e presence of this tumultuous grief, she brought them carefully
back to a position of proper solemnity. Besides, why should she smile?
The poor lady was clearly desperately unhappy about something, though
what it was Anna did not quite know. She had looked forward to this
first evening with her new friends as to a thing apart, a thing beyond
the ordinary experience of life, profound in its peace, perfect in its
harmony, the first taste of rest after war, of port after stormy seas;
and here was Frau von Treumann plunged in a very audible grief, and in
the next room was the baroness, a disconcerting combination of
inquisitiveness and ice, and farther down the passage was Fraeulein
Kuhraeuber--in what state, Anna wondered, would she find Fraeulein
Kuhraeuber? Anyhow she had little reason to smile. But the horror with
which Princess Ludwig had been mentioned seemed droll beside her own
knowledge of the sterling qualities of that excellent woman. She went
over to the chair in which Frau von Treumann lay prostrate, and sat down
beside her. She was glad that they had reached the stage of sitting
down, for talking is difficult to a person who will not keep still.

"How sorry I am," she said, in her pretty, hesitating German, "that you
should have been made unhappy the very first evening. Marie is a little
wretch. Don't let her stupidity make you miserable. You shall not see
her again, I promise you." And she patted Frau von Treumann's arm. "But
about Princess Ludwig, now," she went on cheerfully, "she has been here
some weeks and you soon learn to know a person you are with every day,
and really I have found her nothing but good and kind."

"_Ach_, she is shameless--she recoils before no degradation!" burst out
Frau von Treumann, suddenly removing her hands from her face. "The
trouble she has given her relations! She delights in dragging her name
in the dirt. She has tried to get places in the most impossible
families, and made no attempt to hide what she was doing. She has broken
the old Fuerst's heart. And she talks about it all, and has no shame, no
decency----"

"But is it not admirable----" began Anna.

"She will gloat over me, and tell everyone that I am here in the same
way as she is. If she is not ashamed for herself, do you think she will
spare me?"

"But why should you think there is anything to be ashamed of in coming
to live with me and be my dear friend?"

"No, there is nothing, so long as my motives in comin