"Anna Maria was a perfect enigma to me; I understood the outbreak of passion of last evening as little as this decided opposition to-day. Yet the latter was less inexplicable, for she too, must have seen the sparks already glowing in Klaus's heart. But she had taken the wrong course. Any man of chivalry, if told that he must turn a weak, helpless woman out of the house where she has found a shelter, will refuse to do it; particularly if she be as young, as strikingly beautiful as Susanna, and--if he is already in love with her. To me it was an incontestable fact: Klaus loved the girl! Perhaps he did not know yet himself how much; but that he did love her I had seen and--feared.
"I came to the table in a thoroughly unpleasant frame of mind. 'To-day is the beginning of the end: what will the end be?' I said to myself, sighing. That was a strange dinner; Susanna had excused herself, Klaus was chary of words, and Anna Maria forced herself to be talkative and affable in a way quite contrary to her nature; a little red spot burned on her chin, the sign of violent agitation.
"Brockelmann announced that the old actress had suddenly arrived; to be sure, I had quite forgotten about her. Anna Maria made no answer; Klaus looked sharply at her, and then gave orders for the old woman to be given some dinner. Stürmer talked a long time about his travels, and Pastor Grüne came to coffee. The gentlemen were soon involved in a scientific conversation about the excavations at Pompeii, at which Stürmer had been present several times, and Anna Maria walked slowly up and down on the terrace, now and then casting a look at the gentlemen, through the open door of the garden-parlor.
"I sat under the shady roof of the wild-grape, and knitted, and followed her with my eyes. Anna Maria had on a light-blue linen dress, and a thin white cape over her rosy shoulders; her heavy plaits shimmered like gold, and her complexion was fresh as a flower. Anna Maria had made her toilet with especial care to-day; she was the picture of a typical North German woman, tall, fair, slender, and clear-sighted, serene, and calm.
"All at once she stopped in front of me. 'Aunt Rosamond, do you think that Susanna Mattoni has been overworked in any way? I mean, can her temporary weakness be the result of that?'