"'Since you ask me plainly, Klaus, I will answer you plainly. I say that I expected to receive something different into the house.'
"'So did I,' he rejoined laconically, drawing the first whiffs from his pipe.
"'And that if anything is to be made of the girl, the old woman must go away to-morrow.'
"'She is right,' thought I to myself, 'if it is only not too late!'
"Klaus took up the newspaper. 'Well, Anna Maria, there may be something to say about that by and by; but let her stay a week or two, so that she may see how Fräulein Mattoni gets on.'
"'Am I to bring up the girl or not?' Anna Maria interrupted, with a roughness such as she had never before shown toward her brother. 'How is this spoiled lady of fashion to learn to take care of herself and to use her hands, if that person remains at her side, to put on her shoes and stockings for her whenever it is possible, and turn her head with flowers and frivolities? Twenty-four hours I have said, and not a minute longer; two such totally different methods as hers and mine cannot agree.'
"Klaus looked in surprise at the excited face. 'You are right, Anna Maria,' he said appeasingly. 'I am only afraid that this being will never develop according to your mind. She seems to me——'
"'Made of different material!' finished Anna Maria ironically. 'I tell you, that will be no hindrance to me, in educating a girl whose calling it is to make herself useful in the world; affected dolls, painted cheeks, and theatrical pomp, I will not endure in my house!'
"She had risen, and all the indignation which the old woman's skill at the toilet had called forth now glowed on her red cheeks and shone from her sparkling eyes.
"Klaus laid down the newspaper which he had just taken up. 'I beg you, Anna Maria,' he said, almost indignantly, 'cannot that be settled quietly? The girl has only this minute come into the house, and is she to make discord between us already?'