"But you have to have the 'Loaf, come out of the bag!' too," said John, and he reached into his pocket and drew forth a handful of money. "Without that you'll get nothing." "Yes, to be sure," said Amrei; "whoever has those wheels can roll through the world. But tell me, John--did coffee ever taste to you in your whole life like this? And the fresh white bread! Only you have ordered too much; we cannot manage all this. The bread I shall take with me, but it's a pity about the good coffee. How many poor people could be refreshed by it, and we must let it go to waste. And yet you have to pay for it just the same." "That's no matter; one cannot figure so accurately in the world." "Yes, yes, you are right. You see, I have been accustomed to do with little. You must not take it amiss if I say things of that kind--I do it without thinking." Presently Amrei got up. Her face was glowing, and when she stood before the glass, she exclaimed: "Gracious heavens! How can it be? All this seems almost impossible!" "Well, there are still some hard planks to pierce; but I am not worrying about that. Now lie down and rest for a short time while I look for a Bernese chaise-wagon--you can't ride on horseback with me in the daytime--and we want one anyway." "I cannot sleep--I have a letter to write to Haldenbrunn. I am away from there now, and yet I enjoyed a great many good times there. And I have other matters to settle, besides." "Very well, do that until I come back." John went out, and Amrei wrote a long letter to the Magistrate in Haldenbrunn, thanking the entire community for benefits received, and promising to adopt a child from the place some day, if it were possible; and she once more begged to have Black Marianne's hymn-book placed under the good old woman's head. When she had finished, she sealed the letter and pressed her lips tight together with the remark: "So! Now I have done my duty to the people of Haldenbrunn." But she quickly tore the letter open again, for she considered it her duty to show John what she had written. But a long time passed and he did not return. And Amrei blushed when the chatty hostess said: "I suppose your husband has some business at the Town-hall?" It seemed to strike her with a strange shock to have John called her "husband" for the first time. She could not answer, and the hostess looked at her in wonder. She knew no other way of escaping from her strange glances than by going out in front of the house, where she sat on some piled-up boards for a long time, waiting for John. It was, indeed, a long time before he did come back; and when at last she caught sight of him, she said: "When something calls you away like that again, you'll take me with you, won't you?" "Oh," he answered, "so you were afraid, were you? Did you think I had gone off and left you? What would you think if I were to leave you here and simply ride away?" Amrei started, and then she said, severely: