Aloud she inquired if the _gnädige Frau_ was at home. To her surprise, a deep flush mounted the "servant’s" cheeks and dyed the white forehead to the roots of the somewhat disordered brown hair. The door was opened a fraction wider. "I am the _gnädige Frau_," a low voice said shame-facedly, in a nervous, broken German. "My—my cook has gone out, and so——" Frau von Seleneck held out both her hands. "Why, of course!" she cried in English. "How stupid of me! I am terribly short-sighted, you know, or I should not make so silly a mistake. I am Frau von Seleneck—the wife of your husband’s old comrade. I should have had the joy of meeting you in Karlsburg, but I was ill at the time—and better late than never, as you English say. I have come now to tell you "Willkommen in the Fatherland!" Her English came in an almost unintelligible rush, but the tone was so warmhearted and friendly, that poor Nora, who believed she had brought everlasting disgrace upon herself and the whole family, was humbly thankful to open the drawing-room door and usher in her unexpected visitor. "I don’t know what you must think of me," she said, "but just at present we have only one servant, and she has gone out. It seems the tradespeople don’t come for orders, and I am much too inexperienced, and know far too little German to go shopping alone." In her unhappiness at having opened the door, she forgot to offer Frau von Seleneck a chair; but the latter, at heart only too thankful to find the freezing "Engländerin" in so human a fluster, took possession of the centre of the little sofa, and began the work of reassurance. "That is nothing whatever in the world, dear Frau von Arnim," she said cheerfully. "I often open the door myself, and if anybody takes me for my cook, what does that make? It prove that the person does not belong to my circle, and if he does not belong to my circle it makes nothing what he thinks." During this exposition of uncontrovertible logic she had been making a rapid mental catalogue of the furniture. Nora saw the wandering eyes, and her humiliation deepened. "I am afraid the room is horribly untidy," she confessed, wondering if the time would ever come when she would be able to stop apologising and begin a normal conversation. "You see, we have only been in a few days, and I have not got everything in its place. I hope soon it will look a little better." She spoke rather despondently, because she felt the cheap little suite of plush furniture gave no great hopes of "looking better," even with the most careful arrangement, and she was sure that the fact was obvious to all. Very much to her surprise, therefore, her visitor broke into a panegyric of praise.