nothing more to say, gave a deep sigh—that was her contribution. I felt the pressing necessity of making some remark, but Stephensen anticipated me.
"Is it pretty in the neighbourhood of Meissen?" he asked, evidently to let me know that he was aware of the plan.
"Oh no, I cannot say that it is. It is the contrary to that of the south, where Saxonia increases in beauty the farther one descends. Don't you know our beautiful rhyme—
"'Denn gleich hinter Meissen—
Pfui Spinne!—kommt Breissen.'"[1]
She said this, in spite of a certain nervousness, so funnily, that we all burst out laughing, her mother as heartily as any of us.
"Oh yes," she whimpered, while she dried the tears from her large cheek, "Why should you now get this sudden idea to visit Wilhelmina … when you have been away all the summer? Surely you must have had enough country air! Honestly I believe there is too much fuss made about this fresh air."
The naïve explanation of Minna's trip came as a relief, though I had an idea that it was not quite genuine. If all of us had understood the situation, it would have been too trying, and we should have felt that we might as well speak openly of what we all knew. The good woman's presence placed us on those more conventional terms which are so well fitted to hide the real emotions.
"And such cosy evenings we might have had," Mrs. Jagemann continued.… "We might, for instance, have
- ↑ "Then just after Meissen—
Damn it—lies Breissen" (Saxonian for Prussia).
