ifully, Miss Sydney. It is truly pleasurable
to see her," murmured von Rittenheim, though his expression was one of
approval rather than delight.

"Do you know, Mrs. Carroll, have I told you how much this _Aussicht--view_,
is it not?--and the position of your house make me to think of my home?
It is on the edge of the Schwarzwald, and we look down from the Schloss
into a valley, oh, so lovely! with trees and a little r-river."

"A much wilder prospect than we have here at Oakwood."

"But not more beautiful, and the feeling is the same."

A vulgar emotion assailed the well-kept precincts of Mrs. Carroll's
mind. Curiosity, commonplace curiosity surged within her. She yielded
to its force.

"How could you bear to leave it?"

"It was the old pr-reference of the man in the window of the burning
castle,--behind, the flames r-roaring mightily, and below, the spears
of his enemies."

"A choice between evils."

"Yes, if you will for-rgive my calling your country an evil. I was
unhappy--too unhappy to stay where every day I saw something to make me
worse; and that evil was gr-reater than to banish myself, even though I
do love my country dearly."

"Was it necessary for you to come so far? Could you not find peace in
your own land?"

"I thought not. You see--if I do not weary you I will tell you. Shall I
tell you?"

"You never weary me," returned Mrs. Carroll, heartily. "I shall
consider that you do me an honor if you care to speak to me about
yourself."

"It shall be only a little," began Friedrich, repenting of his
expansiveness. "Perhaps I have told you that I am the older of my
family. I have one br-rother four years younger. Our parents are dead
several years, and Maximilian is married two years ago with Hilda von
Arnim."

"You spoke of them both when you were ill; in your delirium, you know."

"Of Max and Hilda? What did I say?"

A sharp note was in Friedrich's voice.

"My dear Baron, I must make the humiliating confession that long disuse
has impaired sadly my understanding of German. If you should speak to
me very slowly, probably I could comprehend you, but at that time you
were not speaking slowly."

"My nurses?"

"Neither of them speaks a word of anything but English."

"It is an escape," he murmured. "Forgive me, _gnaedige Frau_. It is a
startle to think that perhaps you have given to the world your heart's
thoughts."

"Be reassured. It was only the names, Max and Hilda, that we
understood.