"All at once a thrill went through Anna Maria's body, but her face looked coldly over to the Stürmer gallery; she bent her head slightly and returned a greeting. There he was standing bodily, my old favorite, and I almost nodded my head off at him and made secret signs with my handkerchief. His dark eyes sent a happy greeting across to me—Edwin Stürmer was really there.
"The clear voice with which Anna Maria joined in the singing drew my looks to her again. She sang quietly with the congregation, but a crimson flush of deep agitation lay on her face; it was evidently excessively painful to her to see him again.
"What the sermon was about on that day I cannot tell, for before the clergyman ascended the pulpit something occurred which nearly put an end to the devotions of all the small congregation and obliged me to leave the church.
"I had fixed my eyes steadily on Stürmer, as if I could not look my fill at the man's handsome curly head; and the good God surely forgave me, for I was as fond of Edwin as if he were my own child. All at once, during the singing, I saw him start and look intently across to me; and, following the direction of his gaze, I observed—Susanna. She had on a white muslin dress, her neck and arms lightly covered by the misty material; she held her hat in her hand, her black hair clustered in rich curls about her small head; a white rose was placed carelessly in her hair, and a bunch of the same flowers rose and fell on her bosom, and as white as they was her sweet face as she raised it again after a short prayer.
"Most beautiful was this young creature, but, may God forgive me! I was bitterly angry with her for being so and for coming to church dressed up as if for a ball. 'Incorrigible comedian blood,' I scolded to myself. I thanked God that Klaus could not see her from his seat, and gave Stürmer an unfriendly look because he kept looking over at our pew. All at once, as the clergyman was singing the liturgy, Susanna put her hand to her forehead, as if to grasp something there, and then sank back silently, with closed eyes, into her seat.
"I cannot tell now the exact order in which all this happened; I only remember that a chair was overturned with a loud noise, that the clergyman was silent for an instant, and that there was a movement among the congregation; at the same time Klaus left our pew, carrying out the white figure in his arms, like a feather. I rose at once to follow him. Anna Maria's head was bent low over her hymn-book; was she going to take no notice of the affair? But now she slowly rose, and went behind me down the narrow, creaking flight of steps which led up outside the church to our pew; it was provided with a wooden roof as a protection against wind and storms, and the ivy which grew over the whole church adorned it like a bridal arch with green festoons.
"Klaus was just disappearing into one of the nearest cottages, whose shining window-panes looked out like clear eyes beneath the gray shingle-roof, not at all sad at the constant view of the little church-yard. Marieken Märtens and her husband lived here; she had been in Anna Maria's service, a quick, industrious girl, but once was sent away in the utmost haste because she—but that has nothing to do with the case. Anna Maria had her brought back again at that time, and she was married from the manor-house, and since then Anna Maria and I had each held a curly brown head over the font. When there was anything going on at our house—that is, when there was extra work—Marieken came and helped.
"She was at the threshold coming to meet us already, wiping her hands on her clean apron, and pushing back her eldest child. 'She is lying on the sofa inside,' she whispered. 'Oh, the master looks pale as death from fright!' Anna Maria stepped by me into the little room; she made a sign for me to stay outside, so I sat down on the wooden stool that Marieken placed in the entry for me, and listened intently for every sound from within.
"For a little while all was still. Marieken ran in with fresh water, and then I heard Anna Maria say: 'How are you now, Susanna?'
"'Go back to church quite easy,' came the reply; 'it was a momentary weakness. I am very sorry to have given you such anxiety and trouble.' And the next moment the girl was standing on the threshold, a crimson blush overspreading her whole face, and without noticing me at all, she flew to the outside door and across the church-yard; her fluttering white dress appeared again for an instant in the frame of the gateway leading to our garden; then she had vanished like an apparition.