He must not become
embarrassed. When he is ill at ease he cannot find a word to say, or
says the queerest kind of things. But if you can win his confidence
and put him in a good humor he will talk like a book. Well, you will
do that easily enough. Don't expect me before three; there is a great
deal to do over across the way. And the matter of the room upstairs we
will consider further. Doubtless, the best thing will be to leave it
as it is."
With that Innstetten went away and left his young wife alone. She sat,
leaning back, in a quiet, snug corner by the window, and, as she
looked out, rested her left arm on a small side leaf drawn out of the
cylindrical desk. The street was the chief thoroughfare leading to the
beach, for which reason there was a great deal of traffic here in the
summer time, but now, in the middle of November, it was all empty and
quiet, and only a few poor children, whose parents lived in thatched
cottages clear at the further edge of the "Plantation" came clattering
by in their wooden shoes. But Effi felt none of this loneliness, for
her fancy was still engaged with the strange things she had seen a
short time before during her examination of the house.
This examination began with the kitchen, which had a range of modern
make, while an electric wire ran along the ceiling and into the maids'
room. These two improvements had only recently been made, and Effi was
pleased when Innstetten told her about them. Next they went from the
kitchen back into the hall and from there out into the court, the
first half of which was little more than a narrow passage-way running
along between the two side wings of the house.
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