derstand it!' She
looked very much cast down, the little yellow woman.

"'Susanna,' said Anna Maria, clearly and severely, 'stop crying, and
tell me the cause of your trouble; perhaps I can help you.'

"'Oh, heavens! no, no!' screamed Isa, vehemently, pressing close up to
Anna Maria. 'She is so excited; don't listen to her words, she doesn't
know what she is saying!'

"But Susanna made no answer; she stopped sobbing, turned her head away
from Anna Maria, and lay still as a mouse; but in the quick rising and
falling of her bosom one could see how excited she was.

"'Be calm, Susanna,' repeated Anna Maria; 'and where you are, I have to
speak with you concerning the explanation of a great mistake.'

"She turned quietly from the invalid, and observing the glasses beside
the bed, asked Isabella if Susanna liked lemonade, and went away. She
had given me only a hasty greeting; now she came back, and we stood
together in the hall, and I held her hand in mine.

"That words of consolation were not to be thought of in dealing with a
nature like Anna Maria's, I knew well; yet I could not help tears coming
into my eyes as I looked at her. She looked at me for a moment, her face
quivered as with a passionate pain, and the sobbing sound came from her
breast. But she composed herself by an effort, and pointing to Susanna's
door, said: 'There is the worst thing--my poor Klaus!' She pressed my
hand, and then went about her household duties as usual. It is not every
one that would have done as she did!

"When I entered Susanna's room again I found her sitting up in bed,
wringing her clasped hands. 'Nobody has asked _me_ about it!' she
repeated, amid streaming tears; 'my wish is of no account; they have
pushed me away where they wanted me to go! And now, now--' She murmured
something to herself, which I did not understand, and stopped weeping,
only to begin anew with the passionate cry: 'No one loves me, no one!'

"'Do not listen to her,' Isabella implored me; 'she really does not know
what she is doing; leave me alone with her! 'The little creature was in
a thousand terrors. She ran from the bed to the window, and then back
to the bed; she called the weeping girl all sorts of pet names, she
besought her by heaven and earth to be quiet--it was in vain. Susanna
wept herself into a state of agitation that made us fear the worst; she
struck at Isa, and then wrung her hands again, like a person in perfect
desperation. I stood by, helpl