e the age of the girl's own mother. Then
remember her mother was French and the girl always loved only the things
which concerned her mother, had learned to speak her language and had
written letters to all her family, but had never been allowed to visit
them because the girl's father and aunt believed only in German ideals
and in German customs and wished to separate her wholly from her
mother's country and people. Moreover, they had neither of them ever
been able to forgive her because she had not been a boy and so been
trained for the army, the German army if possible. Then suppose the girl
had loved only the outdoors and horses and dogs as if she had been a
boy, but because she was a girl had to be trained in all the German
ways. As for living in a palace, it is hard sometimes to do and say the
proper thing all the time, when you feel they don't believe in the
things you believe. Oh, I am not saying the fault is not mine--"

The girl stopped an instant.

"But I was not supposed to be talking about myself, still you must have
guessed."

"I should not have guessed unless you wished me to guess," Bianca
replied in the prim little fashion of her childhood which she had never
lost from her manner and which amused and pleased her friends.

"No, you would not have guessed, you are a dear," the Countess Charlotta
answered with an impulsiveness which was an entire contrast to Bianca's
nature.

"But what I wanted to explain to you is that you were envying what you
thought were my circumstances. You were not really thinking of me at
all. You see one might be a princess and be very unhappy and one might
be a very humble person and just the opposite. Then I think we ought to
realize that a princess may be very horrid and a beggar maid most
wonderful."

The young countess hesitated.

"I thought that what I have just said is what Americans believed. Don't
they think that human beings are equal and that it all depends on what
they do with their own lives, what they are able to make of
themselves?"

Bianca shook her head.

"I don't know, you had better talk to some one else on this question
instead of to me. I am not at all clever, even my best friends, Sonya
Clark and Carlo Navara, do not think I am clever. But there is one thing
I understand at present. You have told me a great many interesting facts
about yourself, but there is something else on your mind which you have
not confided to me. It is something which makes