an and the carriage.

She listened quietly till he had finished and then said, "I have some
news for you, too. Just think! Baron Bruno has come back. He arrived in
the middle of the night when nobody could see him. He is absolutely
alone now in the desolate castle. Just imagine how he must feel to be
within those walls again where he spent his happy years with all those
loved ones he has not seen since he left the castle in a fit of terror."

"Yes, and why did it happen? Wasn't it his own will?" the brother said
harshly. "Whenever you speak about him, your voice takes on a tone as if
you were speaking about a misunderstood angel. Why did the raging lion
come back all of a sudden?"

"Please, Philip, don't be so hard!" his sister said, "He is entirely left
alone now. Is sorrow easier to bear when it is our own doing? I heard
that he was ill. That is probably the reason why he has come home. I
know all this from Apollonie, who is in communication with Mr. Trius.
She keeps on scheming to find a way to set the rooms in order for her
young master, as she still calls him. She knows how his mother would
wish everything to be for her son. I understand quite well that she
worries night and day about the state things are in at the castle. Her
former master has for nurse, servant, cook and valet only that peculiar
and ancient Mr. Trius. She can hardly think about it without wishing
that she might do something for her old friend. The poor woman is so
anxious to make his life at the castle a little more the way it used to
be in the old times."

"For heaven's sake, Maxa, I hope you are not trying to interfere. Do you
intend to undertake that, too?" the brother exclaimed in perturbation.
"If he wanted things different, he certainly would find a way. Please
have nothing to do with it, otherwise you'll be sorry."

"You can be perfectly reassured, for unfortunately nothing whatever can
be done," Mrs. Maxa replied. "If I had known a way to do something for
him, I should have done it. My great wish is to let a little sunshine
into the closed up, sombre rooms, and may be even a little deeper. I had
great hopes of doing something through Apollonie, who knows so much about
the castle, but she has explained the state of affairs to me. She was
going to enter and take things in hand as soon as she heard from Mr.
Trius that her master had returned, for she still considers herself his
servant as in times gone by. It was her intention, naturally