part in genteel
company," as the lady expressed herself. She could never forget how, at
the Reformation Festival, when only the singers sang in the church, aunt
began singing with them out of her book, so that the churchwarden was
forced to beg her to be silent; but this she took very ill, and declared
she had as notch right as the others to praise God, and then sang in
defiance. Had she not been "aunt," and not belonged to the family to
which she did, she would certainly have been turned out.

She was now the last person who entered and took her place at table.
Half an hour had she been sought after before she was found. She had
stood at the end of the garden, before the wooden trellis. Grass had
been mown in the field behind the garden, and made into a rick; to see
this she had gone to the trellis, the odor had agreeably affected
her; she had pressed her face against the trellis-work, and from
contemplation of it had fallen into thought, or rather out of thought.
There she was found, and the dreamer was shaken into motion. She was
again right lively, and laughed each time that Otto looked at her. He
had his seat between Maren and the lady of the house, at the upper end
of the table. Maren was a very pretty girl--little, somewhat round,
white and red, and well-dressed. A vast number of bows, and a great
variety of colors, were her weak side. She was reading at this time
"Cabal and Love."

"Thou art reading it in German!" said the mother.

"Yes, it must be a beautiful piece. I speak German very well, but when I
wish to read it I get on too slowly with it: I like to get to the end of
a book!"

The husband had his place at the head of the table. A little black cap
sat smoothly on his gray hair, and a pair of clever eyes sparkled in his
countenance. With folded hands he prayed a silent prayer, and then bowed
his head, before he allowed the dinner to be served. Rosalie sat beside
him. Her neighbor on the right seemed very talkative. He was an old
soldier, who in his fortieth year had gone as lieutenant with the land's
troops, and had permission to wear the uniform, and therefore sat there
in a kind of military coat, and with a stiff cravat. He was already deep
in Polignac's ministry and the triumph of the July days; but he had the
misfortune to confound Lafitte and Lafayette together. The son of the
house only spoke of bull-calves. The lady at the table was a little
mamsell from Holstebro, who sat beside him, dressed l