Anna turned with a blind sort of movement, and stretched out her hand for Letty, drawing her to her side, instinctively seeking any comfort, any support; and she stood a moment clinging to her, gazing at the little crowd with sombre, unseeing eyes.
"What has happened, Anna?" asked the princess uneasily.
"You must congratulate me," said Anna slowly in German, her head held very high, her face of a deathly whiteness.
A lightening look of comprehension flashed into Dellwig's eyes; he scarcely needed to hear the words that came next.
"Herr von Lohm and I were to-day," she said. Then she looked round at them with a vague, piteous look, and put her hand up to her throat. "We shall be married—we shall be married—when—when it pleases God."
CONCLUSION
The moral of this story, as Manske, wise after the event, pointed out when relating those parts of it that he knew on winter evenings to a dear friend, plainly is that all females—alle Weiber—are best married. "Their aspirations," he said, "may be high enough to do credit to the noblest male spirit; indeed, our gracious lady's aspirations were nobility itself. But the flesh of females is very weak. It cannot stand alone. It cannot realise the aspirations formed by its own spirit. It requires constant guidance. It is an excellent material, but it is only material in the raw."
"What?" cried his wife.
"Peace, woman. I say it is only material in the raw. And it is never of any practical use till the hand of the master has moulded it into shape."