Their grandmother
looked on their colouring as a taint, and Christina herself had hoped
to see their father's simple, kindly blue eyes revive in his boys;
but she could hardly have desired anything different from the
dancing, kindling, or earnest glances that used to flash from under
their long black lashes when they were nestling in her lap, or
playing by her knee, making music with their prattle, or listening to
her answers with faces alive with intelligence. They scarcely left
her time for sorrow or regret.
They were never quarrelsome. Either from the influence of her
gentleness, or from their absolute union, they could do and enjoy
nothing apart, and would as soon have thought of their right and left
hands falling out as of Ebbo and Friedel disputing. Ebbo however was
always the right hand. THE Freiherr, as he had been called from the
first, had, from the time he could sit at the table at all, been put
into the baronial chair with the eagle carved at the back; every
member of the household, from his grandmother downwards, placed him
foremost, and Friedel followed their example, at the less loss to
himself, as his hand was always in Ebbo's, and all their doings were
in common.
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