t
humbly, but nothing more. If they rebel, put them down; if they suffer,
"Don't trouble me about it" was Rychie's secret motto. And yet how witty
she was, how tastefully she dressed, how charmingly she sang; how much
feeling she displayed (for pet kittens and rabbits), and how completely
she could bewitch sensible, honest-minded lads like Lambert van Mounen
and Ludwig van Holp!

Carl was too much like her, within, to be an earnest admirer, and
perhaps he suspected the clouds. He, being deep and surly and always
uncomfortably in earnest, of course preferred the lively Katrinka, whose
nature was made of a hundred tinkling bells. She was a coquette in her
infancy, a coquette in her childhood, and now a coquette in her school
days. Without a thought of harm she coquetted with her studies, her
duties, even her little troubles. She coquetted with her mother, her
pet lamb, her baby brother, even with her own golden curls--tossing them
back as if she despised them. Everyone liked her, but who could love
her? She was never in earnest. A pleasant face, a pleasant heart, a
pleasant manner--these satisfy for an hour. Poor happy Katrinka! She
tinkled, tinkled so merrily through their early days, but life is so apt
to coquette with them in turn, to put all their sweet bells out of tune
or to silence them one by one!

How different were the homes of these three girls from the tumbling
old cottage where Gretel dwelt. Rychie lived in a beautiful house near
Amsterdam, where the carved sideboards were laden with services of
silver and gold and where silken tapestries hung in folds from ceiling
to floor.

Hilda's father owned the largest mansion in Broek. Its glittering roof
of polished tiles and its boarded front, painted in half a dozen various
colors, were the admiration of the neighborhood.

Katrinka's home, not a mile distant, was the finest of Dutch country
seats. The garden was so stiffly laid out in little paths and patches
that the birds might have mistaken it for a great Chinese puzzle with
all the pieces spread out ready for use. But in summer it was beautiful;
the flowers made the best of their stiff quarters, and, when the
gardener was not watching, glowed and bent about each other in the
prettiest way imaginable. Such a tulip bed! Why, the queen of the
fairies would never care for a grander city in which to hold her court!
But Katrinka preferred the bed of pink and white hyacinths. She loved
their freshness and fragranc