can
do nothing!'

"'Certainly, Anna Maria!' I was glad to have, in a certain degree, a
slight claim on the girl. 'Do you like knitting, Susanna?' I asked.

"She laughed and shook her head. 'Oh, no, no! I grow dizzy when I see
knitting always round and round.'

"Anna Maria did not seem to hear this answer. 'Fraeulein von Hegewitz
will teach you netting and plain knitting,' she said; 'with me you shall
learn to understand the mysteries of housekeeping. And now we will have
breakfast, and then begin at once. Klaus has been in the field for a
long time already,' she added; 'the first grass is to be cut to-day.'

"And they went. Susanna tripped along, with hanging head, behind Anna
Maria. 'Is she pursuing the right method with this child?' I wondered.
'With her energy she will destroy all at once, all the results of former
education; but it surely is not possible. God help her to the right
way!'

"Later, as I was taking my walk through the garden, I saw Susanna coming
along by the pond; she did not walk, she actually flew, with
outstretched arms, as if she would press to her heart the green tops of
the old trees, the golden sunshine, and all the birds singing so
jubilantly to-day, and all nature. Her short skirts were flying, the
woollen wrap had disappeared, and her white shoulders emerged like wax
from the deep black of her dress. Indescribably charming she looked,
thus rushing along; she must have escaped somehow from Anna Maria. Close
by my hiding-place she stood still, and looked up at the blue sky; then,
singing lightly, she stooped, picked a narcissus and fastened the white
flowers in her bosom, and then put her hand into her dress pocket, and
drew out something which she put quickly into her mouth, but which did
not interfere with her singing, for now as she went on she trilled the
words:

'Batti, batti, o bel Masetto
la tua povera Zerlina.'

"I followed her slowly, and observed lying in the path a little object
wrapped in white paper, which she had evidently lost. 'A bonbon! Well,
that is the height of folly!' said I, taking it up in vexation. 'One
could not expect anything different from such bringing up.' And as I
unwrapped the thing, I found in it a French motto, a more sugary and
frivolous one than which could scarcely have been composed in the time
of Louis XIV., supposing that bonbon mottoes were known at that time.
'If Anna Maria knew of this, with her pure, maidenly mind!' I thought,
shak