which astonished Frieda, accustomed to long
deliberations on such matters, and no reckless buying. Even the pretty
frocks and hats and shoes did not please her. She felt loyalty demanded
that she should wear the things she had brought from home, and it was
not till Mrs. Eldred had given her her mother's letter to read that she
consented to lay aside the German garments. Mr. Eldred took her about
the city, and thoroughly enjoyed her comments on things American, a
scorn thinly veiled by polite phrases, or by an expressive silence.

She was silent most of the time, for the language was her greatest
obstacle. She remembered vividly the superior feeling she had had in
Berlin, when she had watched Mr. Eldred wrestle with a conditional or
had heard Mrs. Eldred struggle to pronounce "ch." It was not nearly so
pleasant to be struggling one's self, with a quite senseless "th," for
instance. Her heart filled with rage when she caught Hannah listening
intently to her carefully enunciated words, and then saying suddenly
with relief, "O!" as their meaning dawned upon her. Frieda had been at
the head of her class in English.

"It's really because you pronounce so very well," Hannah explained
apologetically, on one of these occasions. "You are so much more exact
than we ever think of being, that it gives an unfamiliar sound to words.
And besides, yours is English English and ours is United States."

"But English English must be best," protested Frieda, and Hannah forgot
Miss Lyndesay's warning and "flared up" for a minute, but immediately
recollected herself, and ordered an ice-cream soda as a peace-offering,
notwithstanding the fact that Frieda found the taste disagreeable.

"You'll like it, when you are used to it," she said comfortingly. "You
don't have them at home, you know."

"No," growled Frieda, choking on a spoonful. "And I'm glad we don't.
Sundaes aren't so bad, but the name is foolish! I do not wonder Miss
Lyndesay lives most of the time in Europe!"

The fifth day matters came to a climax. Karl had come over from
Cambridge to spend Sunday. Hannah and he seemed to be on the best of
terms. They talked English faster than Frieda could understand, and they
seemed to have an endless stock of jokes that had no meaning for her.
Suddenly, after sitting with a brow like a thunder-cloud for a while,
listening to them and declining to join in the fun, she started up and
ran up stairs with a swift pounding gait that recalled to Ha