an after-dinner sleep now."
"Just listen to little round-head," said Braesig to himself. "An
after-dinner sleep indeed! But everything is settled now, and I needn't
cramp my bones up here any longer." And while Rudolph was saying that he
would like to see the old man before he went into the house, Braesig
slipped out of his hiding-place in the cherry-tree, and clinging with
both hands to the lowest branch, let his legs dangle in the air, and
shouted: "Here he is!" Bump! He came down on the ground, and stood
before the lovers with an expression on his red face which seemed to say
that he considered himself a competent judge on even the most delicate
points of feeling.

The two young people were not a little startled. Mina hid her face in
her hands as Lina had done, but she did not cry; and she would have run
away like Lina if she and uncle Braesig had not always been on the most
confidential terms with each other. She threw herself into uncle
Braesig's arms, and in her desire to hide her blushing face, she tried to
burrow her little round-head into his waistcoat-pocket, exclaiming:
"Uncle Braesig, uncle Braesig, you're a very naughty old man!" "Oh!" said
Braesig, "you think so, do you?" "Yes," answered Rudolph, who had mounted
his high horse, "you ought to be ashamed of listening to what you were
not intended to hear." "Moshoo Rudolph," said the old bailiff stiffly,
"I may as well tell you once for all, that shame is a thing that must
never be mentioned in connection with me, and if you think that your
grand airs will have any effect upon me, you're very much, mistaken."
Rudolph saw clearly that such was the case, and as he did not want to
quarrel with the old man for Mina's sake, he relented a little, and
said more gently that he would think nothing more of what had occurred,
if Braesig could assure him that he had got into the tree by accident,
but still he considered that Braesig ought to have coughed, or done
something to make his presence known, instead of sitting still and
listening to the whole story from A to Z. "Oh," said Braesig, "I ought to
have _coughed,_ you say, but I _groaned_ loud enough, I can tell you,
and you couldn't have helped hearing me if you hadn't been so much taken
up with what you yourself were about. But _you_ ought to be ashamed of
yourself for having fallen in love with Mina without Mrs. Nuessler's
leave." Rudolph replied that that was his own affair, that no one had a
right to meddle, and