"Goot afternoon, fraulein," he said, in greeting. "Iss de school oudt yet?"
"Most of the classes are over for the day, sir," Nan replied, as Bess took much time in selecting the wartiest and biggest pickle in the Deuseldorf collection.
"Iss mein Frau come the town in yet?" pursued the little man, whose idiomatic speech often amused the girls when they came to the store.
"I believe she was correcting exercises, sir," Nan said, smiling. "I expect we girls make her much extra trouble."
"Ach!" he responded. "Trouble we haf in blenty--yes. But _that_ iss light trouble. Idt iss of our Hans undt Fritz we haf de most trouble. Yes!"
Nan and Bess knew that the German couple worked only, and saved and "scrimped" only, for the support of two grown sons in the military service of the Fatherland. They desired that Hans and Fritz should have the best, and marry well. But for a young Prussian officer to keep up appearances and hold a footing among his mates, costs much more than his wage as a soldier.
"I hope your sons are well, Herr Deuseldorf," Nan said, speaking carefully.
"Vell? Ja--they no sickness have. But there iss more trouble as sickness--Ach! mein Frau, she come!" he exclaimed.
Bess had selected the pickle. The little German gave them no more attention, but darted out from behind the counter to meet Frau Deuseldorf as she entered the shop. He waved the letter he had been reading excitedly, and began in high-pitched German to tell his wife the news--and news of trouble it was, indeed, as the two American girls could understand.
Both Bess and Nan had studied German a year before they came to the Hall, and rapidly as the little man talked they could understand much that he said. The slower replies of his startled wife they could likewise apprehend.
Nan and Bess clung together near the door, hesitating to depart, for Mister Frau Deuseldorf had not given Bess her change.
Hans was in trouble--serious trouble. His brother, Fritz, wrote that it would take all the old couple's little savings to save Hans from disgrace; and one brother's disgrace would seriously affect the career of the other.
"And perhaps I have offended the good Dr. Prescott this very day," cried Frau Deuseldorf. "You know how it was at that other school last year, Henry." (The German teacher had only been at Lakeview Hall half a year before this present term.) "Dr. Prescott, too, is very, very stern. She entered my classroom, with friends, just as one of those thoughtless girls had made me excited. The room was in a turmoil--Ach! it would be terrible now if the doctor requested my resignation."