"So I was sitting in the garden-parlor, and growing a little dreamy, as I still like to do, and listening abstractedly to Anna Maria's voice as she went over her accounts, half aloud, in the sitting-room close by. Klaus was in the fields again, for the first wheat was to be brought in to-day, and I was waiting for Susanna to come for a sewing lesson, but in vain. She must be asleep, I thought, half content to think so, for the heat fairly paralyzed my will-power. And so a long time passed, till a heavy step sounded on the stone flags outside, and immediately after Klaus, dusty and red with heat, came in and threw himself wearily into the nearest chair.
"'Where is Susanna?' he asked, wiping his hot forehead with his handkerchief.
"'No, Klaus, but I think it may be assumed with tolerable certainty. I know her.'
"'It is strange,' he remarked; 'I could have sworn I saw her vanish in the Darnbitz pines a little while ago.'
"'For Heaven's sake!' I cried incredulously. 'Impossible! in this heat! It is half an hour's walk from here!'
"'So I said to myself; but the gait, all the motions, the small, black-robed figure--indeed, I rode across the field at once, but of course nothing was to be heard or seen then.'
"'I will wager she is sleeping quietly up-stairs in her canopied bed, or staring at the "Mischief-maker,"' said I jestingly.
"'And now, aunt,' began Klaus again, 'I have a piece of news which will please you as it has me; but I do not know if Anna Maria--But then, it is nearly three years since that painful affair!'
"As he spoke he took a letter from the pocket of his linen coat, and looking at it said: 'Stürmer is back again, indeed has been for two weeks; I do not understand----'
"At that instant something fell clattering to the floor, and in the door-way stood Anna Maria, white as a corpse. In questioning alarm her eyes were fixed on Klaus's lips. I had never seen the strong-willed girl thus. Klaus sprang up and went toward her; I heard her say only the one word 'Stürmer.'
"'He is here, Anna Maria,' replied her brother; 'does that startle you so?'
"She shook her head, but her looks belied her.
"'I have just received this note,' continued Klaus, and he read as follows:
"'I landed here again two weeks ago, for the longing for home finally overcame me; and when one has wandered about for three years, it is time, for various reasons, to return to the ancestral home. I come from--but I will tell you all that when I see you. I have already been twice before your door, to say good-day, but--I am meanwhile of the opinion that the past should not interfere with our old friendly relations. I certainly came off conqueror! It will not be hard for Anna Maria to receive an old friend, which I have never ceased to be, and which I shall always endeavor to remain. May I come, then? To-morrow morning, after church, I had intended to make a call, if you permit it. My compliments to the ladies.