such. She promised to undertake the charge, as her only
satisfaction was in being useful.

The rain still continued. Again they assembled in the grand saloon, and
now Bella displayed her proficiency in arts that no one knew her to be
mistress of. She appeared, having a red velvet curtain draped about her
in the Grecian style, and imitated a famous Italian player with
wonderful fidelity to the life. She went out, and appeared again as a
Parisian grisette; then she afterwards appeared as a Tyrolese singer,
every time wholly different, and hardly recognizable.

She excited the most merriment when she imitated in succession three
different beggar-women,--a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew. She
enacted also, with the same applause, a scene in which a Catholic, a
Protestant, and a Jewish woman came separately to the dentist, to have
an aching tooth extracted. And without degenerating into caricature,
she took off her acquaintances, all with such perfect grace and such
accuracy of delineation, that words failed to express the admiration.

Clodwig said in a low tone to the Mother: "You may well be proud that
she makes this exhibition before you, for she cannot be easily induced
to do it in any one's presence whom she does not value highly."

Sonnenkamp added that it was a magnificent but wasteful luxury to
possess such talent, and not to exhibit it to the delight of the whole
world.

Eric, meanwhile, watched with a mixed feeling these dramatic
representations, which he could not help admiring. How rich a nature
Bella possessed! And how hard it must be for her to circumscribe her
manifold activity within the narrow bounds of a limited sphere of duty!
But Bella, to-day, had thrown herself into the various parts with all
her energy; she desired to have every feeling and every remembrance
effaced from her own and from Eric's soul. Eric had this impression,
but he made no remark. Bella spoke to him once only, telling him that
the Russian Prince, who was staying with Weidmann, wrote frequently to
her, and desired to be remembered to him; and that he also wrote in the
warmest terms of esteem concerning Roland's earlier tutor, Master
Knopf.

In the emphasis which she placed upon the word tutor, Bella seemed
desirous of setting up again between her and Eric the old boundary line
that had disappeared.

Towards evening the rain held up, and the sun came out with that
inexpressible glory of coloring only to be seen when the mounta