"Am I willing? am I willing? Oh, Baron, of course I am, and you cannot
know how happy I am," she cried out with frank delight. "I can come
to-morrow morning, Baron, to-morrow, but now--I wonder what you'll say.
You see, I am living with my daughter's child, who is twelve years old.
She is a very good child, but is scarcely old enough yet to help much in
the house and garden."
"How splendid! When Apollonie will be too old to do the work, we shall
have a young one to carry it on," said the Baron. "When you move up here
tomorrow, you will know which quarters to choose for yourself, I know."
The Baron sank back with evident comfort into his pillows, and Apollonie
wandered home with a heart overflowing with happiness. At the first rays
of the sun next morning she was already in front of her cottage, packing
only the most necessary things for herself and the child into a cart, as
she intended to fetch the rest of them later. Loneli had just heard the
great news, because she had been asleep when her grandmother returned the
night before. She was so absolutely overcome by the prospect of becoming
an inmate of the castle that she stood still in the middle of the little
chamber.
"Come, come," the grandmother urged, "we have no time for wondering, as
we shall have to be busy all day."
"What will Kurt and Mea say?" was Loneli's first exclamation. She would
have loved to run over to them right away, for whenever anything happened
to her she always felt the wish to tell her two best friends.
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