But Greta answered, eagerly: “Oh, fie! he has not deserved that from us. He loves us so much that we really ought to be ashamed to deceive him; whatever he sees that we want he gives us, and I could swear that it is nothing but love that makes him so sad. So one mustn’t mind now and then taking a sermon into the bargain, especially if one pays no attention to it afterwards!”
“It’s a good thing I know that,” thought Paul, and crept round in a half-circle, till he came to the arbor where the other couple were sitting.
There it was very much quieter; only from time to time a kiss or a giggle sounded from the darkness among the trees. Then he heard Kate’s voice:
“And why did you dance so much with Matilda last Sunday?”
“That is a horrid calumny,” answered the other brother. “What gossip told you that?”
“The vicar’s daughter Hedwig told me.”
“I like that! She is jealous of you; that’s the whole story. How she looked at me last Sunday! I thought my hair would be singed.”
“Oh, the false girl!”
“Well, don’t grieve about that. You are all false! My sweet little lark, my sunshine, my little madcap, lay your head on my knee, I want to ruffle your hair.”
“So?”