Frau von Seleneck’s eyes twinkled. "She is always so," she said. "One gets accustomed." "I do not think that I should ’get accustomed,’" Nora retorted, with heightened colour. "At any rate, I shall not call." "You——" Frau von Seleneck gasped, and her eyes distended with unaffected horror. "_Aber, du lieber Gott im Himmel!_—you cannot mean what you say, you do not know——" she choked. "_Es ist unmöglich!_" she decided, as though addressing an unreasonable deity. "I don’t see why it is _unmöglich_," Nora said. "There is no purpose in calling on people whom I do not want to know. I told Wolff so." "Ah, you have told your husband! And what did he say?" Nora hesitated. She remembered now that Wolff had looked troubled, and the remembrance caused her a sudden uneasiness. "He said I could do as I liked," she said slowly. "Ah, the young husbands!" Frau von Seleneck threw up her hands. "What folly! It must not be. You must call on the Mayos—on everybody. You must not show that you hate or that you love. You must be the same to all—gracious, smiling—though you may want to scratch their eyes out. You must remember we are all comrades." "Comrades! I do not want Frau von Mayo as a comrade!" Nora cried indignantly. Frau von Seleneck bent forward, and her voice sank to a mysterious whisper. "Nor do any of us. I tell you in secret—she is a hateful person. But we must not let her see—it is our duty to pretend." "Why?" Nora demanded uncompromisingly. "For our husbands’ sake—it does not do to have ill-feeling between the wives. Then the husbands quarrel, and there must be no ill-feeling between comrades." Nora shook her head. "I’m afraid I’m no good at pretending," she said. "But you will try—for your good Wolff’s sake? See, I will help you—if you will let me." Nora took the outstretched hand. Her moment’s anger had gone—dispersed by the simple appeal "for Wolff’s sake." "You are very good to me," she said gratefully, "and I will try and do what is right. Everything is so new and strange to me." "I know, I know. But you will see—all will go so smooth—so smooth. One day I will go with you to the Mayos. I have my little English, and that will make it easier. My poor English!" She gave another of her comfortable chuckles. "He is so very bad." "Oh, not at all!" Nora hastened to reassure her politely. "It is really quite good—considering. I can understand everything you say." There was a rather sudden silence, and to her alarm Nora observed that her visitor’s pink cheeks had turned a bright scarlet, and that there was a look of almost childish disappointment in the large brown eyes. "What have I done?" Nora thought, and then, before she had time to fathom the mystery, the good-natured little woman had recovered her equanimity as suddenly as she had lost it.