"Hardly!"
"Or can you find the key to the pantry?"
"Will hardly be possible."
"My dear Baumann, you must really see what can be done."
"Yes, ma'am."
Thereupon the strange fellow turned on his heels and marched out again.
"Well, what do you think of my maître d'hôtel?"
"I think the man is a great original; but why did he look at me all the time, with his big bright eyes?"
Melitta laughed.
"You must know that old Baumann was my father's servant, after having made all the campaigns against Napoleon in his regiment. He has rocked me, when I was a child, on his knees, has never left me since, and will not leave me till I die or he dies. Twice he has saved my life, and, without my knowing it or desiring it, shared every one of my sorrows, and, I may say, every joy. If I were to say to him: Baumann, you will have to go to Australia to-morrow for me! he would say: Yes, ma'am! pack his things over night, and be on his way before sunrise. And if I said: I cannot help it, Baumann, but you will have to die for me! he would say, Yes, ma'am! and not move a muscle. But if I said to him, Please hear, Baumann, or call him Mr. Baumann, he would think our friendship at an end. Now he is angry because I have not told him who you are. When he will know that, and find out that I am glad to see you here, he will be content again. Now mind what will happen. He will come back to tell us that he can do absolutely nothing for us. Thereupon I will give him the information about you, and make believe to go myself. Then we shall have peace. But you must look friendly when I mention you to him, you hear?"