prevent her from immediately afterwards finding a great deal of fault with her modiste for not arranging with sufficient taste the toilette in which she wa

ition, Flora had been requested to compose and recite verses at some tableaux

issipate Henriette's melancholy, by lively talk, and music. Keen as was the invalid's power of discrimination, impressed as she was by the superficiality and unreality of a life given up to society, she was, and always must be, a child of the world of fashion; she had grown up in the drawing-room of

neer upon her lip at sight of her grandmother's youthful toilette; she would lament the loss of precious time as, throwing a lace veil

ets for Flora and Henriette, whilst Kitty's bouquet was composed almost entirely of myrtle and orange-blossoms. This tender message from a distance might have escaped the Frau President's observation; she took the flowers from the box in which they were packed, and was about to send up to Henriette's room those destined for the two girls, when Flora, with a laugh, called her attention to the expressive arrangement of Kitty'

lady was as anxious as to her future as if but half of her life lay behind her. The councillor should not marry again: so much at least he owed to her. She had made him what he was, by her aristocratic connections, her social influence; her incomparable taste had transformed his home into a palace, that impressed even the spoiled habitués of the court. Had she not sacrificed herself most decidedly in first consenting to take charge of his comparatively simple bourgeois household? And now, when everything was at last arranged precisely as she liked it,-when her efforts had been crowned with success,-

ble and excitable to the utmost. His visits were paid every morning at the same hour. The boudoirs of the two younger sisters were adjoining, and the door between them was almost always open. Kitty could hear his soothing tones, his gentle voice, and now and then a laugh so merry that the invalid could not

, inseparable though the sisters usually were, Henriette always withdrew to her own room shortly before the time for his

, now that she lived so near, carrying her strengthening soups and jellies, and spending hours in cheer

the sad, tearful time when she took her dear Leo, the doctor, then a boy only eight years old, from his home, where his parents had died within a few weeks of each other; and what

the twilight. The evenings were still cold, and from the dark forest the floating mists would moisten both hair and dress. The friendly roof and smoking chimney were very attractive. The lamp was usually shining brightly through the windows of the corner room, clearly illuminating the bridge. The old lady could not have missed her way even on a da

tch-dog barked and rattled his chain at the sound of approaching footsteps. "Is that you, aunt?" the doctor would call from the window, and at his call Kitty would withdraw from the circle of light thrown by the lamp. With a hasty "good-night," she would run along the lonely avenue: she could not help fee

The Frau President was so much pleased by the intelligence that she mounted the stairs in her dressing-

." She folded her delicate hands upon the table before her and looked perfectly satisfied. "He can now break entirely with every connection with trade. There will be no more, I trust, of those dreadful 'business friends

ions. The gravelled square in front of the building was swarming at present with people,-men, women, and children in a state

ointed this out

because the factory has been sold to a joint-stock company, principally, they say, under the management of Jews. Yes, yes, they are now reaping what they have sown. Moritz would never have made

have parted with the factory at present for millions. Those scoundrels should first have been taught that they are beneath notice, that we

have only to be seen to be recognized as an impersonati

ignoring the invalid's remarks with her usual cold smi

to-day, Henriette, did he not?" the old

in the pine forest, bordering the to

r, air to prevent me from suffocating beneath the

sident her arm, and they

could not prevent her beautiful sister from presenting herself in the afternoon

ines was still light, light as if the dome of dark green had been removed from its shady aisles. The wealth of leaves that would shortly overpower each knotty bough and transform it to youth and beauty still lay compressed, a soft down, in millions of

swarthy woman who was just tearing down a branch as thick as her arm that had been sawed from the parent stem. Irritated, perhaps, by being detected carrying off green instead of dead wood, perhaps by the sudden appearance of the commanding f

emones from beneath a bush, when suddenly she heard a cry from the p

m was heard: it was Henriette's thin, feeble voice. Kitty followed close upon the woman's heels; the thorns tore her dress,

e; but through the openings made here and there by the gesticulations of the throng Flora's

o, Fritz!" excla

like a fool!" s

The woman had a broad snub-nose and small, wicked e

Kitty scarcely re

by a burst of con

rself in the path more broadly than before. "Come, look, all of ye! Such as we don't often have a chance to see that face, except in a grand coach, with the horses tearing around the corners and trying to d

self into the circle. "Here comes another!" s

ir midst. There stood Flora, her lips and cheeks white as snow, evidently

cried out, and the circle close

and laid upon her mouth. In an instant three or four of the boys were thrust staggering aside, and even the gigantic woman yielded to Kitt

moment. This was but a girl, and of what avail could she be

like a judge on the bench!" cried the giante

kerchief on her head. "Hark ye! your grandmother belonged to my village; never when I knew her did she have shoe or

hamed of it?" Kitty interrupted her, calmly and c

d in the woods, where the thorns might tear it to shreds! No matter for that,-there's money enough: they found basketfuls of it when the old man died. But no one asks where it came from. It's all the same to you, Fr?ulein, if the castle miller

aimed Kitty,

rs now, who will take our last potato from us? 'Tis shameful! My d

dead if they show their faces

with a grimace, pointing to Henriette, who

re mirrored itself in her face. "What have I to do with the sale of the factory?" she asked, scornfully. "Settle that with th

oulder-"a dog barked over there? That is Hans Sonnemann's terrier: I know his voice well. He will not stir from his master, who is stone-deaf. They are going to the tavern together, as they do every afternoon. Make yourself easy,-they'll not come near here. And you have nothing to do, my fine Fr?ulein, with the sale of the factory,

small, sharp eyes gleamed

her hands. "God of heaven, they will m

e rabble

d be the use of putting a rope here?" And she passed her hand beneath her chin

ntly the circle widened, and the foremost boys were about to scramble for the money. "Stop that!" yelled the giantess, pushing them back into a close crowd with her powerful a

She perfectly retained her composure, wh

never gives more for-well, for a box on the ear, or a couple of scars on the face. And those you shall have, Fr?ulein, sure as I stand here!" And she turned to Flora and

rabble, making a wide breach in their circle. An indescribable tumult ensued. The mob rushed upon the strong, steadfast girl, who stood full in front of her sisters, still deadly pale, but undaunted. F

eds in an instant. Her hat was snatched from her head, and the loosened braids of hair fell down her back, when the boy who had again clapp

d in every direction. The bushes snapped and cracked on all sides, as when a herd of deer break through the underbrush, and then came a silence so profound that it seemed as if the rabbl

d, leaning against the trunk of the pine and pillowing the invalid's he

Henriette's death-like face, to Flora, who was gazing down upon

you have me run into the arms of those wretches? I will n

n her arms, perfectly unconscious, her head resting upon her sister's shoulder. Thus she actually glided over the ground, avoiding even the smallest stones that c

haughty air, nevertheless keenly scanning each bush on either side of the path, ready to take to flight at the first suspicious noise. Where was the courage to which Henriette had ironically alluded? Where the self-rel