"
"Where were you?"
"Behind the rhubarb plants; they have such large leaves, larger even
than a fig leaf."
"Shame on you."
"No, shame on you, because you didn't catch me. Hulda, with her big
eyes, again failed to see anything. She is always slow." Hereupon Effi
again flew away across the circle toward the pond, probably because
she planned to hide at first behind a dense-growing hazelnut hedge
over there, and then from that point to take a long roundabout way
past the churchyard and the front house and thence back to the wing
and the base. Everything was well calculated, but before she was half
way round the pond she heard some one at the house calling her name
and, as she turned around, saw her mother waving a handkerchief from
the stone steps. In a moment Effi was standing by her.
"Now you see that I knew what I was talking about. You still have that
smock-frock on and the caller has arrived. You are never on time."
"I shall be on time, easily, but the caller has not kept his
appointment. It is not yet one o'clock, not by a good deal," she said,
and turning to the twins, who had been lagging behind, called to them:
"Just go on playing; I shall be back right away."
The next moment Effi and her mama entered the spacious drawing-room,
which occupied almost the whole ground floor of the side wing.
"Mama, you daren't scold me. It is really only half past. Why does he
come so early? Cavaliers never arrive too late, much less too early.
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