the easy-chair would not bear the bright sunlight out-of-doors.
They carried it back together.

"Sha'n't we go to meet them?" said the Major, who had taken out his
spy-glass; "just look through,--stop, I'll alter it,--there; I think
there's somebody in sight down yonder."

Fraeulein Milch begged him to be quiet, and the Major looked now as if
he were ready to weep. Laying his hand on Fraeulein Milch's shoulder, he
said,--

"It's hard--very hard--cruel--bad--very bad--very cruel that I can't
say, Here, Frau Dournay, here is my wife."

Fraeulein Milch wheeled about swiftly, and there was a freezing coldness
in her whole demeanor.

"For Heaven's sake, what's the matter?"

The dog barked as if she would say, "What's all this? What do you look
so angry for?"

"I'm quiet now--I'm quiet now! Be easy, Laadi," said the Major
soothingly. He was so exhausted, that he was obliged to sit down; he
tried to light his long pipe, but it went out.

He stood by the garden-fence, drumming with his fingers upon one of the
rails, and lost in so deep a reverie, that the guests stood before him,
without his having noticed their approach.

The meeting of the Mother and Fraeulein Milch was not so cordial as the
Major had hoped it would be. Each seemed to hold back a little, and
they evidently gave each other a close inspection. But the Major
laughed inwardly when he thought of the sweet cream, which Fraeulein
Milch poured out just as usual, without noticing it.

He soon tapped with his stump-finger upon his forehead, saying to
himself,--

"She's much too smart to make any fuss before strangers. O, she's wise;
one can't know how wise she is!"

How he would have liked to say that to the Professorin! But he resolved
to speak as little as possible to-day, and leave the field wholly to
Fraeulein Milch.

Just the right subject of conversation did not seem to come up; but
when the Doctor's wife was mentioned, Fraeulein Milch expressed her
respect for the noble woman, who had just the right sort of
aristocracy.

"And what do you mean by the right sort of aristocracy?"

"It seems to me to receive every one's respect and honor."

"Exactly so, and that perhaps is still truer of Frau Dournay,"
interposed the Major.

It seemed to him that Fraeulein Milch sneered a trifle, and it was not
pleasant to him.

The Mother asked Fraeulein Milch if she were a native of this part of
the country.

She answered curtly in the negative.

At la