Minna's mother pressed my hand in silence, with a melancholy smile.

Her reception of my companion struck me as showing some constraint.

After what had happened on the night of her visit to the house, she could no longer expect him to help her to an interview with Mr.Keller.Was she merely keeping up appearances, on the chance that he might yet be useful to her, in some other way?
The trifling change which I observed did not appear to present itself to Mr.Engelman.I turned away to Minna.

Knowing what I knew, it grieved me to see that the poor old man was fonder of the widow, and prouder of her than ever.
It was no very hard task to revive the natural hopefulness of Minna's nature.

Calculating the question of time in the days before railroads, I was able to predict the arrival of Fritz's letter in two, or at most three days more.