At last all are seated. Baron Wenkendorf clears his throat, and opens the portly volume.
"Now we can begin," Frau Rosamunda observes.
The Baron begins. He reads himself into a great degree of enthusiasm, and is just pronouncing the words,--
"Then after pain's drear night
Comes morning's glorious light;
Before me gleams
Brightly the sacred wave,
The blessed daylight beams,
From night of pain to save
Gawain----"
when Frau Rosamunda, who has been rummaging in her work-basket, rises.
"What is the matter, Rosamunda?" the Baron asks, impatiently. He is the only one who addresses her by her beautiful baptismal name unmutilated.