“I beg your pardon. I forgot that. But since we are here, perhaps you will let us see the laces, and we can come back and choose on Monday.”
The girl looked uneasily back into the room, and then said, in a very low voice:
“No; please do not ask to come in to-day; he is hardly conscious, and he might forget it was the Sabbath in his excitement.”
“Very well,” said Ellice politely, and Holcombe whispered to him: “Come away; don't you understand?”
The door was closed gently, and Henry said:
“She was afraid he could not resist the temptation of a good offer, if it were made to him, and she wanted to prevent his doing anything wrong.”
“How stupid I am!” said Ellice. “Of course that's it. But, I say, is she not pretty?”
“Beautiful!” answered Holcombe very quietly.
“Is that Fraulein Zimmermann?” asked Ellice of Rachel.
“No; Fraulein Löwenberg,” said the girl. “She is very kind to the old man. Her own father is ill and can't work, and she is very good to him. She reads to old Zimmermann, and looks after him, too, when he is ill. She has two little sisters also.”