"I would help you if I knew how," said Ernestine.
"Try it,--perhaps it will amuse you. It does not require much skill." The old lady, quite delighted at Ernestine's interest in domestic affairs, handed her another knife and a bean, saying, "Look! you first strip off the stem and those tough fibres,--so. The people in this part of the country are apt to pay no attention to the fibres, but if you do not strip them off they are very tough. And now cut the bean lengthwise. Stop!--not so thick,--a little finer. Now, don't put the stems back in the dish, but here in this bowl! See! everything in the world can be learned, and, if you should not be compelled to do it, it is at least well to know how."
A gentle sigh escaped her as she remembered that her own circumstances had once, before she had lost her property by her brother's failure, been such as to make these homely offices entirely unnecessary.
Ernestine contemplated with smiling surprise the Staatsräthin's enthusiasm in encouraging her to undertake this new rôle. She asked herself seriously if it were possible that this was really an intellectual woman. But one glance at the broad, thoughtful brow and the clear, expressive eyes of the speaker convinced her of the truth.
Lost in these reflections, Ernestine continued her novel taskwork, but the Staatsräthin suddenly discovered, to her horror, that she was throwing the stems in with the beans, and the beans into the bowl of stems and strings.
"My dear," she cried, "see what you are doing! now I shall have to pick over the whole dishful!"
Ernestine threw down the knife and leaned back in her chair. "I never was made for such work! Forgive me, but I cannot think it worth while to learn it. I shall never be so situated as to need such knowledge."
"As you please," said the Staatsräthin coldly.
"Are you displeased with me? Is it possible that you are displeased with me because I cannot cut beans?" She seized the old lady's busy hand. "Frau Staatsräthin, make some allowance for me. You must not ask one to do what she is not fit for. Would you ask the fish to fly, or the bird to swim? Of course not. Do not, then, expect a person who is at home only in a different world to take an interest in the every-day concerns of this."
"This strife about the beans you make,
When really crowns are now at stake,