"How sorry I am," she said, in her pretty, hesitating German, "that you should have been made unhappy the very first evening. Marie is a little wretch. Don't let her stupidity make you miserable. You shall not see her again, I promise you." And she patted Frau von Treumann's arm. "But about Princess Ludwig, now," she went on cheerfully, "she has been here some weeks and you soon learn to know a person you are with every day, and really I have found her nothing but good and kind." "_Ach_, she is shameless--she recoils before no degradation!" burst out Frau von Treumann, suddenly removing her hands from her face. "The trouble she has given her relations! She delights in dragging her name in the dirt. She has tried to get places in the most impossible families, and made no attempt to hide what she was doing. She has broken the old Fürst's heart. And she talks about it all, and has no shame, no decency----" "But is it not admirable----" began Anna. "She will gloat over me, and tell everyone that I am here in the same way as she is. If she is not ashamed for herself, do you think she will spare me?" "But why should you think there is anything to be ashamed of in coming to live with me and be my dear friend?" "No, there is nothing, so long as my motives in coming are known. But people talk so cruelly, and will distort the facts so gladly, and we have always held our heads so high. And now the Penheim!" She sobbed afresh. "I shall ask the princess not to write to anyone about your being here." "_Ach_, I know her--she will do it all the same." "No, I don't think so. She does everything I ask. You see, she takes care of my house for me. She is not here in the same way that--that you and Baroness Elmreich are, and her interest is to stay here." Frau von Treumann's bowed head went up with a jerk. "_Ach?_ She has found a place at last? She is your paid companion? Your housekeeper?" "Yes, and she is goodness itself, and I don't believe she would be unkind and make mischief for worlds." "_Ach so!_" said Frau von Treumann, "_ach so-o-o-o!_"--a long drawn out _so_ of complete comprehension. Her tears ceased as if by magic. She dried her eyes. Yes, of course the Penheim would hold her tongue if Miss Estcourt ordered her to do so. She had heard all about her efforts to find places, and she would probably be very careful not to lose this one. The poor Penheim. So she was actually working for wages. What a come-down for a Dettingen! And the Dettingens had always treated the Treumanns as though they belonged merely to the _kleine Adel_. Well, well, each one in turn. She was the dear friend, and the Penheim was the housekeeper. Well, well.