Frau von Trautenau had resided there since her widowhood, and proposed
to continue doing so until one of her sons should buy his sister's and
brother's portion and assume the management of it. The relations
between Frau von Trautenau and her step-son had always been of the most
happy and agreeable kind; he honored and loved his step-mother, who had
brought him up with the greatest possible care and affection; and she,
in return placed implicit confidence in his opinions and advice, making
him her chief counsellor since her husband's death.

Into this beautiful home-life Carmen now entered, as if into a new
world. Whereas, the affection between the Brothers and Sisters in the
"community" had always appeared to her in the austere light of a duty,
here it seemed like a natural impulse, springing spontaneously from the
depths of warm and loving hearts.

In all the arrangements of the house and grounds, the idea of the
beautiful, in connection with the comfortable and useful, was
everywhere prominent.

The lofty, well-lighted rooms, adorned and furnished with elegant
simplicity; the smooth green lawns, bordered with lovely flowers of
every hue; the magnificent avenues of grand old trees, and the
innumerable, lovely little nooks to be found here and there in the
park, all breathed a charm which reminded Carmen of what she dimly
remembered about her father's plantation and hacienda in Jamaica.

Alexander and Hans were also at home for the holidays; and while Adele
rambled with the latter through park and garden, Carmen, who shyly
avoided Alexander, was entertained by her hostess, to whose warm
motherly nature the girl was attracted with genuine, childlike
heartiness. It was indeed her society, more than anything else, which
contributed to Carmen's happiness at Wollmershain, for she felt
embarrassed in this new kind of life; and the remarks which her
peculiar dress occasioned were especially annoying. To avoid being
conspicuous, she had already laid aside the white cap; but her beauty,
enhanced by the coils of glossy hair which crowned her queenly little
head, was so remarkable, so foreign-looking and striking, that she
seemed like some rare exotic which, in all the luxuriance of its
loveliness, had been transplanted from the land of palms to our colder
soil. There was in her manner an odd mixture of pride and humility,
dignity and modesty, which gave her all the reserve of a woman and the
winsomeness of a child. Perh