afterwards, there was a quadrille. Fritz, who was resolved to put down tyranny, stood up with Adela for the quadrille also. “I am so glad,” said Lotta to herself. “I will wait till this is over, and then I will say good-night to Marie, and will go home.” Three or four men had asked her to dance, but she had refused. She would not dance to-night at all. She was inclined, she thought, to be a little serious, and would go home. At last Fritz returned to her, and bade her come to supper. He was resolved to see how far his mode of casting off tyranny might be successful, so he approached her with a smile, and offered to take her to his table as though nothing had happened.
“My friend,” she said, “your table is laid for four, and the places will all be filled.”
“The table is laid for five,” said Fritz.
“It is one too many. I shall sup with my friend, Herr Crippel.”
“Herr Crippel is not here.”
“Is he not? Ah me! then I shall be alone, and I must go to bed supperless. Thank you, no, Herr Planken.”
“And what will Marie say?”
“I hope she will enjoy the nice dainties you will give her. Marie is all right. Marie’s fortune is made. Woe is me! my fortune is to seek. There is one thing certain, it is not to be found here in this room.”
Then Fritz turned on his heel and went away; and as he went Lotta saw the figure of a man, as he made his way slowly and hesitatingly into the saloon from the outer passage. He was dressed in a close frock-coat, and had on a hat of which she knew the shape as well as she did the make of her own gloves. “If he has not come after all!” she said to herself. Then she turned herself a little round, and drew her chair somewhat into an archway, so that Herr Crippel should not see her readily.
The other four had settled themselves at their table, Marie having said a word of reproach to Lotta as she passed. Now, on a sudden, she got up from her seat and crossed to her friend.
“Herr Crippel is here,” she said.
“Of course he is here,” said Lotta.
“But you did not expect him?”
“Ask Fritz if I did not say I would sup with Herr Crippel. You ask him. But I shall not, all the same. Do not say a word. I shall steal away when nobody is looking.”
The musician came wandering up the room, and had looked into every corner before he had even found the supper-table at which the four were sitting. And then he did not see Lotta. He took off his hat as he addressed Marie, and asked some questions as to the absent one.
“She is waiting for you somewhere, Herr Crippel,” said Fritz, as he filled Adela’s glass with wine.
“For me?” said Herr Crippel as he looked round. “No, she does not expect me.” And in the meantime Lotta had left her seat, and was hurrying away to the door.
“There! there!” said Marie; “you will be too late if you do not run.”
Then Herr Crippel did run, and caught Lotta as she was taking her hat from the old woman, who had the girls’ hats and shawls in charge near the door.
“What! Herr Crippel, you at Sperl’s? When you told me expressly, in so many words, that you would not come! That is not behaving well to me, certainly.”
“What, my coming? Is that behaving bad?”
“No; but why did you say you would not come when I asked you? You have come to meet some one. Who is it?”
“You, Lotta; you.”
“And yet you refused me when I asked you! Well, and now you are here, what are you going to do? You will not dance.”
“I will dance with you, if you will put up with me.”
“No, I will not dance. I am too old. I have given it up. I shall come to Sperl’s no more after this. Dancing is a folly.”
“Lotta, you are laughing at me now.”
“Very well; if you like, you may have it so.” By this time he had brought her back into the room, and was walking up and down the length of the saloon with her. “But it is no use our walking about here,” she said. “I was just going home, and now, if you please, I will go.”
“Not yet, Lotta.”
“Yes; now, if you please.”
“But why are you not supping with them?”
“Because it did not suit me. You see there are four. Five is a foolish number for a supper party.”
“Will you sup with me, Lotta?” She did not answer him at once. “Lotta,” he said, “if you sup with me now you must sup with me always. How shall it be?”
“Always? No. I am very hungry now, but I do not want supper always. I cannot sup with you always, Herr Crippel.”
“But you will to-night?”
“Yes, to-night.”
“Then it shall be always.”
And the musician marched up to a table, and threw his hat down, and ordered such a supper that Lotta Schmidt was frightened. And when presently Carl Stobel and Marie Weber came up to their table—for Fritz Planken did not come near them again that evening—Herr Crippel bowed courteously to the diamond-cutter, and asked him when he was to be married. “Marie says it shall be next Sunday,” said Carl.
“And I will be married the Sunday afterwards,” said Herr Crippel. “Yes; and there is my wife.”
And he pointed across the table with both his hands to Lotta Schmidt
“Herr Crippel, how can you say that?” said Lotta.
“Is it not true, my dear?”
“In fourteen days! No, certainly not. It is out of the question.”
But, nevertheless, what Herr Crippel said came true, and on the next Sunday but one he took Lotta Schmidt home to his house as his wife.
“It was all because of the zither,” Lotta said to her old mother-in-law. “If he had not played the zither that night I should not have been here now.”
THE ADVENTURES OF FRED PICKERING.
