“Of course,” said Betty.  “Didn’t Katie say that she couldn’t make him understand?”

Ruth would have liked to run and hide, but instead she went slowly down-stairs and walked straight into the parlor without giving herself time to think.

The tall, gray-haired man who rose to meet her was so like the picture in the box that Ruth felt almost as if she knew him, and she would have known just what to say if the dreaded German hadn’t embarrassed her.  She shook hands with him in silence, and then for a moment struggled to find a conversational opening which shouldn’t plunge her into deeper distress.

The kind old man evidently understood her difficulty, for his sad face grew gentle as he said with slow distinctness: 

“I can understand English, Fraulein.”

He smiled at the extreme relief expressed in Ruth’s face and went on speaking.

“I have come so quick as I can from Germany, Fraulein, my little grandchild to see, and I find that I am arrived before my letter gets here.  I have seen in Boston Mr. Hamilton, and he has told me how to find his home and that he will come also so soon as he can.”

Ruth drew a breath of relief.  “If you will excuse me I will send for the baby this very minute,” she said, and went quickly from the room.

“Girls, go get Elsa and bring her here as fast as you can,” she exclaimed, popping her head into her own room.  “He’s perfectly elegant,” and then she was gone again.

Betty and Dorothy running down the stairs soon after heard the steady hum of conversation in the parlor, and smiled to think how soon Ruth’s terror had vanished.  For Ruth the next twenty minutes seemed very long, and she spent it trying to make the Herr Baron feel at home, and hoping against hope that Mrs. Hamilton would arrive by the next train.

To her joy it happened as she had wished, for Mrs. Hamilton and the baby arrived at the house almost in the same moment.  Little Elsa had grown so used to petting and attention that she was friendliness itself and went to her grandfather with a gurgle of delight.  He, poor man, almost lost his self-control at sight of her, for she was wonderfully like his own lost daughter.  Ruth slipped out of the room, because she couldn’t bear to see his grief, and went back to the girls, who were waiting for her with eager curiosity.

A little later Mrs. Hamilton came to them.

“Uncle Henry has come and has taken the Baron off to talk with Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Hall,” she said in answer to their questions.  “The poor man says his only daughter married against his wishes, but that he should have willingly forgiven her and her husband if they had only given him the chance.  He is delighted with little Elsa, and so grateful to you girls for befriending her.  He hopes to get Mrs. Hall to go with him and the baby to Dresden, and then he will send her back here.  He is very anxious to meet the club girls and thank them for what they have done, and he’s invited us all to visit him if we go to Germany.”