, but stood for a second or two, as if powerless to move.