he is enjoying an after-dinner sleep now.”  “Just listen to little round-head,” said Braesig to himself.  “An after-dinner sleep indeed!  But everything is settled now, and I needn’t cramp my bones up here any longer.”  And while Rudolph was saying that he would like to see the old man before he went into the house, Braesig slipped out of his hiding-place in the cherry-tree, and clinging with both hands to the lowest branch, let his legs dangle in the air, and shouted:  “Here he is!” Bump!  He came down on the ground, and stood before the lovers with an expression on his red face which seemed to say that he considered himself a competent judge on even the most delicate points of feeling.

The two young people were not a little startled.  Mina hid her face in her hands as Lina had done, but she did not cry; and she would have run away like Lina if she and uncle Braesig had not always been on the most confidential terms with each other.  She threw herself into uncle Braesig’s arms, and in her desire to hide her blushing face, she tried to burrow her little round-head into his waistcoat-pocket, exclaiming:  “Uncle Braesig, uncle Braesig, you’re a very naughty old man!” “Oh!” said Braesig, “you think so, do you?” “Yes,” answered Rudolph, who had mounted his high horse, “you ought to be ashamed of listening to what you were not intended to hear.”  “Moshoo Rudolph,” said the old bailiff stiffly, “I may as well tell you once for all, that shame is a thing that must never be mentioned in connection with me, and if you think that your grand airs will have any effect upon me, you’re very much, mistaken.”  Rudolph saw clearly that such was the case, and as he did not want to quarrel with the old man for Mina’s sake, he relented a little, and said more gently that he would think nothing more of what had occurred, if Braesig could assure him that he had got into the tree by accident, but still he considered that Braesig ought to have coughed, or done something to make his presence known, instead of sitting still and listening to the whole story from A to Z.  “Oh,” said Braesig, “I ought to have coughed, you say, but I groaned loud enough, I can tell you, and you couldn’t have helped hearing me if you hadn’t been so much taken up with what you yourself were about.  But you ought to be ashamed of yourself for having fallen in love with Mina without Mrs. Nuessler’s leave.”  Rudolph replied that that was his own affair, that no one had a right to meddle, and that Braesig understood nothing about such things.  “What!” said Braesig.  “Have you ever been engaged to three girls at once.  I have, Sir, and quite openly too, and yet you say that I know nothing about such things!  But sneaks are all alike.  First of all you catch my fish secretly in the black pool, and then you catch little Mina in the arbor before my very eyes.  No, no, let him be, Mina.  He shall not hurt you.”  “Ah, uncle Braesig!” entreated Mina, “do help us, we love each other so dearly.”