! But
what is the matter? You look angry. Has any thing happened to vex you?"

"Not exactly vexatious," replied Heinzelmann, "and yet as I saw you
sitting there so pleasantly, I was a little fretted to think that I had
promised Master Vollbracht to go into town this evening. I would much
rather stay at home with you."

"Go to town, Baptist, to-day?" asked Frau Margaret in astonishment. "And
what have you to do there?"

"Oh, it is about some town affairs," answered Baptist; "I don't myself
know rightly what they are; when Master Vollbracht told me, I did not
altogether understand, but, at all events, I promised to go for a short
hour, so as to be quit of him. You know well, Margaret, that to speak
truly, the locksmith is no special friend of mine--he is too fond of the
public-house. Still a promise is a promise, and I must keep my word; so
let us have supper quickly, for the sooner there, the sooner shall I be
back again."

Frau Margaret said nothing, although it could be seen in her face, that
her husband's going out in the evening was not at all agreeable to her.
She went and got the supper ready, Master Heinzelmann ate a few mouthfuls
hastily, and then rose up and put on his coat.

"Good-by, Margaret," he said, "good-night, children! I expect to be at
home again soon, wife."

"Go, then," she answered with a cheerful look, "and I will wait for you;
but do not stay too long."

Baptist promised, and went. Frau Margaret felt uneasy as she looked after
him. It was the first evening since their marriage that she had been left
alone in the house. When she heard the garden gate shut behind her
husband, she became fearful, and pressed her hand over her eyes, out of
which a few tears had forced their way. Presently, however, she said to
herself--"Timid heart! what matters it if you are left alone for once? It
will not happen often, for he loves me; yes, and the children too. How can
I be so silly!"

So she thought, and then put on a cheerful face, and played and talked to
the children, as though nothing had happened. But that pure gladness,
which leaps from the care-free heart as a clear spring, was wanting. She
sent the youngsters to bed earlier than usual, and placed herself at the
window, and looked silently forth into the garden, which the moon, with
its pale light, seemed to have covered with a vail of silver. Thus she
waited for her husband's return. At ten o'clock she hoped he would come;
by-and-by eleven struc