her life
was so full of grievance that she was hardly able to be innocent with the
innocent--a child with the child; Mary was not slow to note this, and
ascribed Paula's altered manner to the suffering caused by her
grandmother's severity.

Mary's most frequent opportunities of speaking to her friend were just
before meals; for at that time no one was watching her, and her
grandmother had not forbidden her calling Paula to table. A visit to her
room was the child's greatest delight--partly because it was
forbidden--but no less because Paula, up in her own room, was quite
different from what she seemed with the others, and because they could
there look at each other and kiss without interference, and say what ever
they pleased. There Mary could tell her as much as she dared of the
events in their little circle, but the lively and sometimes hoydenish
little girl was often withheld from confessing a misdemeanor, or even an
inoffensive piece of childishness, by sheer admiration for one who to her
appeared nobler, greater and loftier than other beings.

Just as Paula had finished putting up her hair, Mary, who would rush like
a whirlwind even into her grandmother's presence, knocked humbly at the
door. She did not fly into Paula's arms as she did into those of Susannah
or her daughter Katharina, but only kissed her white arm with fervent
devotion, and colored with happiness when Paula bent down to her, pressed
her lips to her brow and hair, and wiped her wet, glowing cheeks. Then
she took Mary's head fondly between her hands and said:

"What is wrong with you, madcap?"

In fact the sweet little face was crimson, and her eyes swelled as if she
had been crying violently.

"It is so fearfully hot," said Mary. "Eudoxia"--her Greek
governess--"says that Egypt in summer is a fiery furnace, a hell upon
earth. She is quite ill with the heat, and lies like a fish on the sand;
the only good thing about it is. . ."

"That she lets you run off and gives you no lessons?"

Mary nodded, but as no lecture followed the confession she put her head
on one side and looked up into Paula's face with large roguish eyes.

"And yet you have been crying!--a great girl like you?"

"I--I crying?"

"Yes, crying. I can see it in your eyes. Now confess: what has happened?"

"You will not scold me?"

"Certainly not."

"Well then. At first it was fun, such fun you cannot think, and I do not
mind the heat; but when the great hunt had gone by