mild formalism irksome.

The real difficulty lay in the fact that the members of the Grand
Duchess's court were Germans in thought, in ancestry and in their
ideals.

Now the little Countess Charlotta faced a life when she must always
remain surrounded with these same influences; influences that she hated
and that had always repelled and antagonized her.

What matter if the Germans had failed in their war against freedom, if
her own freedom was still denied her? Moreover, since the German failure
her father appeared more than ever determined to force her marriage.

If the German nobility were in disgrace, if the men surrounding the
Kaiser had fallen with their master from their high estate, at least the
Count Scherin of Luxemburg was faithful to old principles. Luxemburg was
a neutral state and there could be no interference with his personal
ideas and designs.

Moreover, a few moments before the Countess Charlotta had received her
father's ultimatum and had just concluded the reading of his note which
demanded that she return home within the next thirty-six hours.

Well, she would be more sorry to say farewell to her friends than they
would ever appreciate. Besides, she must go away from the Red Cross
hospital without the inspiration and the aid she had hoped to receive
from her contact with a group of American girls. How much she had hoped
to learn from the example of their courage. Surely some of them must
have broken away from family traditions in coming from their own homes
into foreign lands to nurse the wounded! And she had dreamed she might
learn to follow their example.

But how quiet the house seemed at present. It was strange to recall that
her accident had brought her to this house where her mother had lived as
a girl, a house which had been a part of her inheritance from her
mother, although she had rarely been inside it.

If only one of the Red Cross girls would come and talk with her. There
was so little time left when this would be possible and she so dreaded
her own society. What would she do when she returned to the old
narrowness of her past existence with the eternal disagreements?

Never except when she was outdoors could Charlotta endure being alone.

For the first time since her accident the little countess was almost
completely dressed in a brown costume which Bianca had with great
difficulty adjusted over her injured arm.

Walking to her door Charlotta opened it, glancing out into th