"'I should like to drive over to-morrow to look after Susanna,' said I, turning to Anna Maria, who was drawing in and out the colored wools on the table-cover she was embroidering for Klaus.
"'I will wager, aunt, she will be back again to-morrow; do you think she will hold out long there in that mean room, with the uncomfortable bed on that neck-breaking sofa? Just wait; she will be here again before we know it.'
"The next day Anna Maria was sitting with her table-cover beside my bed; I had wrapped a rabbit-skin about my arms and shoulders, for the evil rheumatism. Such an attack sometimes chained me to my bed for a week or more, and this time I lay there feeling like a veritable culprit. I kept thinking of Susanna, and this tormented me into a state of nervousness. And there sat Anna Maria beside me, in her calm way taking one stitch after another. I followed her large yet beautifully formed hand, and the trefoil which grew under it; the lions supporting a shield were already finished, and the last leaf would be done to-day. 'Fear thy God, kill thine enemy, trust no friend,' was the strange motto of our family. It doubtless originated in those times when races lived in perpetual feud with one another, each ever ready for combat on the fortress of his fathers.
"'Anna Maria!' I began, at length.
"She started up out of a deep revery. 'Shall I read the paper to you?' she asked.
"'No, thank you, mon ange; but tell me, do you know if Susanna—is she——'
"'She is still with her Isa, aunt,' replied Anna Maria. 'I packed up a little basket of food for her this morning. Marieken carried it, and——'
"'Well, Anna Maria?'
"'Oh, well, she sits by the old woman's bedside, Marieken tells me, and round about her lie laces and ribbons and flowers; Susanna is making a new hat or two for herself. Marieken says she had no eyes for my appetizing basket; with cheeks as red as roses, she was all absorbed in her finery.'
"'Incorrigible!' I murmured; 'Anna Maria, why have you let her stay away? Is the old woman really so ill?' I added, out of humor.