r Vicar, making his bow, and having his limp hand heartily
grasped by that other little hand, and his furtive eyes smiled into by
those other friendly eyes, became on the spot desperately enamoured;
which was very natural, seeing that he had not spoken to a woman under
forty for six months, and was himself twenty and a poet. He spent the
rest of the afternoon shut up in his bedroom, where, refusing all
nourishment, he composed a poem in which _berauschten Sinn_ was made to
rhyme with _Englaenderin_, while the elder parson, in whose house he
lived, thought he was writing his Good Friday sermon.

Then the schoolmaster was introduced, and then came the two women--the
schoolmaster's wife and the parson's wife; and when Anna had smiled and
murmured polite and incoherent little speeches to each in turn, and had
nodded and bowed at least a dozen times to each of these ladies, who
could by no means have done with their curtseys, and had introduced them
to the dumb figure in the corner, during which ceremonies Letty stared
round-eyed and open-mouthed at the school-children, and the
school-children stared round-eyed and open-mouthed at Letty, and Miss
Leech looked demure, and Susie's brows were contracted by suffering, she
wondered whether she might not now with propriety continue her journey,
and if so whether it were expected that she should give the signal.

Everybody was smiling at everybody else by way of filling up this pause
of hesitation, except Susie, who shut her eyes with great dignity, and
shivered in so marked a manner that the parson himself came to the
rescue, and bade the coachman help him put up the hood again, explaining
to Anna as he did so that her _Frau Schwester_ was not used to the
climate.

Evidently the moment had come for going on, and the bows that had but
just left off began again with renewed vigour. Anna was anxious to say
something pleasant at the finish, so she asked the parson's wife, as she
bade her good-bye, whether she and her husband would come to Kleinwalde
the next day to dinner.

This invitation produced a very deep curtsey and a flush of
gratification, but the recipient turned to her lord before accepting it,
to inquire his pleasure.

"I fear not to-morrow, gracious Miss," said the parson, "for it is Good
Friday."

"_Ach ja_," stammered Anna, ashamed of herself for having forgotten.

"_Ach ja_," exclaimed the parson's wife, still more ashamed of herself
for having forgotten.

"Pe