"Oh, I like them," said Adela, in great satisfaction, "and I've got a picture of the 'Iron Virgin.'"
"That was a good idea, to put the old scold into that wooden tub concern," said Jasper; "there was some sense in that. I took a picture of it, and the old tower itself. I got a splendid photograph of it, if it will only develop well," he added. "Oh, but the buildings--was ever anything so fine as those old Nuremberg houses, with their high-peaked gables! I have quantities of them--thanks to my kodak."
"What's this station, I wonder?" asked Polly, as the train slowed up.
Two ladies on the platform made a sudden dash at their compartment. "All full," said the guard, waving them off.
"That was Fanny Vanderburgh," gasped Polly.
His consternation, when they told him, was so great, that Jasper racked his brains some way to avoid the meeting.
"If once we were at Bayreuth, it's possible that we might not come across them, father, for we could easily be lost in the crowd."
"No such good luck," groaned old Mr. King, which was proved true. For the first persons who walked into the hotel, as the manager was giving directions that the rooms reserved for their party should be shown them, were Mrs. Vanderburgh and her daughter.
"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh, as if her dearest friends were before her, "how glad I am to see you again, dear Mr. King, and you all." She swept Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson lightly in her glance as if toleration only were to be observed toward them. "We have been perfectly _désolée_ without you, Polly, my dear," she went on, with a charming smile. "Fanny will be happy once more. She has been disconsolate ever since we parted, I assure you."
Polly made some sort of a reply, and greeted Fanny, as of old times, on the steamer; but Mrs. Vanderburgh went on, all smiles and eagerness--so rapidly in her friendly intentions, that it boded ill for the future peace of Mr. King's party. So Mr. King broke into the torrent of words at once, without any more scruple. "And now, Mrs. Vanderburgh, if you will excuse us, we are quite tired, and are going to our rooms." And he bowed himself off, and of course his family followed; the next moment Fanny and her mother were alone.