e Baron, however, laughed loudly and placing his arms akimbo, said:
"You might just as well give up all desire for dance and play; I
withdraw the permission accorded by my mother, you shall take care of
the house. Is there nothing then for her to do today?" he continued,
talking to himself. Frederika whispered something to him. "Right," he
shouted, "she shall comb the flax until late at night; do you hear?"
Anna, completely bewildered, nodded her head, and then sank down
powerless on her knees; at the same time, however, she instinctively
snatched up a brass utensil, and, while the hot, uncontrollable tears
overflowed her eyes, she began to scour it bright.

The gardener had witnessed the foregoing scene from a distance. Fresh
and blooming as she was, he had long pursued her with attentions, but in
vain; coming up at that moment, he greeted her and asked maliciously how
she was? "Oh, oh," she moaned, quivering spasmodically, and springing,
up she clutched at the sneering fellow's breast and face.

"Madwoman," he cried, growing frightened, and, defending himself with
all his masculine strength, pushed her away. She stared after him with
wide-open eyes as though not realizing what she had done; then, as if
coming to her senses, returned to her work, which she continued without
interruption, except at times unconsciously heaving a loud sigh, until
at midday she was called to the kitchen to dinner. Here nothing but
faces expressing malicious joy at her discomfiture awaited her, and more
or less suppressed laughter and tittering, which grew stronger and more
pitiless as she continued to gaze down at her plate with burning cheeks,
and replied not a word to the volley of allusions.

The maids, already partly decked out in their finery, exchanged
bantering remarks, bearing unmistakable reference to her, on the score
of the lovers whom they had found, or hoped to find, and the flat-nosed
scullion, encouraged to commit the impertinence by the winks of the head
farm-hand and the coachman, asked Anna if he might not borrow her
red-flowered apron and the hat with the gay-colored ribbons that
Frederick, the Major's man, had given her at Christmas. She would
certainly not need these things in the flax-room, he said, and he hoped
by means of them to win the good graces of a girl who had no finery.

"Boy," she cried with white trembling lips, "I'll not cook you any milk
soup another time when you are sick in bed, and no one bothers hi