" With these words she
went up the stone steps into the house.
Two of the young girls, plump little creatures, whose freckles and
good nature well matched their curly red hair, were daughters of
Precentor Jahnke, who swore by the Hanseatic League, Scandinavia, and
Fritz Reuter, and following the example of his favorite writer and
fellow countryman, had named his twin daughters Bertha and Hertha, in
imitation of Mining and Lining. The third young lady was Hulda
Niemeyer, Pastor Niemeyer's only child. She was more ladylike than the
other two, but, on the other hand, tedious and conceited, a lymphatic
blonde, with slightly protruding dim eyes, which, nevertheless, seemed
always to be seeking something, for which reason the Hussar Klitzing
once said: "Doesn't she look as though she were every moment
expecting the angel Gabriel?" Effi felt that the rather captious
Klitzing was only too right in his criticism, yet she avoided making
any distinction between the three girl friends. Nothing could have
been farther from her mind at this moment. Resting her arms on the
table, she exclaimed: "Oh, this tedious embroidery! Thank heaven, you
are here."
"But we have driven your mama away," said Hulda.
"Oh no. She would have gone anyhow. She is expecting a visitor, an old
friend of her girlhood days. I must tell you a story about him later,
a love story with a real hero and a real heroine, and ending with
resignation. It will make you open your eyes wide with amazement.
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