must be paid for. It
is necessary to accept the consequences of one's actions.' Am I right
or wrong?"

Annette always closed with a note of interrogation, and of course I was
obliged to respond affirmatively.

Bertha smiled sadly, and said in a weary voice: "Yes, father, I must
admit it; I have always thought that war was one of those things of
which one only learned in the hour devoted at school to history. I only
knew of the Punic wars and the Peloponnesian war--for we never got as
far as modern history--and thought of these things as of what had once
been. But I honestly admit that I did not think they would come to pass
again in our time."

"Just think of it, Bertha," said Annette, while she drew a thick volume
from her satchel, "this is the Bible. You know that I never take
quotations at second-hand, but prefer looking them up myself. This
morning while the hairdresser was with me, it occurred to me that the
Bible says the wife should leave her father and her mother for his
sake. So I sent for the Bible, the very one that the dowager princess
presented me with when I was christened. I hunted up the passage, but
what did I find? Why, that for this the 'man would leave his father and
mother,'--the man. Now just look, it says the man; and why should it
say _the man_? He is not a domestic plant, like us girls!"

The vivacity of the pretty and graceful woman cheered me, and I must
admit that from that time my opinion of Annette changed. She seems
imbued with much of that power of self-reliance which is a peculiar
characteristic of the Jews; they are nothing by inheritence, and are
obliged to make themselves what they are.

But Annette seemed to guess at my silent thoughts, and continued, "Do
not praise me, I beg of you! I do not deserve it. I am quite different
when I am alone; then I am tormented with horrible fancies. And let me
tell you, Bertha, when our husbands leave, you must keep me with you. I
cannot be alone. I am beginning to hate my piano already. I do not go
into the room in which it stands. Ah, here come our husbands!"

We heard advancing steps. The Major entered, and greeted me politely,
but seemed quite gloomy.

I told him that I had brought Ernst.

"I hope he will do himself credit," said the Major in a hard voice.

I told him that the Parliament was about to reassemble, whereupon the
Major with great emphasis said, "Dear father, I beg of you do not let
us talk politics now. I have the greates