er in the
valley where Jaegerlies had been living. He could not understand why we
had not done so long before. Now it might be very difficult to discover
anything, as Jaegerlies had died a few days before.

He had learned, from the neighbors, that she often spoke of America in
a mysterious and indistinct manner, and that, together with Martella's
aversion to the very mention of America, caused him to question her in
the way he had done.

CHAPTER XIV.

In spite of Martella's and Ikwarte's trouble, the great feast was
pleasantly remembered in our house and throughout the village. Annette
said: "Whenever I gave a large entertainment, it always grieved me to
see the many people, who had just been together so cheerful and so
lively, suddenly disappear. And it was always especially agreeable to
me when several of my more intimate friends would remain. We would then
gather together for a little quiet enjoyment, and so a smaller and more
congenial circle succeeded the larger one; for that reason, I think
some of us ought to remain here."

I saw Richard looking at Annette, and it was the first contented, happy
glance I had ever seen him direct towards her. He had intended to
leave, but now concluded to stay. It seemed as if, in spite of
themselves, they had always chanced on points on which they could not
agree, but now at last, and to their great delight, found themselves in
accord.

Annette had greatly changed. She would no longer suddenly bound from
one subject to another. Her manner had become calmer. She had learned
how to put her questions modestly and yet firmly, and also how to be
quiet.

Once she said, "Martella has told us what is the severest punishment.
It is this: to lose faith in one's self, and to learn that excitement
and weakness place us in the hands of chance or of strangers, and cause
us to express the very things that we have desired most of all to keep
within ourselves."

The festival brought painful consequences to Rothfuss, Ikwarte, and
Carl, as well as to Martella. They went about without saying a word,
and Annette, who was anxious to help, and quick to sympathize with
others, tried her best to cheer them up.

One morning, we were sitting in the garden. Richard and Conny had gone
over to the village, and Ludwig said to Annette, "We do not know how to
thank you for having given my wife so true and feeling a description of
mother."

Annette now expressed h