For some
unaccountable reason Crampas took this remark seriously and advised
her not to ask the Councillor's opinion, which amused Effi
exceedingly. "Why, I thought you were a better mind-reader."
"Ah, your Ladyship, in the case of beautiful young women who are not
yet eighteen the art of mind-reading fails utterly."
"You are defeating your cause completely, Major. You may call me a
grandmother, but you can never be pardoned for alluding to the fact
that I am not yet eighteen."
When they left the table the late afternoon steamer came down the
Kessine and called at the landing opposite the clubhouse. Effi sat by
an open window with Crampas and Gieshuebler, drinking coffee and
watching the scene below. "Tomorrow morning at nine the same boat will
take me up the river, and at noon I shall be in Berlin, and in the
evening I shall be in Hohen-Cremmen, and Roswitha will walk beside me
and carry the child in her arms. I hope it will not cry. Ah, what a
feeling it gives me even today! Dear Gieshuebler, were you ever so
happy to see again your parental home?"
[Illustation: _Permission F. Bruckmann A.-G. Munich_ PROCESSION AT
GASTEIN Adolph von Menzel] "Yes, the feeling is not new to me, most
gracious Lady, excepting only that I have never taken any little Annie
with me, for I have none to take."
CHAPTER XV
Effi left home in the middle of August and was back in Kessin at the
end of September. During the six weeks' visit she had often longed to
return, but when she now reached the house and entered the dark hall
into which no light could enter except the little from the stairway,
she had a sudden feeling of fear and said to herself: "There is no
such pale, yellow light in Hohen-Cremmen.
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