"He did what he thought was his duty, and no one knew how he suffered in doing so," the old lady rejoined. "Agnes was his darling. How enraptured he was when, after his three boys,--the youngest, your father, was eleven years old,--a daughter was born to him! Although he was thought a strict father, he could deny his Agnes nothing. Everybody in the house did as she pleased, and did it gladly, for she was a gentle, tender-hearted creature. But she grew too dreamy and imaginative in this solitude, and when my sister-in-law at last had her way and sent her for a year to boarding-school, where she had companions of her own age, it was too late. At her very first entrance into society she fell in love with that man, that actor, and there was no help for it." "How inconceivable it is, this falling so desperately in love!" said Magelone. Aunt Thekla dropped her knitting and gazed at her niece through her eye-glasses. "Are you in earnest?" she asked. "Can you really not understand it?" Magelone's eyes sparkled strangely, reminding one of sunshine upon rippling water. "Oh, Aunt Thekla, you think I mean it!" she exclaimed, and laughed like a child. "No, not exactly," said the old lady; "but I cannot deny that I am sometimes anxious. 'Tis all the better for you if you are only flirting, but I pity the poor lad." "The poor lad!" Magelone repeated. "Does that mean Otto? Aunt, you are perfectly heavenly; I must give you a kiss!" And she sprang up and threw her arms around Aunt Thekla's neck. "Let me assure you that it is a question which of us is flirting the most. When men attempt anything in that line their achievements are wonderful----Hark! there comes a carriage. It is Johanna!" she interrupted herself, and, beginning to sing, 'For her I sigh,' in a rather weak but melodious voice, she ran out of the room. In the corridor she walked more deliberately. "Remember your dignity, Magelone," she said to herself,--"no farther than the head of the staircase." But when she reached the head of the staircase, and Johanna's pale face--shrouded in black crape, her large eyes dimmed with weeping--looked up at her, dignity was entirely forgotten. Holding out both hands, she hurried to meet the guest, exclaiming, "Johanna! Cousin Johanna! I am Magelone!" And she clasped her in her arms. Johanna was mute with amazement. Otto's expressions had led her to imagine Magelone's beauty to be of a dazzling superb kind, instead of which here was a fairy-like creature, with child-like eyes and a winning grace of manner. "Poor Johanna, how tired you look!" Magelone continued. "And how you shiver! you are chilled through and through----" "Yes; I have been travelling all night," said Johanna. And her teeth chattered as she spoke.