ly be just and right."

Fraeulein Kuhraeuber's approval of this sentiment was so entire that she
seized Anna's hand and kissed it fervently. Anna laughed while this was
going on, and her eyes grew brighter. She had not wanted gratitude, but
now that it had come it was very encouraging after all, and very
warming. She put one arm impulsively round the Fraeulein's neck and
kissed her, and this was practically the first kiss that lady had ever
received, for the perfunctory embraces of reluctantly dutiful aunts can
hardly be called by that pretty name.

"Now," said Anna, with a happy laugh, "we are going to be friends for
ever. Come, let us go down. That was the supper bell."

And they went downstairs together, appearing in the doorway of the
drawing-room arm in arm, as though they had loved each other for years.

"As though they were twins," muttered the baroness to Frau von Treumann,
who shrugged one shoulder slightly by way of reply.

CHAPTER XVI

But in spite of this little outburst of gratitude and appreciation from
Fraeulein Kuhraeuber, the first evening of the new life was a
disappointment. The Fraeulein, who entered the room so happily under the
impression of that recent kiss, became awkward and uncomfortable the
moment she caught sight of the others; lapsing, indeed, into a quite
pitiful state of nervous flutter on being brought for the first time
within the range of the princess's critical and unsympathetic eye. Her
experience had not included princesses, and, as she made a series of
agitated curtseys, deeming one altogether insufficient for so great a
lady, she felt as though that cold eye were piercing her through easily,
and had already discovered the inmost recess of her soul, where lay, so
carefully hidden, the memory of the postman. Every time the princess
looked at her, a sudden vivid consciousness of the postman flamed up
within her, utterly refusing to be extinguished by the soothing
recollection that he had been angelic for thirty years. That obviously
experienced eye and those pursed lips upset her so completely that she
made no remark whatever during the meal that followed, but sat next to
Anna and ate _Leberwurst_ in a kind of uneasy dream; and she ate it with
a degree of emphasis so unusual among the polite and so disastrous to
the peace of the ultra-fastidious that Anna felt there really was some
slight excuse for the frequent and lengthy stares that came from the
other end of the tabl