w whither she had gone, in order to spare her another
painful meeting.

A waiting-maid entering through one of the open doors just at this
moment, he determined to ask her about the Fraeulein. But when he called
to the tidy-looking girl, and she turned her head toward him, a
half-joyful, half-embarrassed cry of surprise escaped them both. A
little more and the girl would have let the mugs fall from her hands.
Trembling and blushing she put down her load on a chair, and covered
her face with her hands.

"What a queer place to meet _you_ in, Zenz!" said Felix, going up to
her kindly and holding out his hand. "How long have you been here? But
you don't know me any longer!--or won't you give me your hand because
you are angry with me?"

The girl stood motionless, leaning against the wall and deeply flushed,
her hands outstretched, with the fingers wide-spread as if in
supplication. She was dressed much more daintily than the waiter-girls
down-stairs; her thick red hair, hanging in two heavy braids down her
back, was wound around with a little string of corals, and her arms
were bare to the elbow. Her charming figure showed to advantage in its
short dress and tight-fitting bodice, and a little rose in her bosom
set off the whiteness of her neckerchief and of her little coquettish
waitress's apron. It was no wonder she found suitors enough out here in
the country, and could play the prude toward the young boatman.

"Well, Zenz," Felix began again, for she still remained silent, "is it
all over with our old friendship? You ran away from me once so
treacherously, you naughty child--I searched every corner for you--but
I bear you no malice on that score. Look here, perhaps you can tell
me what has become of the young Fraeulein?--the tall one with the
water-proof? She is not with the others."

"I know the one you mean well enough," the girl answered, suddenly
growing quite unembarrassed, for he behaved so coolly and seemed to
have forgotten all the past. "You mean the handsome one who has
something distinguished about her, more than all the rest. She couldn't
stand it long in the hot rooms, but had a chamber given her up-stairs,
so as to be all alone, for she had such a terrible headache, she said.
Do you know her? But of course you do; you came with the party. Why, I
shouldn't wonder if she were your--"

She broke off and peered in his face, with a sly look. Something of her
old frivolity flickered up in it; but then she