"
"But she never defends herself," Kurt said, half in anger, partly with
pity. "If those two ever tried to harm Clevi, they would soon get their
faces scratched; Apollonie has brought Loneli up the wrong way."
"Should you like to see Loneli jump at a boy's face and scratch it,
Kurt?" asked the mother.
After meditating a while Kurt replied, "I guess I really shouldn't."
"Don't you all like Loneli because she never gets rough and always is
friendly, obliging and cheerful? Her grandmother really loves her very
much; but she is a very honest woman and worries about the child just
because she is anxious to bring her up well. I should be extremely sorry
if she scolded Loneli in the first excitement about the spilled milk.
The boys should have gotten the blame, and I am sure that Apollonie will
be sorry if she hears later on what really happened."
"I'll quickly run over and tell her about it," Kurt suggested. The
mother explained to him, however, that grandmother and grandchild were
probably fast asleep by that time.
"Are we going to have the story of Castle Wildenstein for a finish now?"
he inquired. But his mother had already risen, pointing to the wall
clock, and Kurt saw that the usual time for going to bed had passed. As
the following day was a Sunday, he was satisfied. They generally had
quiet evenings then and there would be no interruptions to the story.
Bruno, too, had now calmed down. It had softened him that his mother had
found the Knippel boys' behaviour contemptible and that she had not
excused them in the least.
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