truggle against his fate in vain,
seldom even knowing why he must suffer! But when they _are_ known the
stronger the reasons the less comfort they afford! Since I've known why
I am constituted, as I am, that it all precedes from perfectly natural
causes and that it is not at all surprising that I have never been able
to make myself or others happy. I've also lost all hope that things can
ever alter for the better." She leaned back in the corner of the sofa,
rested her head on the cushion and gazed fixedly at the ceiling. "Do
you know my story?" said she.

"My brother told me all."

"He has told you nothing; for I find that I myself knew nothing of the
truth, that I did not even know my real parents. The good ballet-master
was not my father, my father was the prince, and the woman I called
mother, was utterly alien in blood; my mother was a poor girl,
beautiful and unfortunate, more unfortunate even than her daughter. She
is said to have loved a worthy young man, but he was too poor to marry
her. The prince, who did not love his wife and never remained with her
long at the castle, was residing in Berlin; he saw the timid young
creature in the street, and followed her. She would have nothing to say
to him, his rank and wealth did not allure her, she preferred to remain
a beggar, rather than prove faithless to her love. But her mother! Can
you imagine how a mother can break the heart of her only child? Yet her
mother did it. And now she is dead, and her unhappy daughter is dead,
and the child of that daughter, who was forced to sacrifice herself
without love, this child of misery and blasphemy lives and must atone
for its patents' sin by carrying through life an unhappy heart that
cannot love!"

She was silent, and he too sat without speaking, deeply moved by the
hopeless tone of her voice. They heard the count pacing impatiently up
and down the ante-room, carriages rolling along the street, and the
bright winter sun shone cheerily through the clear window panes.
Suddenly the lovely girl sat erect again, shook back her hair and said
with a forced laugh: "Oh! how horrible! But what's to be done? It is
and cannot be helped. Only those people seem to me pitably stupid and
cruel, who seek to make such a poor unfortunate being responsible for
its acts, I would gladly be a good, warm-hearted, simple fool, like
other girls, make kind people happy, and be tenderly petted myself, if
it hadn't been for this terrible spell which i