"'Well, it did not seem to me so alarming from Marieken's account. If you were not a patient yourself, aunt, I would have driven over.'
"I lay back with a sigh. Of course, I had to be ill just now. Out of doors a cold wind was blowing over the bare fields; we should have an early autumn. My good times were over, and now were coming again the days of stove-heat and confinement to the house, of rabbit-skins and herb-bags.
"'I shall invite no one to the harvest festival this year, aunt,' began Anna Maria, after a pause. 'What would all the people do here without Klaus? It will give me no pleasure without him; on the contrary, it is painful to me.'
"'But Klaus wishes——'
"'Ah, aunt, but he will be content au fond. I know him!' said the girl, with a smile.
"Just then Brockelmann announced Baron Stürmer. Like a flash of fire a sudden blush mounted to Anna Maria's face, the fingers which held the needle trembled, and her voice was unsteady.
"'Excuse me to the baron. I am prevented, unfortunately; aunt is ill.'
"Anna Maria had hitherto seen him only in the presence of others; she feared being alone with him; was that indifference?
"'Ask the baron to come up here,' said I with sudden resolution. 'I am certainly old enough to receive him in bed,' I added to Anna Maria.
"'Come, mon cher Edwin, if you are not afraid to see a sick old woman in bed,' I called to him, as he was now entering, and pointed to a chair by the head of my bed, opposite Anna Maria. Edwin Stürmer was the most versatile man I ever saw, and at once master of a situation. And so he was soon sitting by me, chatting pleasantly. The twilight deepened, and Anna Maria let her hands rest. She listened to us as we spoke of old times; I saw how her eyes were fixed on his face, how now and then a slight flush spread over it. She spoke little, and all at once rose and left the room.