Again it began to ring.

Laender looked so innocent all the time, I could not comprehend myself; I thought it must be my imagination.

I became quite fainthearted, I denied my own hearing, and said, 'No, I have only dreamed!' and commenced reckoning and counting to employ my mind; but that did no good, and it nearly drove me mad! I sprang out of bed, and then I found out the trick: but how Laender grinned! he was swollen and red in the face with his mirth." "Do you play such jokes on your estate ?" inquired Otto, addressing himself to Wilhelm.
"No, not such refined ones!" returned the Kammerjunker; "perhaps a piece of wood, or a silly mask, is laid in your bed.

Miss Sophie gives us other clever things for amusement--tableaux and the magic-lantern.

I was once of the party.