"It is not true--I have come here from very different motives--but they think me an object of charity. I rang the bell--I cannot unstrap my trunks--I never have been expected to unstrap trunks." The sobs here interfered for a moment with further speech. "After a long while--your servant came--she was insolent--the trunks are there still unstrapped--you see them--she knows--everything." "She shall go to-morrow." "The others think the same thing." "They shall go to-morrow--that is, have they been rude to you?" "Not yet, but they will be." "When they are, they shall go." "I went into the corridor to seek other assistance, and I met--I met----" "Who?" "Oh, to have fallen so low!" cried Frau von Treumann, clasping her hands, and raising her streaming eyes to the ceiling. "But who did you meet?" "I met--I met the Penheim." "The Penheim? Do you mean Princess Ludwig?" "You never said she was here----" "I did not know that it would interest you." "--living on charity--she was always shameless--I was at school with her. Oh, I would not have come for any inducement if I had known she was here! She holds nothing sacred, she will boast of her own degradation, she will write to all her friends that I am here too--I told them I was coming only on a visit to you--they knew I knew your uncle--but the Penheim--the Penheim----" and Frau von Treumann threw herself into a chair and covered her face with her hands to shut out the horrid vision. The corners of Anna's mouth began to take the upward direction that would end in a smile; and feeling how ill-placed such a contortion would be in the presence of this tumultuous grief, she brought them carefully back to a position of proper solemnity. Besides, why should she smile? The poor lady was clearly desperately unhappy about something, though what it was Anna did not quite know. She had looked forward to this first evening with her new friends as to a thing apart, a thing beyond the ordinary experience of life, profound in its peace, perfect in its harmony, the first taste of rest after war, of port after stormy seas; and here was Frau von Treumann plunged in a very audible grief, and in the next room was the baroness, a disconcerting combination of inquisitiveness and ice, and farther down the passage was Fräulein Kuhräuber--in what state, Anna wondered, would she find Fräulein Kuhräuber? Anyhow she had little reason to smile. But the horror with which Princess Ludwig had been mentioned seemed droll beside her own knowledge of the sterling qualities of that excellent woman. She went over to the chair in which Frau von Treumann lay prostrate, and sat down beside her. She was glad that they had reached the stage of sitting down, for talking is difficult to a person who will not keep still.