ve received their meat in due season?
"Oh," she said again, and then was silent.

The princess watched her closely. She was very poor, and very anxious to
have the place. "'Oh' is so English," she said, smiling to hide her
anxiety. "We say '_ach_!"

Anna laughed.

"And do not think that all German princesses are like your English
ones," she went on eagerly. "My father-in-law was raised to the rank of
Fuerst for services rendered to the state. He had a large family, and my
husband was a younger son."

Still Anna was silent. Then she said "I--I wish----" and then stopped.

"What do you wish, my dear child?"

"I wish--that I--that you----"

"That you had known it beforehand? Then you would never have taken me,
even on trial," was the prompt reply.

Anna's eyes said plainly, "No, I would not."

"And it is so important that I should find something to do. At first I
answered advertisements in my real name, and received my photograph back
by the next post. This, and the anger of my family, decided me to drop
the title altogether. But I had always resolved that if I did find a
place I would confess to my employer. It is a terrible thing to be very
poor," she added, staring straight before her with eyes growing dim at
her remembrances.

"Yes," said Anna, under her breath.

"To have nothing, nothing at all, and to be burdened at the same time by
one's birth."

"Oh," murmured Anna, with a little catch in her voice.

"And to be dependent on people who only wish that you were safely out of
the way--dead."

"Married," whispered Anna.

"Why, what do you know about it?" said the princess, turning quickly to
her; for she had been thinking aloud rather than addressing anyone.

"I know everything about it," said Anna; and in a rush of bad but eager
German she told her of those old days when even the sweeping of
crossings had seemed better than living on relations, and how since then
all her heart had been filled with pity for the type of poverty called
genteel, and how now that she was well off she was going to help women
who were in the same sad situation in which she had been. Her eyes were
wet when she finished. She had spoken with extraordinary enthusiasm, a
fresh wave of passionate sympathy with such lives passing over her; and
not until she had done did she remember that she had never before seen
this lady, and that she was saying things to her that she had not as yet
said to the most intimate of her friends.