"She turned and went to the window, and pressing her head against the panes, looked out on the sinking darkness of the November evening. She was apparently calm, and yet her whole body shook.
"Meanwhile a familiar step was heard outside, pacing up and down. I stepped out. 'Klaus,' I begged, looking in his pale, excited face, 'why this terrible haste?'
"'How am I to do it, then?' he cried, impatiently. 'I cannot stay here, I am still needed in Silesia, so I must take Susanna away; what else can be done? Do you think I will expose her to this treatment any longer? By Heaven, aunt, when the girl's desperate letter came, it was fortunate that I could not come here on wings, that the vexations of the journey, and in M—— the procuring of the marriage license, detained me, or I should not have been able to control myself. Anna Maria is a stubborn thing; she has no heart or feelings, or she would at least be ready now to hold out her hand to Susanna and me.'
"'Anna Maria loves you more than you think,' said I, grieved, 'and if she was angry with your bride, she had sufficient cause.'
"He stood still, white as chalk. 'Aunt,' he implored me, with a wearily maintained composure, 'do not completely spoil this hour for me. Susanna has told me everything, and Anna Maria, in her views of united prudery and onesidedness, has regarded as a deadly sin what was an innocent, perfectly innocent act on Susanna's part.'
"At this moment Pastor Grüne came out of Anna Maria's room—alone. I shall never forget the sad look with which Klaus met the eyes of the old man.
"So we three stood there; Klaus was just taking a step toward the door when in the same instant Isa stood beside him, as if charmed hither. She already had on her black silk dress, and her withered face shone with joy and triumph.
"'Susanna is waiting, sir,' she whispered.
"'I am coming,' he replied, and turning around he said to me: 'It is better for me not to see her. I know her, I know myself, and I wish to remain calm.'
"Indeed it was better! God knows what would have happened if they had met. I promised to be present at the marriage ceremony, but first I went again to Anna Maria. She was still standing at the window, and did not turn on my entrance.