"Yes," she said gaily, "whatever is as perishable as a flower cannot die a more charming death than----"
"In a cow's mouth," laughed the skeptic. "It is unfortunate that Fechner had not conceived this poetic idea before he wrote his 'Nanna.'"
"Oh, you may ridicule anything in that way, if you choose to do so," said Elsa.
"Do not vex our kind Elsa," Angelika here interrupted the discussion, throwing her fair round arm around the other's thin shoulders. "Elsa dear, give me your nosegay."
"There, put it on your brother's writing-table," Elsa whispered in her ear.
Angelika looked at her with compassion. "I will do what you ask, Elsa, but you know he does not care much for plucked flowers."
"But perhaps he will value them when he knows that they were plucked by the faithful hand of such a friend as I."
Angelika took the bouquet, and said hesitatingly, "I hope he will not be vexed,--he does not like to have anything placed upon his writing-table,--but I will try."
Hastily, as usual, Moritz came running through the garden just as Angelika was bending over Elsa. She turned, and found her husband's sparkling black eyes resting upon her.
"Moritz," she cried in delight, "have you come at last?"