e. "Yet she is an immortal soul--what does it
matter how she eats _Leberwurst_?" said Anna to herself. "What do such
trifles, such little mannerisms, really matter? I should indeed be a
miserable creature if I let them annoy me." But she turned her head
away, nevertheless, and talked assiduously to Letty.

There was no one else for her to talk to. Frau von Treumann and the
baroness had seated themselves at once one on either side of the
princess, and devoted their conversation entirely to her. In the
drawing-room later on, the same thing happened,--the three German ladies
clustering together near the sofa, and the three English being left
somehow to themselves, except for Fraeulein Kuhraeuber, who clung to them.
To avoid this division into what looked like hostile camps Anna pushed
her chair to a place midway between the groups, and tried to join,
though not very successfully, in the talk of each in turn. Outward calm
prevailed in the room, subdued voices, the tranquillity of fancy-work,
and the peace of albums; yet Anna could not avoid a chilled impression,
a feeling as though each person present were distrustful of the others,
and more or less on the defensive. Frau von Treumann, it is true, was
graciousness itself to the princess, conversing with her constantly and
amiably, and showing herself kind; but, on the other hand, the princess
was hardly gracious to Frau von Treumann. An unbiassed observer would
have said that she disapproved of Frau von Treumann, but was
endeavouring to conceal her disapproval. She busied herself with her
embroidery and talked as little as she could, receiving both the
advances of Frau von Treumann and the attentions of the baroness with
equal coldness.

As for the baroness, her doubts as to Anna's respectability were blown
away completely and forever when, on opening the drawing-room door
before supper, she had beheld no less a person than the _geborene_
Dettingen seated on the sofa. The baroness had spent her life in a
remote and tiny provincial town, but she knew the great Dettingen and
Penheim families well by name, and a princess in her opinion was a
princess, an altogether precious and admirable creature, whatever she
might choose to do. Her scruples, then, were set at rest, but her ice as
far as Anna was concerned showed no signs of thawing. All her amiability
and her efforts to produce a good impression were lavished on the
princess, who besides being by birth and marriage the gran