"'I will light a candle,' said Anna Maria, calmly; 'give me a moment and I will go with you.' Below, the fire-engine was just rattling across the court. The candles flared up under Anna Maria's hand.
"'Send me a wrap, aunt, please; I wish to go over on Susanna's account; do not worry. I am ready, if you will take me with you in your carriage,' she added to Stürmer; and again a red glow spread over her face.
"'The carriage is ready, if you please, Fräulein.' He was already hurrying out of the room.
"'For God's sake, Anna Maria, bring back Susanna to me!' I cried. And then I lay alone for hours. Brockelmann came up once: 'The whole sky is red,' she informed me; 'it must be a big fire.' The little bell rang unremittingly its monotonous alarm, and before my eyes stood the burning houses, and I fancied Anna Maria beside Stürmer in the carriage, driving rapidly along the lonely highway, and Susanna in danger. And my thoughts flew to Klaus: 'Hold your hands over this girl. I will thank you for it all my life!' 'My God, protect her!' I prayed in my anxiety.
"And hour after hour passed, the bell became silent, after long pauses, and Anna Maria did not come. Brockelmann said the fire-light had disappeared. I heard the carriages and people returning home; then the court was quiet. And then Brockelmann came in again: 'It broke out in the second house from the forge, the lads say, and the forge is half-burned, too.' Oh, Heaven, and Anna Maria does not come!
"The old woman sat down by my bed. 'She does not think of herself,' she complained; 'she will run into the burning house if it is possible. Ah, if the master were only here!' Good Brockelmann, she knew better than Stürmer how to judge Anna Maria.
"'Fräulein,' she whispered, already following another train of thought, 'do you know—but you must not take it amiss—the baron comes so often now, and as I saw them both drive out of the yard to-day, then—I keep thinking she will marry him yet.'
"'Oh, how can you talk such nonsense?" said I, chiding these words in vexation.
"'Yet, I say, the next thing will be a wedding in the house!' declared the old woman. 'The great myrtle down-stairs is full of buds, and I also found a bridal rose in the garden. And last New Year's eve I listened at the door and heard the young master just saying: "Invite to the wedding!" And that will all come true. And then—but you must not act as if you knew it—I have had Anna Maria in my arms from the day she was born, and know her as no one else does, and I know how she cried over the note that the baron wrote her at the time when he went far away into the world, and, Fräulein, she always has it with her! Oh, I see so much that I am not intended to see; but she cannot dissemble, Anna Maria.'
"Ah! what the old woman was saying was of no importance to me; only news of Susanna; everything else later! 'My God, Susanna,' I murmured, 'if anything has happened to her!' And unable to stay quietly in bed any longer, I bade Brockelmann help me dress. At last a carriage rolled in at the gate and stopped before the house. I sat up in bed, and kept my eyes on the door. Susanna must come! Brockelmann had hurried down-stairs; I heard Anna Maria's voice on the stairs, and her footsteps, and then she came in.