her flower, the next over her sister.

"Why have you done so, Leonore?" said she; "you must be very ill, or are
you displeased with me?"

"No, no!" said poor Leonore; "forgive me, and leave me."

"Why?" asked Eva. "Ah, do not weep--do not distress yourself. It was
quite thoughtless of me to come here and----But I will bid farewell to
all the magnificence; I will not go to the ball; I will stop at home
with you, only tell me that you love me, and that you would like me to
do so. Just say so--say so!"

"No, no!" said Leonore, passionately, and turning away from the
affectionate comforter; "I do not like it! You teaze me, all of you,
with this talk of stopping at home on my account. I know very well that
I am not such as any one would wish to please--I am neither merry nor
good. Go, Eva, to those who are merry, and follow them. Leave me, leave
me in peace, that is all that I desire."

Eva retired weeping, and with the crushed rose in her hand.

In the afternoon, when Petrea was ready to go out on the promised
expedition, she found Sara also was in an ill-humour. She would go, but
only on Petrea's account; she had no intention of buying anything; she
had not money enough wherewith to make purchases; she would not go to
the festival; she could not have any pleasure if she did; nothing in the
world gave one any pleasure when one had not things exactly to one's own
wishes.

Petrea was quite confounded by this sudden change, and sought in all
possible ways to discover the cause of it.

"But why," asked she, with tears in her eyes, "will you not go with us?"

"Because I will not go," answered Sara, "if I cannot go with honour, and
in my own way! I will not be mixed up in a mass of every-day mediocre
people! It is in my power to become distinguished and uncommon. That is
now, for once, my humour. I will not live to be trammelled. I would
rather not live at all!"

"Ah!" exclaimed Petrea, who now comprehended what was working in Sara,
whilst her eyes flashed with sudden joy--"ah, is it nothing more than
that? Dear Sara, take all that I possess; take it, I beseech you! Do you
not believe that it gives me a thousand times the pleasure if I see you
happy and beautiful, than if I possessed the most glorious things in the
world? Take it, best, dearest Sara! I pray you, on my knees, to take it,
and then if there be enough you can buy what you like and go with
us--else the whole splendour will be good for nothing!"

"Ah, Pet