se edge had become dulled, seemed
to lay themselves pleasantly aside for the moment. Whether they were
to become whetted again into keen interest remained to be seen, for
the awakening green and white noon-tide of actual existence was
absorbing.

Apparently she was not greatly affected by Deming's departure.
She betook herself to her lessons and duties with well-drilled
diligence. The years were cut out for her. She had only to follow
the pattern. How much more fortunate it would be, Gard had often
felt, if she were detached from her semi-civilized household! Her
own attractions would then be freed from the surrounding thorns,
prickly hedges, that bruised and tore and dismayed one. An
American chap could marry her--but oh, her family!

It was not long, however, before she missed meals. She had begun
again being mysteriously mute at times in her room, over the Heine
poems. Gard had almost forgotten them.

There were no promenades this early season in the meadow, with the
poet. No duos were played. Winter, for that matter, was a more
favorable time for them, as it was also for the family concerts.

Fraeulein observed a meaningless familiarity with Kirtley as if he
were an old member of the home circle. He wondered again if Rudolph
had influenced and troubled from the first her relations with
himself. And nowadays Tekla was surly toward him. She served him
unwillingly and grabbed his occasional _Trinkgelds_ with scarcely a
thank-you. Had Rudi, with whom he had had hardly any contact,
stirred her up against him out of sheer unjustified Satanism?

The spring weather somewhat curtailed, mollified, all the frank
irascibility and wrangling that went on in the house, and it was
under the lukewarm spell of this German virgin summer-time that the
routine took on its most agreeable aspects, though accompanied with
the usual Teuton domestic din. It was, in fact, very enjoyable,
contrasted with what the cold months had permitted.

In the winter a pleasant feature had been the theater or opera
nights. Darkness then came at four. Dinner would be served at five
in order to reach the amusement place at half past six or seven. By
eleven the family were back in Loschwitz, sitting down, starved, to
a bouncing supper where frequently Kirtley regaled himself with the
toothsome Pumpernickel. Over the hot dishes the feverish points of
the entertainment were discussed, exclaimed about, while the party
cooled off and solaced themselves wi