produced a frosted cake.

"See, M'riar!" he cried.

"Hi sye!" said M'riar, examining it with distant care as if she feared
that it would either break or bite. "Won't she be took haback?"

"And," said Herr Kreutzer, delving busily in a pocket of his long,
limp, overcoat, "a bottle of good wine."

"My heye!" said M'riar, awed and gaping admiration. "She _will_ be
took haback!"

"And, see again?" said Kreutzer, taking other treasures out of
packages and pockets, including a roast fowl, and celery and other
fixings. "It is not often, lately, that I have my Anna with me. When
she comes, then we must do what we can do to make her welcome." He
might have added that it was not often that a little stroke of luck
brought him in money for a celebration such as this, but did not.

"_Such_ a feast!" said M'riar.

"Ah, it is something," said the flute-player. "It is little I can do.
I earn so little in this country--less, even, than I earned in London;
and here all things cost so much--_more_, even, than they cost in
London."

M'riar went to the window, after having seen the good things, while
his hands went to his pocket and brought from it the door-key and a
pocket-knife. He laughed a little bitterly. "The little feast has cost