"The clear voice with which Anna Maria joined in the singing drew my
looks to her again. She sang quietly with the congregation, but a
crimson flush of deep agitation lay on her face; it was evidently
excessively painful to her to see him again.

"What the sermon was about on that day I cannot tell, for before the
clergyman ascended the pulpit something occurred which nearly put an end
to the devotions of all the small congregation and obliged me to leave
the church.

"I had fixed my eyes steadily on Stuermer, as if I could not look my fill
at the man's handsome curly head; and the good God surely forgave me,
for I was as fond of Edwin as if he were my own child. All at once,
during the singing, I saw him start and look intently across to me; and,
following the direction of his gaze, I observed--Susanna. She had on a
white muslin dress, her neck and arms lightly covered by the misty
material; she held her hat in her hand, her black hair clustered in rich
curls about her small head; a white rose was placed carelessly in her
hair, and a bunch of the same flowers rose and fell on her bosom, and as
white as they was her sweet face as she raised it again after a short
prayer.

"Most beautiful was this young creature, but, may God forgive me! I was
bitterly angry with her for being so and for coming to church dressed up
as if for a ball. 'Incorrigible comedian blood,' I scolded to myself. I
thanked God that Klaus could not see her from his seat, and gave Stuermer
an unfriendly look because he kept looking over at our pew. All at once,
as the clergyman was singing the liturgy, Susanna put her hand to her
forehead, as if to grasp something there, and then sank back silently,
with closed eyes, into her seat.

"I cannot tell now the exact order in which all this happened; I only
remember that a chair was overturned with a loud noise, that the
clergyman was silent for an instant, and that there was a movement among
the congregation; at the same time Klaus left our pew, carrying out the
white figure in his arms, like a feather. I rose at once to follow him.
Anna Maria's head was bent low over her hymn-book; was she going to take
no notice of the affair? But now she slowly rose, and went behind me
down the narrow, creaking flight of steps which led up outside the
church to our pew; it was provided with a wooden roof as a protection
against wind and storms, and the ivy which grew over the whole church
adorned it like a bridal arc