Frau Marker had grown very stout, and her hair showed the first silvery threads, otherwise she was blooming and as silent as ever.

Old Frau Brohl was simply astounding.

She had not changed in the smallest degree, time had no power over her, she was just as doubled up and colorless, and her movements just as slow as ever, her brown eyes had the same tired droop, and her low, complaining voice the old tone of suffering.

But her appetite had grown, if anything, rather larger, and, apart from one or two colds in the winter, she had not known an hour's illness during the whole time.
Needless to say, the grandmother did not come empty-handed.

She brought two cases with her, one of which contained a large quantity of excellent bottled fruit, which Malvine still preferred to any her own highly-paid cook could prepare, while the other was filled with a choice collection of fancy work.