Miss Mina was looking towards the other side, where Cornelli stood: “Won’t you even give me your hand? This is not very friendly of you. That is just the way you are,” she said to the child in a low voice.
Now Esther broke forth: “Miss Mina,” she called out as loudly as she could, “please be so kind as to tell the ladies on the trip who left the dusty marks on the sofa by standing on it. They were not from a child’s shoe.”
Mina blushed a deep scarlet and Miss Dorner, full of astonishment, looked at her glowing face. She expected a fitting retort, but none came.
“Go ahead, Matthew,” Miss Dorner ordered excitedly. She did not desire a further explanation.
Mr. Hellmut had moved away.
Cornelli now took Esther’s broad hand inside both her own and pressed it hard. A ray of joy flitted over her features, the first after a long, long time. “Oh, I am so glad that you said that, Esther; I am more glad than you can think,” she said eagerly. “If you had not said that, they would have thought all their lives that I had done it and denied it. But how does Mina know who did it?”
“She knows, because she did it herself,” Esther replied.
“Oh, oh! So she did it with her own feet,” Cornelli exclaimed. “It is better that she has gone then. We’d rather be left alone here, wouldn’t we, Esther, just you and I?”
“Yes, indeed,” said the cook, full of satisfaction. “Just tell your father that I do not mind double work, but that I do mind deceitful ways.”
Cornelli had not spoken to her father since he had come back. She was shy before him, because she realized that the sight of her displeased him. She was, however, quite sure that she could never change and always had to be like that. She was also certain that he would only abhor her more if he ever found out what was hidden under her locks of hair. She therefore went slowly and hesitatingly towards his room in order to give him Esther’s message. In former times she had always run to him gaily, whenever she had something to tell him. Since then things had changed.