"'But, my dear,' I said aloud, 'there is no company here this evening. We eat to-day en famille, buckwheat groats with milk.'
"But I got no answer; the busy lady's maid bent quickly to pull one or two bows straight, and I glanced from Susanna—the color in whose cheeks had mounted to a bright red—to the trunk, which looked suspiciously empty after the taking out of the new dress. The old woman observed me, and quickly shut the cover. 'The clock is striking seven,' she said; and in fact, the weak, thin tone of the Bütze church-bell was heard just seven times, and at once began the noisy sound of the servants' supper-bell.
"'Come,' said I to her, 'the servants' room is down-stairs.'
"'Thank you,' she replied, with a look of refusal. 'I am not at all hungry; but I would like to ask for some wood, for the child cannot sleep in this damp atmosphere.'
"I directed her to Brockelmann, and conducted Susanna Mattoni to the dining-room.
"Oh, I could paint the scene now! The four candles on the table vied with the rosy twilight, and in the vaulted window-niche stood Klaus and Anna Maria. He had put his arm around her, and had been saying some kind, serious word—they never stood so near each other again! I seem to see, at this moment, how they turned around toward me—how Klaus, full of surprise, looked past me at the slender, girlish figure; how Anna Maria was suddenly transfixed—and I could not blame either of them! I have scarcely ever seen Susanna Mattoni more charming, more maidenly, than at that moment, when she stood in embarrassment before the young friend of her father. I wondered if she had imagined he was different.
"A warm glow overspread her delicate face; Anna Maria blushed, too. I do not know whether it was fear or anger that caused her to touch Klaus's arm, as he stepped forward to say some words of welcome to Susanna.
"'Please come to the table!' called Anna Maria. 'Here, Fräulein Mattoni, beside Aunt Rosamond.' As we stood at our places she said, in a strangely faltering voice, the old grace: 'The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord!' The 'Amen' almost stuck in her throat, and in the look which she gave the young girl's dainty dress, and which fell with especial sharpness on the white flowers, I saw what the clock had struck for Anna Maria. It was almost amusing to me to compare the two girls, so unlike, and to wonder whether the high-necked, gray woollen dress and the dainty little silk gown would ever live side by side, without having to make mutual concessions.
"Klaus talked to Susanna, who sat opposite him. He touched upon the subject of her deceased father, but gave it up at once when he saw the great eyes fill with tears, which she bravely tried to swallow with the strange buckwheat groats. A fresh egg, afterward, seemed to taste better to her, but with a timorous smile she refused a glass of foaming brown beer, and I am convinced that she rose unsatisfied from the table.
"The candles were lighted in the sitting-room, and at the master's place lay a plate of tobacco and a matchbox beside the newspaper. At Anna Maria's place lay her knitting-work, and at mine spectacles and Pompadour, just as Brockelmann arranged them every evening, except that in winter Anna Maria had her spinning-wheel instead of her knitting. To-night Klaus did not take his pipe from the shelf in the corner; Susanna Mattoni's delicate form sank into his comfortable easy-chair, and her small head nestled back in the cushions; but Klaus, like a true cavalier, with a chivalry that became him admirably, sat on a stool opposite her.