Relieved in her mind at having Jerome’s consent, and Wilhelmi’s approval, Sara gave herself up with genuine artist’s delight to rehearsing and preparing her parts; that of Thusnelda in especial, giving her real joy and pleasure. The festival itself was fixed for the middle of October. [Illustration] CHAPTER III. THE SECOND MEETING. IT had at first been intended to give the _tableaux vivants_, or as they call them in Germany, _lebende Bilder_, in the small hall of the pretty little _Malkasten_, or artists’ club; but so numerous had been the applications for places, that it was decided instead to have them in a larger room belonging to the building where all the concerts were held—the public _Tonhalle_. This proved quite successful, and every seat was taken a week beforehand. It was a very pretty sight: all Elberthal was there; assembled, too, in good time, and everyone talking, laughing, moving about with a freedom, an ease, and an absence of ceremony peculiar to German entertainments of the kind. Sara Ford and Avice went with the Wilhelmis, who, being important persons in the affair, had naturally secured a number of the uppermost seats. Sara’s parts were in the second and fourth pictures. She accordingly had to go and dress for her part of Thusnelda while the first picture was being given. She left Avice, seated between Luise Wilhelmi and her mother, and therefore safely chaperoned. Luise was in a state of wild excitement, which indeed was her chronic condition. She was a very sprightly, pretty brunette, fond of brilliant colours, and given to attiring herself in a somewhat stagey manner. On this occasion she was strikingly but becomingly dressed in hues of amber and pomegranate, with many slits and slashes, tags and ends and furbelows. Nothing would induce her to yield to her father’s requests that she would dress with a noble and classic simplicity, or to her lover’s representations that white muslin and blue ribbon and a generally inexpensive shepherdess style of thing would become her wonderfully well. Fräulein Luise loved silk and satin, rich fabrics and bright jewels, and so long as anyone could be found to provide her with them, she would wear them. Avice Wellfield, beside her, looked like an inhabitant of another world. It was the first time she had been out anywhere since her father’s death; and her plain black frock and white _crêpe_ ruffles at neck and wrists formed a pointed contrast to Luise’s flashing colours and glittering rings and chains and bangles. Avice had plaited her hair up into a coronet, which gave her an older, staider look. The girl was fulfilling, more and more every day, Sara’s prophecy to her brother, that she would one day be beautiful. Her new life, happier despite its poverty than the old one, had called forth that beauty, while the intellect, which had formerly been repressed and was now in every way encouraged to develop itself, gave dignity and depth