"Next morning papa came to the breakfast-table with an open letter in his hand. "'A strange bird is about to fly into our nest,' he said, laughing; 'now guess what his name is!' And with that he looked quite peculiarly across at Martha. She appeared to me to have grown even a shade paler, and the coffee-cup which she held in her hand shook audibly. "'Has the bird been in our nest before?' she asked slowly and softly, and did not raise her eyes. "'I should think so indeed!' laughed papa. "'Then it is--Robert Hellinger,' she said, and sighed deeply, as if after a hard effort. "'Upon my word, girl, you _are_ one to guess.' said papa, and shook his finger at her. "But she was silent, and walked from the room with slow, dragging steps--nor did she appear again that morning. For my part I kept pretty cool over our cousin's approaching visit. His image of former days, as it dimly hovered in my memory, was not such as to inspire a romantic imagination of fifteen years with ardent dreams for its sake. "But Martha's behaviour had struck me. Next day, in the early morning, I heard her walking up and down with long strides in the guest-rooms. "I followed her, for I was anxious to know what she was busying herself about in these usually closed apartments. "She had opened all the windows, uncovered the beds, let down the curtains, and now in her wooden shoes was running amidst all this confusion from one room to the other. Her hands she held pressed to her face, and kept laughing to herself; but the laugh sounded more like crying. "When I asked her, 'What are you doing here, Martha?' she gave a start, looked at me quite confused, and seemed as if she must first think where she was. "'Don't you see--I am covering the beds.' she stammered after a while. "'For whom, pray?' I asked. "'Don't you know we are going to have a visitor?' she answered. "'I suppose you are awfully pleased at the prospect?' I said, and slightly shrugged my shoulders. "'Why should I not be pleased?' she replied, 'It is our cousin.' "'And nothing more?' I asked, shaking my finger at her as I had seen papa do the day before. "Then she suddenly grew very grave, and looked at me with her big, sad eyes so strangely and reproachfully that I felt how all the blood rushed to my face. I turned away, and as I could no longer keep up my superiority, I slunk out of the door.