When Franzl laid the cloth for dinner in the next room, she looked once more into the glass, like a girl just come home from a ball; she wished to see how Franzl looked--the Landlady's good old friend! She could not swallow a morsel of the comfortable dinner she had prepared; her appetite was satisfied--more than satisfied--for she had swallowed the fat Landlady whole. CHAPTER XII. A GOOD ESCORT, AND THOUGHTS OF THE FUTURE. "It is all ready now," said Lenz aloud, though he was alone in the room. "May you arrive safe!" He had been engaged in unscrewing the work, as it was to be brought down into the valley in different pieces, and the large framework to be carried on a handbarrow by men, for there was no carriage road to Lenz's house. The two enemies, Pilgrim and Petrowitsch, met beside the waggon in the valley, beside which Lenz was standing, busily engaged in packing securely the different parts of the instrument. On one side of the waggon Petrowitsch was saying--"I know the man who has purchased your musical clock, he is one of my best friends in Odessa, and a most worthy respectable person. If you had any sense, you would go too, and exhibit the instrument in Odessa; and then you would be sure to get at least seven new orders. "I have already got a fresh one," said Lenz. On the other side of the waggon. Pilgrim said--"Lenz, let us escort the 'Magic Flute' part of the way, and we can return in good time this evening." "I should like it very much, for I feel sure I can't work any more today." When the two friends were walking along behind the waggon, as they passed the "Lion" Inn, Annele looked out of the window and called out "Good luck!" The two friends thanked her. In passing the Doctor's house, they were even more gratified, for a maid came out, and running up to the waggon laid a wreath on the packing case. "Who sends that?" asked Pilgrim, for Lenz was too surprised to speak. "The young ladies," said the maid, returning to the house. The two friends looked up at the window and bowed; no one, however, was to be seen, but when they had gone on a few steps, they heard the music of the "Magic Flute" played in the Doctor's house. "What excellent people they are at the Doctor's!" said Pilgrim. "I never feel more perplexed than when I ask myself, Which of them is the best? The one I like the most is the old grandmother; the whole district should put up a petition to the Almighty to preserve her life. Your mother is now dead, and if the Doctor's wife were to die also, then the whole of the good old fashioned world would be dead--who still know how to observe good old household customs and ways. But her granddaughters are also excellent girls, and I don't doubt that Amanda will one day be as admirable as her grandmother."