"You see for yourself that my mistress wishes me to tell her." "Oh, what is it--what have you heard ?" cried the widow plaintively.

"Do not keep me in this agony any longer!" And she sat down again nervously in her chair, gazing from one to the other in mute entreaty and looking as if she were going to faint.
"There now, see what you've done!" said Lorischen, hastening to Madame Dort's side.

"I told you what it would be if you blurted it out like that!" Burgher Jans' eyes grew quite wide with astonishment beneath the broad rims of his tortoise-shell spectacles, giving him more than ever the appearance of an owl.
"Peace, woman!" he exclaimed.

"I--" "Yes, that's it, dear mistress," interrupted the old nurse, half laughing, half crying, as she knelt down beside the widow's chair and put her arm round her caressingly.

"There's peace proclaimed at last, and the dear young Herr will come home again to you now!" "Peace ?" repeated the widow, looking up with an anxious stare from one to the other.
"Yes, peace, most worthy lady," said Burgher Jans pompously in his ordinary bland voice; adding immediately afterwards for Lorischen's especial benefit--"and I was the first to tell you of it, after all." "Never mind," replied that worthy, too much overpowered with emotion at the happiness of the widow to contest the point.