en that same evening she saw the little Gabriele merrily, and
without reproof, pulling about his curls; when she saw him join the
children at their play, and make every game which they played
instructive to them; when she saw him armed with a great paper weapon,
which he called his sword, and deal about blows to those who counted
false, thereby exciting greater activity of mind as well as more mirth,
she thought to herself, "he may eat just as much preserves as he likes;
I will take care that he never goes short of them."

If, however, the Candidate rose higher in the regards of one party,
there still was another with which his actions did not place him in the
best point of view. Brigitta, to whom the care of some few things in the
house was confided, began to look troubled, and out of sorts. For
several days, whatever her cause of annoyance might be, she preserved
silence, till one evening, when expanding the nostrils of her little
snubby nose, she thus addressed her mistress:

"The gracious lady must be so good as to give out to the cook just twice
as much coffee as usual; because if things are to go on in this way, we
cannot do with less. He, the master there, empties the little coffee-pot
himself every morning! Never, in all my life, have I seen such a
coffee-bibber!"

The following evening came a new announcement of trouble.

"Now it is not alone a coffee-bibber," said poor Brigitta, with a gloomy
countenance and wide-staring eyes, "but a calf it is, and a devourer of
rusks! What do you think, gracious lady, but the rusk-basket, which I
filled only yesterday, is to-day as good as empty--only two rusks and
two or three crumbs remaining! Then for cream! Why every morning he
empties the jug!"

"Ah, it is very good," said Elise, mildly, yet evasively, "that he
enjoys things so much."

"And only look, in heaven's name!" lamented poor Brigitta another day,
"he is also quite a sugar-rat! Why, dear, gracious lady, he must put in
at least twenty pieces of sugar into one cup of coffee, or he never
could empty a sugar-basin as he does! I must beg you to give mo the key
of the chest, that I may fill it again. God grant that all this may have
a good ending!"

Brigitta could venture to say much, for she had grown old in the house;
had carried Elise as a child in her arms; and from affection to her, had
followed her when she left her father's house: besides this, she was a
most excellent guardian for the children; but as