would be at
home in a minute now, and her heart began to beat loudly. If she only
knew what it was.

The porter opened the carriage door and she got out and ran up the
stairs to Jenny's apartment. The entrance door of her mother's
apartment stood open. No one was to be seen and she entered the hall.
How dear and familiar everything looked! Even the tall clock lifted up
its voice, and struck the quarter before two. She took off her cloak
and went to her mother's room. Here, too, the door was ajar. Just as
she was going to enter she suddenly drew back her hand.

"And I tell you, Ottilie, it will be the worst act of your life, if you
fling all this in the child's face without the slightest preparation.
Whether it is true or false why should you destroy her young happiness?
There are other ways and means."

It was Uncle Henry. He spoke in a tone of the deepest vexation.

"Shall she hear it from strangers?" cried the voice of her weeping
mother; "the whole town is ringing with it, and is she to go about as
if she were blind and deaf?"

"I am trembling all over," Gertrude now heard Jenny say; "it is
outrageous, we are made forever ridiculous. It was only last
evening that I said to Mrs. S----, 'You can't imagine what an idyllic
Arcadian happiness has its dwelling out there in Niendorf.'"

"Confound your logic! I tell you--" cried the little man angrily. But
he stopped suddenly, for there on the threshold stood Gertrude Linden.

"Are you talking of us?" she asked, her terrified eyes wandering over
the group and resting at length on her mother, who at sight of her had
sunk back weeping in her chair.

"Yes, child."

The old man hastened towards her and tried to draw her away.

"It's a thoughtless whim of your mother to send for you here; nothing
at all has happened; really, it is only some stupid gossip, a
misunderstanding perfectly absurd. Come across to the other room and I
will explain it all."

"No, no, uncle, I must know it, must know it all."

She withdrew her hand from his and went up to her mother.

"Here I am, mamma; now tell me everything, but quickly, I entreat you."

She looked down on the weeping woman with a face that was deathly pale,
standing motionless before her in her light summer costume. Only the
strings of her bonnet, which were tied on the side in a simple bow,
rose and fell quickly, and bore witness to her great agitation.

"I can't tell her," sobbed Mrs. Baumhagen, "you tell her, Jenny.