long intervals
with farms and their little groups of trees, and here and there with
windmills working furiously in the gale. The wind was icy, and the
December snow still lay in drifts in the ditches. In that leaden
landscape, made up of grey and brown and black, the patches of winter
rye were quite startling in their greenness.

Susie thought it the most God-forsaken country she had ever seen, and
expressed this opinion plainly on her face and in her attitudes without
any need for opening her lips, shuddering back ostentatiously into her
corner, wrapping herself with elaborate care in her furs, and behaving
as slaves to duty sometimes do when the paths they have to tread are
rough.

After driving along the _chaussee_ for about an hour, they passed a big
house standing among trees back from the road on the right, and a little
farther on came to a small village. The carriage, pulled up with a jerk,
and looking eagerly round the hood Anna found they had come to a
standstill in front of a new red-brick building, whose steps were
crowded with children. Two or three men and some women were with the
children. Two of the men appeared to be clergymen, and the elder, a
middle-aged, mild-faced man, came down the steps, and bowing profoundly
proceeded to welcome Anna solemnly, on behalf of those children from
Kleinwalde who attended this school, to her new home. He concluded that
Anna was the person to be welcomed because he could see nothing of the
lady in the other corner but her eyes, and they looked anything but
friendly; whereas the young lady on the left was leaning forward and
smiling and holding out her hand.

He took it, and shook it slowly up and down, while he begged her to
allow the hood of the carriage to be put back, so that the children from
her village, who had walked three miles to welcome her, might be able to
see her; and on Anna's readily agreeing to this, himself helped the
coachman with his own white-gloved hands to put it down. Susie was
therefore exposed to the full fury of the blast, and shrank still
farther into her corner--an interesting and tantalising object to the
school-children, a dark, mysterious combination of fur, cocks' feathers,
and black eyebrows.

Then the clergyman, hat in hand, made a speech. He spoke distinctly, as
one accustomed to speaking often and long, and Anna understood every
word. She was wholly taken aback by these ceremonies, and had no idea of
what she should say in reply,