ten," thought Poons. "Of course she is not here! Oh,
God! that is the tragedy of it! The empty chair, always the empty
chair--it is like death!"

As the nursery door opened Poons heard the sound of voices and laughter
and, to his utter astonishment, saw his friend Von Barwig on the floor
playing with little Helene's dolls' house. Helene was shrieking with
childish laughter because Von Barwig pretended to be angry with one of
her dolls which would not eat the cake he tried to make it swallow.

As Von Barwig saw his friend, a look of intense pain crossed his face,
but he forced himself to smile and say:

"Come in, Herr Doctor Poons, and mend this little girl's eye. See,
I've given her cake to eat, but it won't do her eye any good!"

Helene laughed gleefully at the idea of cake being good for a broken
eye.

"Good gracious, how did the eye fall out?" said Dr. Poons, shaking his
head gravely.

"She fell down and I kicked it," lisped the little one. "I kicked it,"
she laughed, unconscious that she had committed an unprovoked assault
on her plaything. "Mend it; oh, please mend it!"

Poons shook his head gravely. The child mistook this for a confession
of his inability to do what she wished.

"Mamma 'll fix it when she comes home. She won't be long, will she?"
said the child, somewhat tearfully. She had asked the question many
times, and her father seemed unable to answer her.

"I am trying to make her forget," said Anton savagely to Poons, in
answer to his look of painful inquiry. "She must forget soon; I've
been with her ever since you left me this morning." His arm stole
around the child's neck, and drawing her to him gently, he kissed her
again and again with such sad, lingering tenderness that the ever-ready
tears welled up into Poons's eyes, and he turned his head to conceal
them. The child struggled to free herself.

"Papa so rough, eh? Well, he won't be, or Herr Poons will beat him,
eh?"

"Surely," assented Poons.

"Papa will be so gentle and so kind," went on Von Barwig tenderly.
"He'll love his little girl as no little girl in this wide, wide world
was ever loved before, eh?"

Little Helene did not understand, and as she had nothing at this
precise moment to occupy her attention, she answered him by asking the
one question that absorbed her mind, "Where's mamma?"

Von Barwig and Poons looked at each other helplessly. Apart from the
tragedy of two men trying to comfort a little child th