she went over her accounts, half aloud, in the sitting-room close by.
Klaus was in the fields again, for the first wheat was to be brought in
to-day, and I was waiting for Susanna to come for a sewing lesson, but
in vain. She must be asleep, I thought, half content to think so, for
the heat fairly paralyzed my will-power. And so a long time passed, till
a heavy step sounded on the stone flags outside, and immediately after
Klaus, dusty and red with heat, came in and threw himself wearily into
the nearest chair.

"'Where is Susanna?' he asked, wiping his hot forehead with his
handkerchief.

"'She is sleeping, probably,' I replied.

"'Are you sure of that, Aunt Rosamond?'

"'No, Klaus, but I think it may be assumed with tolerable certainty. I
know her.'

"'It is strange,' he remarked; 'I could have sworn I saw her vanish in
the Darnbitz pines a little while ago.'

"'For Heaven's sake!' I cried incredulously. 'Impossible! in this heat!
It is half an hour's walk from here!'

"'So I said to myself; but the gait, all the motions, the small,
black-robed figure--indeed, I rode across the field at once, but of
course nothing was to be heard or seen then.'

"'I will wager she is sleeping quietly up-stairs in her canopied bed, or
staring at the "Mischief-maker,"' said I jestingly.

"'And now, aunt,' began Klaus again, 'I have a piece of news which will
please you as it has me; but I do not know if Anna Maria--But then, it
is nearly three years since that painful affair!'

"As he spoke he took a letter from the pocket of his linen coat, and
looking at it said: 'Stuermer is back again, indeed has been for two
weeks; I do not understand----'

"At that instant something fell clattering to the floor, and in the
door-way stood Anna Maria, white as a corpse. In questioning alarm her
eyes were fixed on Klaus's lips. I had never seen the strong-willed girl
thus. Klaus sprang up and went toward her; I heard her say only the one
word 'Stuermer.'

"'He is here, Anna Maria,' replied her brother; 'does that startle you
so?'

"She shook her head, but her looks belied her.

"'I have just received this note,' continued Klaus, and he read as
follows:

"'MY DEAR OLD FRIEND:

"'I landed here again two weeks ago, for the longing for home
finally overcame me; and when one has wandered about for three
years, it is time, for various reasons, to return to the
ancestral home. I come from--but I will tell you a