“He—he—said—nerve centres—disturbed,” answered Madame, returning to her hesitating speech. She did not stammer at all but seemed to pause to choose her words.
“If I can be of any assistance to you, I hope you will call on me,” said Andy kindly.
In the meantime Misel sat with his hands over his eyes as though in great pain and his wife hovered over him solicitously.
Dinner was soon announced and this time the lame man arose very cautiously and made his way slowly to the dining-room.
“Kindly—go—in—front—of—us,” faltered Madame, and Molly marshalled her family and guests so that the Misels might bring up the rear. She fully appreciated how the wife felt about wanting to be the one to assist her poor lame husband. If her Edwin had been so crippled no one should have helped him but his own wife.
Molly turned to smile on the poor woman for whom her heart was sore. She could well understand the misery it must bring to see one most dear having to suffer so acutely. There was a dark place in the hall leading to the dining-room and the hostess feared the poor lame man might stumble there, so she stopped to warn him of a rug. She distinctly heard Madame say to her husband in no gentle tones but with an asperity almost malevolent:
“Narr! Narr!”
Molly began assiduously to hunt in the archives of her brain for the small German vocabulary which she could call her own.
“Narr! What can narr mean?” the question kept recurring to her as dinner progressed. She visualized lists of words in a worn old blank book used at school. “Narr, Nase, Nesse, Nest!” She tried to remember the English on the opposite page. How well she remembered the little old book wherein was written the despised German exercises. The script in itself had been almost impossible to learn and as for mastering the language,—she had been so half-hearted about it that she had not been compelled to keep it up.
“Narr, nase, nesse, nest!” ran through and through and over and over in her mind. Suddenly just as Professor Green asked her what she would say to adjourning to the library, the list of English words flashed on her brain.