anna
is in Dambitz," what would he say?'

"'I should like to drive over to-morrow to look after Susanna,' said I,
turning to Anna Maria, who was drawing in and out the colored wools on
the table-cover she was embroidering for Klaus.

"'I will wager, aunt, she will be back again to-morrow; do you think she
will hold out long there in that mean room, with the uncomfortable bed
on that neck-breaking sofa? Just wait; she will be here again before we
know it.'

"The next day Anna Maria was sitting with her table-cover beside my bed;
I had wrapped a rabbit-skin about my arms and shoulders, for the evil
rheumatism. Such an attack sometimes chained me to my bed for a week or
more, and this time I lay there feeling like a veritable culprit. I kept
thinking of Susanna, and this tormented me into a state of nervousness.
And there sat Anna Maria beside me, in her calm way taking one stitch
after another. I followed her large yet beautifully formed hand, and the
trefoil which grew under it; the lions supporting a shield were already
finished, and the last leaf would be done to-day. 'Fear thy God, kill
thine enemy, trust no friend,' was the strange motto of our family. It
doubtless originated in those times when races lived in perpetual feud
with one another, each ever ready for combat on the fortress of his
fathers.

"'Anna Maria!' I began, at length.

"She started up out of a deep revery. 'Shall I read the paper to you?'
she asked.

"'No, thank you, _mon ange_; but tell me, do you know if Susanna--is
she----'

"'She is still with her Isa, aunt,' replied Anna Maria. 'I packed up a
little basket of food for her this morning. Marieken carried it,
and----'

"'Well, Anna Maria?'

"'Oh, well, she sits by the old woman's bedside, Marieken tells me, and
round about her lie laces and ribbons and flowers; Susanna is making a
new hat or two for herself. Marieken says she had no eyes for my
appetizing basket; with cheeks as red as roses, she was all absorbed in
her finery.'

"'Incorrigible!' I murmured; 'Anna Maria, why have you let her stay
away? Is the old woman really so ill?' I added, out of humor.

"'Well, it did not seem to me so alarming from Marieken's account. If
you were not a patient yourself, aunt, I would have driven over.'

"I lay back with a sigh. Of course, I had to be ill just now. Out of
doors a cold wind was blowing over the bare fields; we should have an
early autumn. My good times were over, and now were c