I was playing in one of the copses with some of my little friends near the walk, looking out the while for mamma, and thinking only of her. At length I saw her coming down the avenue with a party of ladies and gentlemen, and, pointing her out to my little friends, said proudly: “There; that is my mamma--the tallest, most beautiful of all mammas!” The children looked up eagerly, and one little precocious creature, with whom I often used to fight, exclaimed: “Yes, she might be if she were not so old. My mamma says that yours is old, and already has a lot of wrinkles round her eyes.” To hear this speech, fling myself upon her, and give her a slap, was with me the work of a second. Of course she struck back, and it became a free fight. Our governesses in vain tried to part us; all they got for their pains was a stray blow from one or the other, intended for the adversary. Suddenly I heard mamma’s voice calling me, and, forgetful of rage, scrimmage, and the enemy, I rushed off into the walk, with arms outstretched, toward her. Repelling me with a look which rooted me to the spot, she exclaimed: “_Comme vous voilà faite!_” And for the first time in my life I saw mamma angry. Turning to Mme. Duphot, who was courtesying to the ground, she haughtily inquired why I was not wearing my spring costume; and as she passed on we caught the words, “Really, these governesses are insupportable.” And I--I could have wept for pity over my poor Duphot, and for shame over myself; wept--but sparks of fire, like Shakspere’s Queen, of whom, by the by, I knew nothing in those days. For three whole days we did not dare present ourselves in the Prater. So I grew up. Year by year my parents prolonged their stay at Trostburg, until they have got to spend the whole of the summer there. My dear mother’s life is now passed in good works. She treats the sick folk of the village homeopathically, and has already effected some marvelous cures among them. She has founded a _crèche_, and a house of correction, where the lazy are to be made to work, and the ne’er-do-wells to be kept under stern discipline. Nothing could be more practical; the pity is that one cannot force the people to go into it; and, left to their own choice, they prefer to stay away. My Duphot is in her element. She accompanies mamma twice daily to church, reads religious books aloud to her, and prepares homeopathic dilutions.