ystem of horticulture, but he left them in
order to announce their visit to his wife, wishing to use every effort
to prevent her declaring herself ill.

Bella walked with the Mother, and Clodwig with Aunt Claudine, with whom
he was soon in animated conversation. The Aunt, who was an accomplished
piano player, was herself something like a piano, upon which children
or artists can play, but which, if no one wished to do so, remains
quietly in the background.

Bella asked Frau Dournay many questions as to the impression which all
the family made upon her, but she received only indirect answers: she
talked much herself; her checks glowed, she let her cape fall a little,
and her beautiful full shoulders were seen.

"It's a pity that Clodwig didn't know your sister-in-law earlier," she
suddenly said.

"He did know her well, and, unfortunately for herself, she was, as you
know, a much-admired belle at court; but that was long before your
time."

Bella was silent; Frau Dournay threw a quick searching glance at her.
What was passing within her? what did this restless fluttering from one
subject to another mean?

Eric and Roland came; Bella quickly drew her cape over her shoulders
again, and folded her arms tightly under it, hardly giving Eric the
tips of her fingers.

Roland was extremely lively, but Eric seemed very serious; whenever he
looked at Bella, he turned away his eyes again directly. She
congratulated him on his mother's arrival, and said,--

"I think if a stranger met you, even in travelling, he would feel that
you are still happy enough to have a mother; and what a mother she is!
A man seems to lose a nameless fragrance when his mother is lost to
him."

Bella said this with a tone of feeling, and yet her mouth wore a
peculiar smile, and her eyes seemed to seek applause for these ideas.

Sonnenkamp joined them, and, stroking his chin with an air of
satisfaction, asked the ladies to come to his wife, who felt quite
revived by a visit from such guests. He proposed that the gentlemen
should drive with him to the castle, to take a view of the progress of
the building, and of the place where the Roman antiquities had been
found. Bella merrily upbraided Sonnenkamp for robbing her of her
pleasant guests, then she went with the ladies to the garden-parlor,
while the gentlemen proceeded to the castle. Frau Ceres was soon ready
to go with them to the music-room, where the Aunt readily consented to
play to them; Be