Page:Maria Felicia.pdf/128

 No one found out the truth, not even the stewardess of Hlohov, when with her bone “specks” on her nose, a few days after her husband’s return from Prague, while mending his homely jacket in the little room behind the kitchen, she contemplated the mysteries of the Felsenburk family and wondered how things were likely to be settled. She claimed in this case even more right to express her weighty opinions than in other matters where she was used to having the last word. She had served in the Felsenburk Palace at Prague as a cook before she retired with her husband to Hlohov, and for that reason she thought she was nearer to the Felsenburks than others who had filled less important positions.

The old servant, her assistant in the kitchen, appearing angry and breathless on the doorstep, suddenly disturbed her in her important work and meditation. She came to tell the stewardess that a harper had just come into the servants’ hall, and at her kind offer of a seat at the fireplace until she would warm up the leavings from dinner for him, he had