But her turn came next.
"Well, little girl," he went on, leaning back in his chair, "mother
tells me wonderful things about you. You do the work of a bailiff."
"Of a housewife, you mean," she replied; and then blushed deeply, for
she felt that she had said something silly.
"Oh, indeed," he laughed, and shook his finger at her, "not quite so
far as that yet. You are not in such a hurry to become housewives, are
you, children?"
Hertha drew herself rigidly erect. Her lips trembled with anger.
"I like work," she said, "and people who scoff at it are those who have
forgotten the way to work."
He put down his coffee-cup, which had been halfway to his mouth,
in sheer amazement, and stared at her silently for a moment. Then
he said--
"Upon my soul! You seem to be a snappish little lady. I must take care
in future."
Grandmamma now came to the rescue. Anxiously she took the girl's head
between her dear old hands.
"She doesn't mean it," she said, and smoothed her over eyes and mouth,
as if she would fain have wiped out the naughty speech.
Hertha was sorry with a feeling of dull regret; but she would rather
have bitten her tongue out than let a word of apology pass her lips.
Conversation did not flow easily again, and Hertha, before she had
emptied her second cup of coffee, ran off as if she were a hunted
animal. When she reached her room, everything seemed to swim before her
in a damp mist.
She went to her glass and said to herself, "I really didn't mean to be
rude."
Elly came after her. She scarcely knew at first what to say as she
stood there in her finery, looking so round and pretty with her pink
cheeks and innocent blue eyes. At last she said--
"You were simply odious. I could never have been so odious;" and she
glanced down lovingly at her ribbon bows.