United States or United States Virgin Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Nevertheless she held up her head like a defiant Hofcavalier. After a time Brother Jabez, with a kind greeting, passed her, and the director, looking up, said very gently: "I wish you a very good day, Sister Tabea." "I am no longer Sister Tabea, but Margaretha Thome. I have said adieu to all in Sharon, and now I come to say good-by to Brother Friedsam.
Can't you wish me much joy?" But Jael turned sharply away in a horror that could find no utterance. Thecla laughed, as was her wont, and wished Tabea happiness, but intimated that Daniel was a bold man to undertake to subdue the Hofcavalier.
"Thou shalt take a new vow, and when thou art converted then shalt thou, like Peter, strengthen the others." And, withdrawing his hands, he said: "I will pray for you, Tabea, every night of my life when I hear the cock crow." Tabea rose up slowly and went out at the door, walking no longer like a Hofcavalier, but like one in a trance.
"You always scare me so, Sister Tabea; I wouldn't dare hold up my head as you do." But when Persida had gone out the high head of the Hofcavalier went down a little. She felt that the man whom she in some sort worshiped had put upon her a public slight. He did not account it worth his while to invite her to return. She had missed her chance to refuse.
She worked with pen and brush, and heard the others talk; now and then, when some severe word of Brother Friedsam's was repeated, she would look up with a significant flash of the eye. "The Hofcavalier doesn't talk," said Sister Thecla. "You shouldn't give nicknames, Sister Thecla."
He was too good a strategist to attack the strong point of the insurrection first. He began with good-natured Thecla, who could laugh away yesterday's vexations, and so one by one he conquered the opposition in detail. He shrank from assailing the Hofcavalier until he should have won the others, knowing well the obstinacy of her resolution.
Daniel held to the Pennsylvania Dutch superstitions, but Tabea only laughed, and said, "I am not afraid of wizards." She looked the Hofcavalier more than ever as she left the trembling fellow and went up to the door of Brother Friedsam's lodge. "She isn't afraid of the devil," muttered Scheible. Tabea knocked at the door. "Come in and welcome, whoever thou art," said the director within.
When I tell Brother Friedsam that I shall not come to singing school, I shall stick to it. He may get his music performed by some one else. He will not call me a 'ninny' again." "There spoke the Hofcavalier," giggled Thecla. "Sister Tabea," said Jael, "if you go on as you are going, you will end by leaving the convent and breaking your vows. Mark my words."
"If he were the enemy of the Church of God," said Jael, in a voice as hard as it was sincere. Then the talk drifted back to the singing school and Brother Friedsam's severity. "But why doesn't the Hofcavalier speak?" again persisted Thecla. "When the Hofcavalier speaks, it will be to Brother Friedsam himself," answered Tabea.
This look of inquiry had something of unhappiness in it that touched the nun's heart, and she was half sorry that she had spoken so sharply. She fumbled for the wooden latch of the door presently, and went out with a sense of inward defeat and annoyance. "The Hofcavalier does not come back with head in the air," murmured Thecla. "A bad sign."
Word Of The Day