was again master of myself, which, until then, I had hardly been. My first idea was to creep away, for I did not doubt that, if she had wanted to come, she would already have been there. But perhaps she had gone up to fetch something for the coffee-table, or she had been prevented from coming, and a message was waiting for me. This explanation of her absence I offered to myself, and then refused it as a weakness of my poor soul, which dared not look matters straight in the face.
A rattling stone, or an indistinct vision of something which moved, made me look in the opposite direction, down towards the river. There, at the little well, hardly fifty yards from me, a figure rose into view.…
It was Minna.
I wanted to run to meet her, but Hertz had already discovered me and called out, "Mr. Fenger, do hurry up, do hurry up!" I also saw that he waved his hand, and though I did not understand the meaning of all this excitement, I obeyed willingly. When running at top speed, I had reached the verandah, I nearly knocked over a long, bony woman, who rushed out of the door with a bag and a plaid in her hands.
"At last! What a good thing that you came!" Mr. Hertz said.
"We nearly sent for you, but Minna insisted that you were sure to come."
"Just imagine, we are off to Prague this evening! Yes, in a minute."
"But we are not going to drive you away for that reason. On the contrary, we hope you will accompany us for a little way. The express does not stop here, so we are obliged to go on to Schandau, and we will do that by boat. The weather is beautiful now, so you might as well take
