ces, smiles,
tears, laughter, sweet words of greeting, and a thousand tokens of joy
and tenderness, made the first hours vanish in a lively intoxication,
and then, when all had become quieter and they looked nearer about them,
all looks and thoughts gathered themselves still about Eva with rapture;
her beauty seemed now in its full bloom, and a captivating life seemed
to prevail in her looks, in her behaviour, in her every motion, which
hitherto had not been seen. Her dress of the most modern fashion, a
certain development and style about her, a bewitching case of manner,
all evinced the elegant circles of the capital, and exerted their magic
over her friends, and charmed them all, but especially Gabriele, who
followed her beautiful sister with beaming looks.

Bergstroem gave way to his feelings in the kitchen, and exclaimed,
"Mamselle Eva is quite divine!" Never had the blond Ulla so entirely
agreed with him before.

Leonore was the only one who regarded Eva with a tender yet at the same
time troubled eye. She saw a something worldly in Eva's exterior and
demeanour, which was a presage to her that a great and not happy change
had taken place in her beloved sister. Nor was it long before Leonore's
foreboding proved itself to be right. Eva had not been many hours in the
house before it was plainly visible that domestic affairs had but little
interest for her, and that parents and family and friends were not to
her all that they had been before.

Eva's soul was entirely occupied by one object, which laid claim to all
her thoughts and feelings, and this was Major R----. His handsome
person, his brilliant talents; his amiability, his love; the parties in
which she had met him, the balls in which she had danced with him; the
occasions on which they had played parts together--in short, all the
romantic unfoldings of their connexion, were the pictures which now
alone lived in her heart, and danced around her fancy, now heated by
worldly happiness.

The grave expression of her father's countenance, as he heard her first
mention the Major, prevented her during this first evening from
repeating his name.

But when afterwards she was alone with her sisters, when the sweet hour
of talk came, which between dear friends, on such occasions, generally
extends itself from night till morning, Eva gave free course to all with
which her soul was filled, and related to her sisters at large her
romance of the last year, in which severa