"Lies!" exclaimed Kitty, exasperated.
"Lies, indeed? And is it a lie, too, that we are given up to usurers now, who will take our last potato from us? 'Tis shameful! My daughter shall drown herself sooner than work for those skinflints!"
"And my brother will shoot them dead if they show their faces here!" bragged a half-grown boy.
"Yes, like the dwarf's doves," said another, with a grimace, pointing to Henriette, who was clinging to Kitty, half wild with terror.
Suddenly the bark of a dog was heard near at hand. In an instant Flora stood erect, and all the haughty arrogance of her nature mirrored itself in her face. "What have I to do with the sale of the factory?" she asked, scornfully. "Settle that with the councillor. He will know how to answer you. And now begone, all of you! You shall suffer for your insolence, rely upon it!"
She extended her hand with a lordly air; but the tall woman seized it as if it had been offered for a friendly grasp, shook it with well-feigned cordiality, and burst into a noisy laugh, in which the others joined uproariously. "Oh, Fräulein, have you grown so brave all of a sudden because"—and she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder—"a dog barked over there? That is Hans Sonnemann's terrier: I know his voice well. He will not stir from his master, who is stone-deaf. They are going to the tavern together, as they do every afternoon. Make yourself easy,—they'll not come near here. And you have nothing to do, my fine Fräulein, with the sale of the factory, eh? You'll find no one to believe that. They need only look at you to see which way the wind blows. You and the old madame rule the roost; the councillor must obey, and, now that he is rich enough, shake himself clear of all the common people who have earned him his money. No, we can't help it, but we can thank you for it, Fräulein."
She drew nearer, and her small, sharp eyes gleamed with a cat-like cruelty.
Flora, in horror, covered her face with her hands. "God of heaven, they will murder us!" she gasped, with white lips.
The whole rabble laughed.
"Not a bit of it, Fräulein," said the woman. "We're not such fools. Where would be the use of putting a rope here?" And she passed her hand beneath her chin, with a significant gesture. "But you shall have something to remember us by."