"Gracious Fräulein," she began respectfully, yet familiarly, "Marieken is off, and has made a great commotion in the house, and the eldest of the Weber girls has just applied for the place, but she asks for twelve thaler for wages and a jacket at Christmas!"
"Ten thaler, and Christmas according to the way she conducts herself," Anna Maria replied, without looking up.
The housekeeper disappeared, but returned after awhile.
"Eleven thaler and a jacket, Fräulein; she will not come otherwise," she reported. "You can surely give her that; she has no lover, and will hardly get one, for she is already well on in years, and——"
Anna Maria drew a purse from her pocket, and laid an eight-groschen piece on the table. "The advance-money, Brockelmann; do you know that Gottlieb wishes to leave?"
"Oh, dear, yes, Fräulein." The old woman was quite embarrassed. "I am sorry; he doted upon the lass at one time, and at last—oh, heavens, fräulein, one has been young too, and if two people love each other—see, Fräulein, it is just as if one had drunk deadly hemlock. I mean no offence, but you will know it yet some day, and, if God will, may the handsomest and best man in the world come to Bütze and take you home!"
The old woman had spoken affectingly, and looked at her young mistress with brightening eyes. Only she would have dared to touch on this point. She had been Anna Maria's nurse, and a remnant of tenderness toward her was still hidden somewhere in the girl's heart.
"Brockelmann, you cannot keep from talking," she cried, serenely. "You know I shall never marry. What would the master do without me? Is supper ready?"
"The master!" said the good woman, without regarding the last question. "He ought to marry too! As if it were not high time for him; he will be thirty-three years old at Martinmas!"