"_Ach ja_, the advertisement. In the contemplation of this beautiful scheme I forget the advertisement." And again the moisture of ecstasy suffused his eyes, and again he clasped his hands and gazed at her with his head on one side, almost as though the young lady herself were the beautiful scheme. Anna got up and went to the writing-table to fetch a pencil and a sheet of paper, anxious to keep him to the point; and the parson watching the graceful white figure was more than ever struck by her resemblance to his idea of angels. He did not consider how easy it was to look like a being from another world, a creature purified of every earthly grossness, to eyes accustomed to behold the redundant exuberance of his own excellent wife. She brought the paper, and sat down again at the table on which the lamp stood. "How does one write any sort of advertisement in German?" she said. "I could not write one for a housemaid. And this one must be done so carefully." "Very true; for, alas, even ladies are sometimes not all that they profess to be. Sad that in a Christian country there should be impostors. Doubly sad that there should be any of the female sex." "Very sad," said Anna, smiling. "You must tell me which are the impostors among those that answer." "_Ach_, it will not be easy," said the parson, whose experience of ladies was limited, and who began to see that he was taking upon himself responsibilities that threatened to become grave. Suppose he recommended an applicant who afterwards departed with the gracious Miss's spoons in her bag? "_Ach_, it will not be easy," he said, shaking his head. "Oh, well," said Anna, "we must risk the impostors. There may not be any at all. How would you begin?" The parson threw himself back in his chair, folded his hands, cast up his eyes to the ceiling, and meditated. Anna waited, pencil in hand, ready to write at his dictation. Frau Manske at the other end of the room was straining her ears to hear what was going on, but Miss Leech, desirous both of entertaining her and of practising her German, would not cease from her spasmodic talk, even expecting her mistakes to be corrected. And there were no refreshments, no glasses of cooling beer being handed round, no liquid consolation of any sort, not even seltzer water. She regarded her evening as a failure. "A Christian lady of noble sentiments," dictated the parson, apparently reading the words off the ceiling, "offers a home in her house----" "Is this the advertisement?" asked Anna. "--offers a home in her house----" "I don't quite like the beginning," hesitated Anna. "I would rather leave out about the noble sentiments." "As the gracious one pleases. Modesty can never be anything but an ornament. 'A Christian lady----'" "But why a _Christian_ lady? Why not simply a lady? Are there, then, heathen ladies about, that you insist on the Christian?"