and dust and tidy up the rooms.

The parents were in a rage. They made no bones about it. Frau
blurted out with German unreservedness:

"I packed Tekla off--the animal. She had no consideration for me.
What do you think, Herr Kirtley? She is going to be a mother. And by
Rudi. Wouldn't you have thought he would have more sense than
this--right here at home--break up my service? He let her get him
into the mess. I have no doubt it was her doings--my poor Rudi. We
have sent him away for a couple of days. I told Tekla to go--be off.
And she was out on the street--like _that_--with her bundle of
belongings under her arm. And here I am with no servant. Ach Gott!
they are all cattle, of course. One has to put up with them."

Herr was in a growling, ferocious state. He blamed Tekla. He blamed
his Frau for not knowing what was going on. It was the woman's
fault. Everything always was. His incomplete breakfast was late.

"Is there nothing left to eat in the house?" he cried out. He took
on a famished and abused air, although he had had his usual six
meals the day before. "Give me at least some cheese and bread!"

In this manner Tekla was roundly denounced for interrupting the
course of family comfort. That she had mortally sinned awakened no
attention, aroused no concern. There was no sympathy expressed for
her in her condition, no responsibility felt for her in her downfall
or anxiety about her future. Whether she would, from this misstep,
have to take to the streets for a living occurred to no one but
Kirtley.

Germans are little wrought up about such questions. There is no
shuddering as from an admitted mortal sin. Natural impulses and
facts are natural impulses and facts. Why should one be squeamish
about them or have soul burnings? In general, carnal desires meet
with no great fastidiousness in the German domestic circle. They are
rather regarded as honest and healthy like desires for food and
drink. The Teuton wife is ashamed of barrenness and considers it
proper for women to be fully sexed in feeling. Sexuality is not
something to be shrunk from, discouraged or denied, but is a candid,
copious law of Nature to be recognized.

When Rudi returned shortly from Leipsic, where it had been deemed
best for him to retire for the moment, he appeared as conceited and
noisy as if nothing had happened. He was not cowed or penitent. His
parents, who had got Villa Elsa in running order and were forgetting
the _contretemps_, alm