st gravel walk, turning to the left, then to the right, and
suddenly vanishing from sight. "Effi, that does not count; where are
you? We are not playing run away; we are playing hide-and-seek." With
these and similar reproaches the girls ran to search for her, far
beyond the circular bed and the two plane trees standing by the side
of the path. She first let them get much farther than she was from the
base and then, rushing suddenly from her hiding place, reached the
bench, without any special exertion, before there was time to say:
"one, two, three."

"Where were you?"

"Behind the rhubarb plants; they have such large leaves, larger even
than a fig leaf."

"Shame on you."

"No, shame on you, because you didn't catch me. Hulda, with her big
eyes, again failed to see anything. She is always slow." Hereupon Effi
again flew away across the circle toward the pond, probably because
she planned to hide at first behind a dense-growing hazelnut hedge
over there, and then from that point to take a long roundabout way
past the churchyard and the front house and thence back to the wing
and the base. Everything was well calculated, but before she was half
way round the pond she heard some one at the house calling her name
and, as she turned around, saw her mother waving a handkerchief from
the stone steps. In a moment Effi was standing by her.

"Now you see that I knew what I was talking about. You still have that
smock-frock on and the caller has arrived. You are never on time."

"I shall be on time, easily, but the caller has not kept his
appointment. It is not yet one o'clock, not by a good deal," she said,
and turning to the twins, who had been lagging behind, called to them:
"Just go on playing; I shall be back right away."

The next moment Effi and her mama entered the spacious drawing-room,
which occupied almost the whole ground floor of the side wing.

"Mama, you daren't scold me. It is really only half past. Why does he
come so early? Cavaliers never arrive too late, much less too early."

Mrs. von Briest was evidently embarrassed. But Effi cuddled up to her
fondly and said: "Forgive me, I will hurry now. You know I can be
quick, too, and in five minutes Cinderella will be transformed into a
princess. Meanwhile he can wait or chat with papa."

Bowing to her mother, she was about to trip lightly up the little iron
stairway leading from the drawing-room to the story above. But Mrs.
von Briest, who could be unconv