Fräulein Schmidt and Mr. AnstrutherVon Arnim, Elizabeth
General
Fräulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther
Von Arnim, Elizabeth
British -- Germany -- Fiction; Epistolary fiction; Germany -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
Johanna came in just there. She was decked in smiles, and wanted to say
good-by till to-morrow morning. It is her night out, and she really
looked rather wonderful to one used to her kitchen condition. Her skin,
cleansed from week-day soilure, was surprisingly fair; her hair, waved
more beautifully than mine will ever be, was piled up in bright imposing
masses; her starched white dress had pink ribbons about it; she wore
cotton gloves; and held the handkerchief I lend her on these occasions
genteelly by its middle in her hand. Every second Sunday she descends
the mountain at sunset, the door-key in her pocket, and dances all night
in some convivial _Gasthof_ in the town, coming up again at sunrise or
later according to the amount of fun she was having. On the Monday I do
nearly everything alone, for she sleeps half the day, and the other half
she doesn't like being talked to. She is a good servant, and she would
certainly go if we tried to get her in again under the twelve hours. On
the alternate Sundays we allow her to have her young man up for the
afternoon and evening. He is a trumpeter in the regiment stationed in
Jena, and he brings his trumpet to fill up awkward silences. Engaged
couples of that kind don't seem able to talk much, so that the trumpet
is a great comfort to them. Whenever conversation flags he whips it out
and blows a rousing blast, giving her time to think of something to say
next. I had to ask him to do it in the garden, for the first time it
nearly blew our roof, which isn't very tightly on, off. Now he and she
sit together on a bench outside the door, and the genius down the hill
with the exclusive ears suffers, I am afraid, rather acutely. Papa and I
wander as far away as we can get among the mountains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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