With her other hand
Effi had pressed three times on the button of the bell and in less
than half a minute Johanna was there, in her bare feet, her skirt
hanging over her arm and a large checkered cloth thrown over her head
and shoulders.
"Thank heaven, Johanna, that you are here."
"What was the matter, your Ladyship? Your Ladyship has had a dream."
"Yes, a dream. It must have been something of the sort, but it was
something else besides."
"Pray, what, your Ladyship?"
"I was sleeping quite soundly and suddenly I started up and
screamed--perhaps it was a nightmare--they have nightmares in our
family--My father has them, too, and frightens us with them. Mama
always says he ought not to humor himself so--But that is easy to
say--Well, I started up out of my sleep and screamed, and when I
looked around, as well as I could in the dark, something slipped past
my bed, right there where you are standing now, Johanna, and then it
was gone. And if I ask myself seriously, what it was--"
"Well, your Ladyship?"
"And if I ask myself seriously--I don't like to say it, Johanna--but I
believe it was the Chinaman."
[Illustration: _Permission F Bruckmann, A.-G. Munich_
A STREET SCENE AT PARIS Adolph von Menzel]
"The one from upstairs?" said Johanna, trying to laugh, "our little
Chinaman that we pasted on the back of the chair, Christel and I? Oh,
your Ladyship has been dreaming, and even if your Ladyship was awake,
it all came from a dream.
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