ringing her hands. 'Have I not a will of my own? must I be
treated like a child?' And the passionate little creature flung herself
on the floor and embraced my knees. 'Have pity on me, dear, dear
Fraeulein Rosamond. Do not let me be unhappy. I----'

"She got no further; the door opened, and the sound of Anna Maria's
voice came in, so constrained, so forbidding, that my heart stopped
beating, and the girl sprang up hastily from the floor.

"'Aunt Rosamond, Susanna--Baron Stuermer wishes to--say farewell to you.'

"I can see them all so plainly as they were at that moment: Anna Maria,
pale to her lips, holding firmly on to the back of a chair for support;
Stuermer beside her, his eyes fixed on Susanna; behind them Brockelmann
with the lamp, and the trembling, sobbing girl, clinging to me, a
troubled expression on her tear-stained face, and her great eyes
unintelligently returning the man's look.

"At the first moment all was not clear to me; I did not understand how
Stuermer had come to Anna Maria, but that a deep wound had been made in a
young human heart, that I saw, and an icy chill crept over me.

"'Anna Maria,' I stammered, and sought to free myself from Susanna's
arms. Then Stuermer came up to me.

"'I am going away to-morrow for a long time, Fraeulein Rosamond,' said
he, in a firm, clear voice, 'and want to take my leave of you. It is a
hasty decision of mine, but you know that is my way. I thank you, too,
for the letter, Fraeulein Rosamond.' He kissed my hand and turned to
Susanna. There was a tremble on his lips, as with a formal bow, he
expressed a brief congratulation on her engagement.

"She looked fixedly at him, as if she did not understand him, her arms
slipped from my waist, and she made a movement toward him; but he had
already turned away. He bent again over Anna Maria's hand and left the
room. I can still hear the closing of the door and his reechoing steps
in the hall, and can still see the vacant expression with which Anna
Maria looked after him. She was standing, drawn to her full height, her
proud head slightly bent, yet she seemed inwardly broken, and a ghastly
smile lay on her firmly closed lips.

"'Anna Maria!' I cried, hastening over to her. She did not look at me,
but pointed to Susanna, who had slipped, fainting, to the floor.

"'Her!' she said, lifelessly--' he loves _her_!--both love _her_! And
I?' She passed her hands over her forehead. 'Nothing more, aunt, nothing
more, in the gre