FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147  
148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>   >|  
them, hardly letting them drink their coffee before she wanted to give them more. But it was no good; she was and remained nervous, and her hand shook so when she lifted it that she was ashamed. Fraeulein Kuhraeuber was the one who stared least. If she caught Anna's eye her own drooped, whereas the eyes of the other two never wavered. She sat on the edge of her chair in a way made familiar to Anna by intercourse with Frau Manske, and whatever anybody said she nodded her head and murmured "_Ja, eben_." She was obviously ill at ease, and dropped the sugar-tongs when she was offered sugar with a loud clatter on to the varnished floor, nearly sweeping the cups off the table in her effort to pick them up again. "Oh, do not mind," said Anna, "Letty will pick them up. They are stupid things--much too big for the sugar-basin." "_Ja, eben_," said Fraeulein Kuhraeuber, sitting up and looking perturbed. The other two removed their eyes from Anna's face for a moment to stare at the Fraeulein. The baroness, a small, fair person with hair arranged in those little flat curls called kiss-me-quicks on each cheek, and wide-open pale blue eyes, and a little mouth with no lips, or lips so thin that they were hardly visible, sat very still and straight, and had a way of moving her eyes round from one face to the other without at the same time moving her head. She was unmarried, and was probably about thirty-five, Anna thought, but she had always evaded questions in the correspondence about her age. Fraeulein Kuhraeuber was also thirty-five, and as large and blooming as the baroness was small and pale. Frau von Treumann was over fifty, and had had more sorrows, judging from her letters, than the other two. She sat nearest Anna, who every now and then laid her hand gently on hers and let it rest there a moment, in her determination to thaw all frost from the very beginning. "Oh, I quite forgot," she said cheerfully--the amount of cheerfulness she put into her voice made her laugh at herself--"I quite forgot to introduce you to each other." "We did it at the station," said Frau von Treumann, "when we found ourselves all entering your carriage." "The Elmreichs are connected with the Treumanns," observed the baroness. "We are such a large family," said Frau von Treumann quickly, "that we are connected with nearly everybody." The tone was cold, and there was a silence. Neither of them, apparently, was connected with Fraeulein Kuhr
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147  
148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Fraeulein
 

Treumann

 

baroness

 
Kuhraeuber
 

connected

 

forgot

 

moment

 

moving

 

thirty

 

judging


blooming

 
sorrows
 

thought

 
straight
 
visible
 

unmarried

 

questions

 

correspondence

 

evaded

 

letters


cheerfully

 

carriage

 

Elmreichs

 

Treumanns

 

entering

 
station
 

observed

 

silence

 

Neither

 

apparently


family

 

quickly

 
introduce
 

gently

 

nearest

 

determination

 

cheerfulness

 

amount

 

beginning

 

removed


intercourse
 
Manske
 

familiar

 

wavered

 

nodded

 
offered
 

clatter

 
dropped
 
murmured
 

drooped