y, humbly, "I am afraid Franziska has hurt her left
hand."

At this moment Charlie, having stuck the bottles among the reeds, comes
back, and, hearing our talk, he says, in a loud and audacious way:

"Oh, do you mean the ring? It's a pretty little thing I had about me,
and Franziska has been good enough to accept it. You can show it to
them, Franziska."

Of course he had it about him. Young men always do carry a stock of ruby
rings with them when they go fishing, to put in the noses of the fish. I
have observed it frequently.

Franziska looks timidly at Tita, and then she raises her hand, that
trembles a little. She is about to take the ring off to show it to us
when Charlie interposes:

"You needn't take it off, Franziska."

And with that, somehow, the girl slips away from among us, and Tita
is with her, and we don't get a glimpse of either of them until the
solitude resounds with our cries for luncheon.

In due time Charlie returned to London, and to Surrey with us in very
good spirits. He used to come down very often to see us; and one evening
at dinner he disclosed the fact that he was going over to the Black
Forest in the following week, although the November nights were chill
just then.

"And how long do you remain?"

"A month," he says.

"Madam," I say to the small lady at the other end of the table, "a month
from now will bring us to the 4th of December. You have lost the bet
you made last Christmas morning; when will it please you to resign your
authority?"

"Oh, bother the bet," says this unscrupulous person.

"But what do you mean?" says Charlie.

"Why," I say to him, "she laid a wager last Christmas Day that you
would not be married within a year. And now you say you mean to bring
Franziska over on the 4th of December next. Isn't it so?"

"Oh, no!" he says; "we don't get married till the spring."

You should have heard the burst of low, delightful laughter with which
Queen Tita welcomed this announcement. She had won her wager.

End of Project Gutenberg's Stories By English Authors: Germany, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES BY ENGLISH AUTHORS: ***

***** This file should be named 2071.txt or 2071.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/7/2071/

Produced by Dagny; John Bickers and David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.