"Excuse me for interrupting you, Herr Doctor," Franz here interposed, "but that was the very reason why he could not let them have it. I never thought the Frau President would allow it. Who would have such neighbours if they could help it? The ladies over there were provoked, and right enough they were; they would not have the building lots sold; no, 'they would have it ornamentally planted,' and there was an end of the business. And now the factory-hands are furious, and play all sorts of tricks in revenge."
"A miserable revenge, indeed. Poor little thing!" said Kitty, taking the dove from Franz.
"The worst of it is that the worthlessness of single individuals is attributed to an entire class. No one can blame Frau Urach for not allowing such people near her," Doctor Bruck said, and his face darkened.
"I don't admit that. There are evil and revengeful people in all classes of life," the young girl rejoined, eagerly. "I see a great deal of the lower classes: my foster-father has many poor patients; and where good, nourishing food and other help is wanted in addition to his medicines, my dear Lukas comes to the rescue, and of course I accompany her. One meets with much coarse ingratitude, 'tis true, but there are also many true, noble natures to be found among those who are so poor, so distressingly needy——"
"Not so bad as you think, Fräulein; that kind of people will always deceive you," Franz interrupted her, with a contemptuous wave of his hand.
Kitty silently measured him from head to heel with a most expressive look. "Heyday, what a magnificent person Franz has come to be!" she said, with evident irony. "Whom are you speaking of? Are you not yourself one of them? What were you in the castle mill?—A labourer just like those in the factory; a labourer who was forced silently to endure many an injustice, as I can testify."
The miller's dusty cheeks grew crimson. He stood utterly confounded before the young girl, who had known so well how to remind him of the truth. "Eh, don't take it amiss, Fräulein; I meant no harm," he said, at last, in loutish embarrassment, extending his broad palm.
"I believe there really is no harm in you; but you have been lucky, and like to play the castle miller with money in his pockets," she said, after a moment, laying her little hand in his, although the frown of displeasure did not instantly vanish from her smooth brow. She took out her handkerchief, laid the dove in it, and tied it up by the four corners. "I will carry this little sufferer to Henriette," she said, holding the handkerchief carefully like a basket,—it looked like a scantily filled traveller's bundle.
The doctor opened a little side-door in the court-yard wall, leading directly to the park, and the young girl passed through it, but stood still, amazed, upon the other side. "I do not know myself here," she cried, looking around her with an air of bewilderment; and then turning to her companion: "it looks as if giant hands had shaken the park to pieces. What are those people doing?" She pointed towards an extensive ditch, where a large number of labourers heads were seen just above-ground.
"They are digging a pond; the Frau President likes to see swans mirrored in clear water."