ame in to us; it sounded as if he were
giving various orders; now it came nearer in the hall, then the steps
retreated, and at last reechoed the creaking of the front door.

"'He is going!' shrieked Anna Maria, 'he is going, and I have not seen
him, and he has not asked for me!'

"'No, no, my child,' I sought to calm her, 'he is not going away, he
cannot go; whither should he? Only be calm; he wants to speak to the
bailiff, or to see about his baggage. Let me go, I will find out; and
you--come, sit down quietly in your place. I will bring Klaus to you, I
promise you.'

"It was an easy thing for me to lead her back from the door and push her
to the sofa; the tall, strong girl seemed stunned by anxiety and
weariness.

"I kissed her forehead and hurried out; Brockelmann was in the hall,
coming toward me with rapid steps. She looked heated, and her white cap
was all awry on her gray hair. She carried a lighted candle in one hand,
and with the other quickly unfastened her great bunch of keys from her
belt. The housemaid followed her with a basket of fire-wood.

"'Great heavens, gracious Fraeulein,' said the old woman, when I asked,
in surprise, the meaning of her haste; 'if I knew myself! The hall is to
be heated and lighted; in an hour everything must be ready, and the
dust-covers haven't been taken off for a whole year in there. I think
the master has lost his head!' And with trembling hands she unlocked the
folding-doors which led to the two rooms which, under the names of the
'Hall' and the 'Red Room,' had been, from my earliest youth, opened only
on particularly important occasions. Here was formerly assembled,
several times a year, a very aristocratic company, who, after a fine,
stiff dinner-party, would close the evening with a dance; here had been
held, for generations, the christening and wedding feasts of the
Hegewitzes; here, too, had many a coffin stood, before it was carried
out to the vault in the garden below.

"What did Klaus mean to do to-day? Involuntarily I followed Brockelmann
into the hall; the candle lighted the great room but faintly; its feeble
light made here and there a prismatic drop among the pendants of the
crystal chandelier sparkle, and the gray-covered pieces of furniture
stood about like ghosts. The old woman began to arrange things in the
greatest haste, and under the hands of the maid the first feeble flame
was soon flickering up in the fire-place. I beheld it as in a dream.

"'What