“SHE HAD A PORTLY BASKET FILLED.”
“Ay, sir,” said Joching Pacsel.
And Joching went and brought the tart to the lady. “Best compliments from the Herr Lieutenant to the gracious Frau von Diamant——”
“What is it you bring me now?”
“And says he’s long been noted for a fool——”
“Tut, tut,” the lady said, “we know all that.”
“So please forgive him then, and here’s a tart, and eating it will give you pleasure more than you can tell.”
Madam, after recovering from a hearty laugh, then said: “Well, tell your master we will talk about that at some future time, and here is for your trouble.”
She laid a thaler in his hand, and hoped that now he would leave her in peace. But no, Joching stood quite still, and held his hand up to his face, and gave a furtive peep at it again and again, as if this were the first and only thaler he had ever seen.