al and an expense?
Canst thou not live, except in luxury? Or walk, except on carpets? Or
eat, except thy soup be not of chocolate? Go to the ants, thou sluggard;
consider their ways, and be wise." And she wrapped herself in her cloak,
and frowned defiance at that other girl.

She was standing scowling at herself with great disapproval when the
housemaid, who had been searching for her everywhere, came to tell her
that the Herr Oberinspector was downstairs, and had sent up to know if
his visit were convenient.

It was not at all convenient; and Anna thought that he might have spared
her this first evening at least. But she supposed that she must go down
to him, feeling somehow unequal to sending so authoritative a person
away.

She found him standing in the inner hall with a portfolio under his arm.
He was blowing his nose, making a sound like the blast of a trumpet, and
waking the echoes. Not even that could he do quietly, she thought, her
new sense of proprietorship oddly irritated by a nose being blown so
aggressively in her house. Besides, they were her echoes that he was
disturbing. She smiled at her own childishness.

She greeted him kindly, however, in response to his elaborate
obeisances, and shook hands on seeing that he expected to be shaken
hands with, though she had done so twice already that afternoon; and
then she let herself be ushered by him into the drawing-room, a room on
the garden side of the house, with French windows, and bookshelves, and
a huge round polished table in the middle.

It had been one of the two rooms used by Uncle Joachim, and was full of
traces of his visits. She sat down at a big writing-table with a green
cloth top, her feet plunged in the long matted hairs of a grey rug, and
requested Dellwig to sit down near her, which he did, saying
apologetically, "I will be so free."

The servant, Marie, brought in a lamp with a green shade, shut the
shutters, and went out again on tiptoe; and Anna settled herself to
listen with what patience she could to the loud voice that jarred so on
her nerves, fortifying herself with reminders that it was her duty, and
really taking pains to understand him. Nor did she say a word, as she
had done to the lawyer, that might lead him to suppose she did not
intend living there.

But Dellwig's ceaseless flow of talk soon wearied her to such an extent
that she found steady attention impossible. To understand the mere words
was in itself an effort, and