Germans -- Foreign countries -- Fiction; Sisters -- Fiction; Twins -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Mind? Turn to? It was what they were languishing for. It was what, in
the arid hours under the ilex tree, collected so ignominiously round
Mrs. Bilton's knee they had been panting for, like thirsty dogs with
their tongues out. And such is the peculiar blessedness of work that
instantly, the moment there was any to be done, everything that was
tangled and irritating fell quite naturally into its proper place.
Magically life straightened itself out smooth, and left off being
difficult. _Arbeit und Liebe_, as their mother used to say, dropping
into German whenever a sentence seemed to her to sound better that
way--_Arbeit und Liebe_: these were the two great things of life; the
two great angels, as she assured them, under whose spread-out wings lay
happiness.
With a hungry zeal, with the violent energy of reaction, the Annas fell
upon work. They started unpacking. All the things they had bought in
Acapulco, the linen, the china, the teaspoons, the feminine touches that
had been piled up waiting in the barn, were pulled out and undone and
carried indoors. They sorted, and they counted, and they arranged on
shelves. Anna-Rose flew in and out with her arms full. Anna-Felicitas
slouched zealously after her, her arms full too when she started, but
not nearly so full when she got there owing to the way things had of
slipping through them and dropping on to the floor. They were in a
blissful, busy confusion. Their faces shone with heat and happiness.
Here was liberty; here was freedom; here was true dignity--_Arbeit und
Liebe_....
When Mr. Twist, as he did whenever he could, came and looked on for a
moment in his shirt sleeves, with his hat on the back of his head and
his big, benevolent spectacles so kind, Anna-Rose's cup seemed full. Her
dimple never disappeared for a moment. It was there all day long now;
and even when she was asleep it still lurked in the corner of her mouth.
_Arbeit und Liebe_.
Immense was the reaction of self-respect that took hold of the twins.
They couldn't believe they were the people who had been so crude and
ill-conditioned as to hide Mrs. Bilton's belongings, and actually
finally to hide themselves. How absurd. How like children. How
unpardonably undignified. Anna-Rose held forth volubly to this effect
while she arranged the china, and Anna-Felicitas listened assentingly,
with a kind of grave, ashamed sheepishness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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