"Oh, don't talk like that!" exclaimed Edith. "I won't be angry any longer." So saying, she gave him her hand—not merely her little finger, but the whole of her soft, warm little hand—and let him press it in his own. No one was near them at the moment.
"And now, not to offend you even with a look," said he, "I promise on my honour not to raise my eyes higher than your hand."
He kept his word, dropping his eyes as he released her hand and took his leave with a low bow.
As the two young men returned home together after midnight, Jenő noticed that his elder brother no longer teased him.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BACKFISCH.
One evening, after the habitual frequenters of the Plankenhorst house had taken their departure, as Alfonsine was undressing with the help of her maid, she turned to the latter and asked:
"What is the backfisch doing nowadays, Betty?"
Backfisch, be it observed, means literally a fish for frying, but, as commonly used in German, it denotes a girl who is no longer a child, but not yet a young lady; one who is still innocent and harmless, and who feels strange emotions stirring in her breast, but fails to understand them; who takes jest for earnest and earnest for jest, and who believes the first pretty speech poured into her ear to be so much refined gold. That is the backfisch.
"The backfisch is learning to swim," replied Mademoiselle Bettine.