rm to
walk in the afternoon, so lay down on our beds, mustering in great force
for afternoon coffee. And a carriage drew up at the door. A tall young
girl got out, leading a child by the hand. They entered the hall, were
greeted and shown to their room. Ten minutes later she came down with
the child to sign the visitors' book. She wore a black, closely fitting
dress, touched at throat and wrists with white frilling. Her brown hair,
braided, was tied with a black bow--unusually pale, with a small mole on
her left cheek.

"I am the Baroness von Gall's sister," she said, trying the pen on a
piece of blotting-paper, and smiling at us deprecatingly. Even for the
most jaded of us life holds its thrilling moments. Two Baronesses in two
months! The manager immediately left the room to find a new nib.

To my plebeian eyes that afflicted child was singularly unattractive.
She had the air of having been perpetually washed with a blue bag, and
hair like grey wool--dressed, too, in a pinafore so stiffly starched
that she could only peer at us over the frill of it--a social barrier of
a pinafore--and perhaps it was too much to expect a noble aunt to attend
to the menial consideration of her niece's ears. But a dumb niece with
unwashed ears struck me as a most depressing object.

They were given places at the head of the table. For a moment we all
looked at one another with an eena-deena-dina-do expression. Then the
Frau Oberregierungsrat:

"I hope you are not tired after your journey."

"No," said the sister of the Baroness, smiling into her cup.

"I hope the dear child is not tired," said the Frau Doktor.

"Not at all."

"I expect, I hope you will sleep well to-night," the Herr Oberlehrer
said reverently.

"Yes."

The poet from Munich never took his eyes off the pair. He allowed his
tie to absorb most of his coffee while he gazed at them exceedingly
soulfully.

Unyoking Pegasus, thought I. Death spasms of his Odes to Solitude!
There were possibilities in that young woman for an inspiration, not
to mention a dedication, and from that moment his suffering temperament
took up its bed and walked.

They retired after the meal, leaving us to discuss them at leisure.

"There is a likeness," mused the Frau Doktor. "Quite. What a manner she
has. Such reserve, such a tender way with the child."

"Pity she has the child to attend to," exclaimed the student from Bonn.
He had hitherto relied upon three scars and a ribbon to pro