s I do; but that is another
story. She has been working at this new book all winter with a fervor
and concentration which her isolation has helped to bring about. She
owes a debt of gratitude to her surroundings, and some day I shall tell
her so."

"She says her temper has become that of a fiend."

"She is passionate, there is no doubt. She nearly fell on us both this
afternoon. She is too much swayed by every little incident. Everything
makes a vivid impression on her and shakes her to pieces. It is rather
absurd and disproportionate now, like the long legs of a foal, but it is
a sign of growth. My experience is that people without that fire of
enthusiasm on the one side and righteous indignation on the other never
achieve anything except in domestic life. If Hester lives, she will
outgrow her passionate nature, or at least she will grow up to it and
become passive, contemplative. Then, instead of unbalanced anger and
excitement, the same nature which is now continually upset by them will
have learned to receive impressions calmly and, by reason of that
receptiveness and insight, she will go far."

CHAPTER XIV

Only those who know the supremacy of the Intellectual life--the
life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose within
it--can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene
activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly
annoyances.--GEORGE ELIOT.

Hester in the meanwhile was expressing wonder and astonishment at the
purchases of the children, who, with the exception of Mary, had spent
their little all on presents for Fraeulein, whose birthday was on the
morrow. After Mary's tiny white bone umbrella had been discovered to be
a needle-case, and most of the needles had been recovered from the
floor, Regie extracted from its paper a little china cow. But, alas! the
cow's ears and horns remained in the bag, owing possibly to the
incessant passage of the parcel from one pocket to another on the way
home. Regie looked at the remnants in the bag, and his lip quivered,
while Mary, her own umbrella safely warehoused, exclaimed, "Oh, Regie!"
in tones of piercing reproach.

But Hester quickly suggested that she could put them on again quite
easily, and Fraeulein would like it just as much. Still, it was a blow.
Regie leaned his head against Hester's shoulder.

Hester pressed her cheek against his little dark head. Sybell Loftus had
often told Hester t