ion. Princess Ludwig was a good
example of the best type of female Dettingen. Like many other
illiterates, she prided herself particularly on her sturdy common sense.
Regarding this quality, which she possessed, as more precious than
others which she did not possess, she was not likely to sympathise much
either with Anna's plan for making people happy, or with those who were
willing to be made happy in such a way. A sensible woman, she thought,
will always find work, and need not look far for a home. She herself had
been handicapped in the search by her unfortunate title, yet with
patience even she had found a haven. Only the lazy and lackadaisical,
the morally worthless, that is, would, she was convinced, accept such an
offer as Anna's. It was not, however, her business. Her business was to
look after Anna's house; and she did it with a zeal and thoroughness
that struck terror into the hearts of the maid-servants. Trudi's fitful
energy was nothing to it. Trudi had introduced workmen and chaos; the
princess, with a rapidity and skill little short of amazing to anyone
unacquainted with the capabilities of the well-trained German
_Hausfrau_, cleared out the workmen and reduced the chaos to order.
Within three weeks the house was ready, and Anna, palpitating, saw the
moment approaching when the first batch of unhappy ones might be
received.

Manske's time was entirely taken up writing letters of inquiry
concerning the applicants, and it was surprising in what huge batches
they had to be weeded out. Of fifty applications received in one day,
three or four, after due inquiry, would alone remain for further
consideration; and of these three or four, after yet closer inquiry,
sometimes not one would be left.

At first Anna asked the princess's advice as well as Manske's, and it
was when she was present at the consultations that the heap into which
the letters of the unworthy were gathered was biggest. All those ladies
belonging to the _buergerliche_ or middle classes were in her eyes wholly
unworthy. If Anna had proposed to take washerwomen into her home, and
required the princess's help in brightening their lives, it would have
been given in the full measure, pressed down and running over, that
befits a Christian gentlewoman; but for the _Buergerlichen_, those
belonging to the class more immediately below her own, the princess's
feeling was only Christian so long as they kept a great way off. There
was so much good sense in