“ Henriette stepped past her grandmother, and privately signalled to Kitty to follow her. "These exciting scenes kill me," she whispered, as they entered the empty music-room.
"Be tranquil. Flora's struggles are vain; he will yet bring her to his feet," Kitty rejoined, in a strange, agitated tone. "But I cannot understand him. Were I such a man——" Her eyes flashed, and she held herself proudly erect.
"Do you know what it is to love, Kitty? Judge not! You, with your cool glance and blooming cheeks, have no conception of the mad intoxication which can take possession of a human soul." ”

“ Flora said, authoritatively. She walked close by Kitty's side, her head held high with her usual haughty air, nevertheless keenly scanning each bush on either side of the path, ready to take to flight at the first suspicious noise. Where was the courage to which Henriette had ironically alluded? Where the self-reliance, the masculine energy, she had herself so vaunted? In this terrible hour Kitty could not but reflect that where a woman ceases to think, to feel, and to struggle like a woman, her life is a farce, and a farce only. ”

“ Kitty started up; it was intolerable to her to think that if she remained she must be a witness of this distressing drama,—must see the unhappy man, in spite of his strong affection and efforts to the contrary, thrust forth from the paradise he had dreamed of. No; she sided with Moritz and Henriette. Flora could not and should not break her troth; the whole family must combine to prevent such wretched treachery. What folly so blinded her as thus to induce her to destroy her own happiness! Had she not seen him in his home with his loving foster-mother? ”

“ The councillor walked around to the western side of the house. Here only two windows on the ground-floor were illuminated; a hanging lamp between the crimson curtains of one of them gleamed out into the darkness, bathing in rosy light the white limbs of a marble nymph by a fountain in the grove. Herr Römer shook his head as he entered; then, giving his overcoat to a servant, he opened the door of the red-curtained apartment. The room was all red,—hangings, furniture, even the carpet was of the same dark crimson hue. ”

“ There, where the heavy silken curtains fell like a dark crimson blood-stain behind the huge panes of glass, stood the detested safe. Hitherto she had feared it, but to-day she hated those four iron walls that had thrust her own individuality aside to stand in the stead of a girl filled with youthful hopes and desires and a profound longing for the true happiness of life. When lovers sued for her hand, their tender glances were for the monster that dogged her steps; they wooed the heiress in her. This was the attraction for Councillor von Römer; the wealthy man wished to be still wealthier. ”

“ On the other side of the water lay one of the finest parts of the park, and in the distance, behind the lindens, the blue tiles of the roof of the villa could be seen. Between these windows stood the writing-table, so that when the doctor raised his eyes from his work he could see the flag-staff of the villa pointing towards heaven,—-towards heaven! Kitty suddenly felt her cheeks flush with shame as she thought how the tenderest care was watching over the man's comfort here, while there her faithless sister was employed day and night in devising some way to thrust him from his heaven. ”

“ Henriette was seated at it, making the tea; again she had scarlet ribbons in her blonde hair, and a sleeveless jacket of the same brilliant colour over a light blue silk dress. Her small, pallid face looked ghostly in so theatric a costume, but her beautiful eyes shone with an almost unearthly fire. "Bruck has come!" she whispered, breathlessly, into Kitty's ear, pointing through the adjoining music-room, where the grand piano was being so punished, towards Flora's study. "Kitty, he really seems grown, so tall and majestic—— Good heavens! do not look 'so sober, steadfast, and demure'!" ”

“ Henriette entered composedly; the lovers were not alone; but Kitty, whom she drew with her, paused upon the threshold, repelled by Flora's air, which was impatient, almost angry. She was evidently in an ill humour. She surveyed with a sarcastic glance her sister's dress, for Kitty had laid aside this evening, for the first time, her deep mourning, and wore light gray.
"Come in, Kitty," she exclaimed, without changing her attitude. "In stiff silk, I see, as usual, just like a paper angel, and enough to make the strongest of us nervous with the perpetual rustle. ”

“ Her gaze wandered from the contemplation of her own loveliness to the girl clad in white standing before the blue velvet portière, that brought into relief the youthful beauty of her figure, the incomparable freshness and delicacy of her colour beneath the heavy plaits of hair that crowned a face in which the dark eyes shone like stars. If in Flora was seen the woman of intellect who had already attempted to pierce the mystery of existence, her youngest sister was the type of maidenly innocence and spotless purity. ”

“ Involuntarily Kitty had withdrawn to a window recess, in which stood Henriette's arm-chair. She saw a tear tremble beneath the invalid's eyelid at the thoughtless toast as she bit her lip in indignant pain; for her, existence was a rack of torture,—for her, the delights of life were purchased by suffering with every breath she drew. The young ward had taken no glass, and the guardian had offered her none. The girl's glance rested gravely and searchingly upon his mobile features. She had never suspected that a tempest of feeling could arise behind the man's smooth, passionless face ”

“ Henriette said, with a sigh. "But do you remember how Flora used to thrust your hand away from my aching head? She was terribly jealous."
A half-suppressed laugh of contempt came from the window. Henriette did not hear it: she was deaf to the outside world.
"I cannot sleep, for distress at what must come!" she moaned, clasping Kitty's hand, locked in her own, passionately against her poor breast. "You will avoid us all and be a miserable man, never even uttering our names. Ah, Bruck, what can satisfy her boundless vanity, which she calls ambition! ”

“ At the head sat the dean's widow, her eyes red with weeping, and opposite her the doctor. "The old woman" had behaved as if the trifling injury that Kitty had sustained were the gravest consequence of the disaster, and the doctor had never stirred from his post, only relinquishing his clasp of Kitty's hand when the bandage upon her brow needed renewing. It required more patience and self-control than Flora had at command to look quietly on at such anxious care bestowed upon "a tall, robust girl, with nerves and muscles inherited from the former woodcutter's daughter." ”

“ Keen as was the invalid's power of discrimination, impressed as she was by the superficiality and unreality of a life given up to society, she was, and always must be, a child of the world of fashion; she had grown up in the drawing-room of her aristocratic grandmother, and often, when the sound of rolling carriages bound for ball or opera was heard in the distance, she would smile bitterly, and liken herself to a broken-down war-horse, weak and lame, who nevertheless at the blast of the trumpet pricks his ears and longs for the strife. ”

“ You little goose, do you really think yourself capable of passing judgment upon your sister Flora?" She laughed aloud, and pointed to a chestnut-tree, from the boughs of which a white dove was flying. The bird flew high in air, a dazzling point of light. "Look, child, a moment ago it nestled amid the branches among its fellows, now its outspread wings gleam like silver, and it hangs in the blue, lonely firmament a shining spectacle for mortal eyes to gaze upon. Perhaps you may one day stand what thirsting, aspiring soul it resembles. ”

“ Once or twice during the day the Frau President ascended the stairs, a cloud of black crape around her gray head, her countenance troubled, and utterly bereft of that proud composure the maintenance of which in times of trial she had always asserted to be the distinguishing characteristic of a well-balanced mind. She could do nothing but weep and wring her hands convulsively at the terrible change that one moment had made in the villa and its inmates. The exhausted invalid always breathed more freely when the door closed upon the melancholy figure shrouded in black. ”

“ You know how, upon my arrival, I shrank from meeting my clever sister Flora, and how, in sight of the villa, I longed to turn back and flee to my Dresden home. Would that I had done so! In addition to pride of rank and of office, the arrogance of wealth is now rampant in the villa. In that air, filled with pretence and gold-dust, no healthy thought or feeling can survive. ”

“ The wealth of leaves that would shortly overpower each knotty bough and transform it to youth and beauty still lay compressed, a soft down, in millions of brown buds; the underbrush alone showed a pale, misty green, and from the damp moss the snow-drops hung upon long, slender stems. Kitty strayed aside, plucking these flowers, while Flora and Henriette walked on in the narrow path leading to the pines. ”

“ She stood paralyzed by the utter frivolity with which Flora had thus discovered a means of relieving herself from all embarrassment. Hers was one of those feminine natures which master a situation by a bold stroke as soon as it is comprehended, and by a reckless ignoring of all that is unpleasant in the past come down upon their feet in any change of circumstances and instantly take up afresh the threads of their intrigues and continue to weave them successfully. And this was the sister before whose intellectual and moral superiority her childish soul had prostrated itself in timid awe! ”

“ Meanwhile, Henriette turned a face of anger and scorn towards her grandmother. "It is solely to avoid furnishing gossip for society, then, that you would have my sister bear herself blameless? She can easily satisfy you. You will instantly acquit her if she can cover her breach of faith with a silken mantle. But indeed you need not be so sensitive upon the subject of scandal, grandmamma: those living in the world as we do, soon find out that society regards many a sinner of rank and wealth much as it does an old piece of valuable porcelain,—the more patched the more precious." ”

“ Kitty looked up with a strange gleam in her eyes. Certainly the blood was not cold that suddenly dyed crimson her forehead and checks, and even the round, snowy throat: it was so stirred that for one moment she forgot that she was sitting by an invalid's bedside, and that it was her duty as a conscientious nurse not to allow even the mention of any exciting subject. "And what then?" she asked, eagerly. "What if Flora should acknowledge with shame how wrong she has been? Could it really matter much to a man so insulted, so outraged? ”

“ Henriette stood at the top of the staircase with arms extended in farewell, while Kitty drew her veil down over her swollen eyelids. Every hall and passage of the house was bathed in light, and carriage after carriage rolled up to the door. For a moment Kitty was obliged to take refuge in a side-corridor, whence she saw ladies in full dress rustle by to the drawing-room. Footmen threw open the folding-doors, and, within, Flora appeared in light-blue silk and white lace, beautiful and gracious as a princess, to receive the guests assembled in her honour. ”

“ The councillor looked back into the room with a shiver. By contrast it looked almost comfortable and cosy to the man to whose refined taste it was usually so repulsive, with its constant smell of cooking, its smoky ceiling, and the coarse prints here and there upon the walls; but Susie had just replenished the fire in the stove with pine wood, the old-fashioned sofa against the wall looked inviting with its huge soft cushions, and upon the bright panes of glass in the recess-door the last gleams of daylight were reflected. ”

“ Without knowing it, she brushed by the hanging train, and, with a low rustle, the whole silken fabric fell upon the floor.
Kitty stooped to raise it, but Flora pushed the satin scornfully aside with her foot. "Let it lie!" she said, bitterly. "Even the lifeless stuff rebels against a sister's treachery."
"And are you free from blame, Flora?" Kitty asked. Her blood was easily roused; her sense of justice was strong, and not even for the sake of peace would she submit to the persistent injustice of wayward egotism. ”

“ Doctor Bruck watched over her, and Kitty was his aid.—the two people whom she loved most in the world.
Kitty recovered very quickly, leaving her bed on the afternoon of the second day. She wore a narrow bandage about her brow, and the heavy braids of hair, too massive to be worn around her head for the present, hung down her back; but this was all the change that could remind one that the terrible explosion had hurled her to the ground and overwhelmed her with the waters of the fosse, where she must have perished if loving eyes had not sought and loving hands rescued her. ”

“ Wondrous indeed must be this passion of love! Once already beneath that very roof it had hounded on a human soul through every stage of misery and despair. Many years before, as the dean's widow had related to Kitty on one of their homeward walks, the lovely young widow of a Baron von Baumgarten had lived in the house by the river. Her husband's heir and successor, the scion of a collateral branch, a handsome young cavalier, had daily come from his inherited castle to have one look at the lovely face shrouded in its widow's weeds. ”

“ Flora asked, as if quite out of patience. "Such affectation is absurd in a girl of your age. There is the lace shawl that Moritz gave grandmamma;—she scorns it; she is more sensitive than your sisters, who think it very natural that your gift should outvalue theirs fourfold,—and you pretend not to understand why? Do not be ridiculous! You hear the hammering yonder in the pavilion every day from morning until night. The entire household, down to the very workmen, know that a home is being arranged there for grandmamma, so that the councillor's young wife may preside here alone. ”