Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... Ulrich Gerold, my severe grandfather, should see her! He would open his eyes! Such little folks without blood and bone were to him 'a worthless brood.' The child cannot stand on its slender legs and is almost two years old. Baths of wild thyme and unadulterated milk would do the puny thing good, but we dare not interfere with Frau von Berg's program, --she is as infallible as the Pope. Lothar's mother-in-law, old Princess Thekla, engaged her as nurse and is completely infatuated with the distasteful person, who is as repulsive to me as she can possibly be." She shrugged hershoulders, poured the coffee, now prepared, into the cups, and seated herself at the table. It was then Claudine ventured to broach her errand. Beate stirred the sugar in her cup and listened silently. At the point of the discovery she looked up and laughed in surprise. "What--wax? In my mind I already saw old Heinemann clearing out a chest filled with monstrances and all sorts of valuables! Wax! See, see, Ben Akiba is not right--that is new! And these nuns! According to the lyric poets they are mostly white roses which, pale and grief-stricken, lookout yearningly through the window into the prohibited, beautiful world." She laughed. "For that the Walpurgis nuns surely had no time, --they must have been economists and housewives pure and simple!.. According to our old book of chronicles, two of the Gerolds must have been among the nuns who were driven away. Who knows, perhaps those two with leather apron and trowel went down into the cellar to hide the booty from the rebels' sight! Who knows, I might have done so too!" She shook her head with a smile. "A wonderful story! And it is almost as wonderful that the honest and true-to-the-backbone descendant is seated before...