"That's where our father lived," said Anna-Rose, staring at them in her surprise at their surprise. "So of course, as he lived there, when he died he did that there too."
"Prussia?" cried the ladies again. "He died? You said your father fled his country."
"No. You said that," said Anna-Rose.
She gave her cap a final tug down over her ears and turned to the door. She felt as if she quite soon again in spite of Anna-Felicitas, might not be able to be a lady.
"After all, it is what you do when you go to heaven," she said as she opened the door, unable to resist, according to her custom, having the last word.
"But Prussia?" they still cried, still button-holing her, as it were, from afar. "Then—you were born in Prussia?"
"Yes, but we couldn't help it," said Anna-Rose; and shut the door quickly behind her.
CHAPTER VIII
Mr. Twist, who was never able to be anything but kind—he had the most amiable mouth and chin in the world, and his name was Edward—took a lively interest in the plans and probable future of the two Annas. He also took a lively and solicitous interest in their present, and a profoundly sympathetic one in their past. In fact, their three tenses interested him to the exclusion of almost everything else, and his chief desire was to see them safely through any shoals there might be waiting them in the shape of Uncle Arthur's friends—he distrusted Uncle Arthur, and therefore his friends—into the safe and pleasant waters of real American hospitality and kindliness.