e. They wondered how it
was that they had not had an explanation sooner, and then they confessed
to each other exactly how matters stood between them and their cousins,
and ended by being more than half angry with the two young men, whom
they accused of being the real cause of the misunderstanding. Lina said
that she had been in great doubt before, but that ever since last Sunday
she had been quite certain that Mina cared for Godfrey because of her
constant tears; and Mina said that she had been miserable because of the
wicked trick Rudolph had played in church about the sermon, and that she
had been puzzled to account for Lina's tears. Lina then explained that
she had been so very sorry for poor Godfrey's disappointment. All was
made up now between the sisters, and when the dinner-bell rang they ran
down-stairs together arm in arm, looking as sweet and fresh as two
roses. Braesig, who had seated himself with his back to the light that he
might see them better, was very much astonished when he caught sight of
their happy faces. "What," he said to himself, "these two girls changed
and shy, and suffering from some secret grief? In love? Not a bit of it!
They're as merry as crickets."

The sound of the dinner-bell brought Godfrey Baldrian, or the Methodist,
as Braesig called him. Lina blushed and turned away from him, not in
anger, but because she remembered the confession she had just made in
the garret. And Braesig said to himself: "That's very odd now! Lina seems
to have taken the infection, but how can she care for a scare-crow of a
Methodist?" Braesig expressed himself too strongly, but still it must be
acknowledged that Godfrey was no beauty. Nature had not given him many
personal advantages, and he did not use those that he had in the wisest
possible way. For example his hair. He had a thick head of yellow hair
that would have provoked no criticism, and indeed would have looked
quite nice if it had only been cut properly, but unfortunately he had
taken the pictures of the beloved disciple John as his model, and had
parted his hair down the middle, and brushed it into ringlets at the
ends, though the upper part of his head showed that the real nature of
his hair was to be straight. I have nothing to say against little boys
of ten or even twelve going about with curls, and the mothers of these
same little boys would have still less objection to it than I should,
for they delight in stroking the curls lovingly out of th