What? Not yet? What is the
matter, Bruno?"

The latter, approaching his uncle with clear signs that he wanted him for
something, had pulled him aside.

"I want to ask you for something," said Bruno. "I wonder if you will do
me a great favor, Uncle Philip. Salo and I have so much to talk about
still and he must leave to-morrow, I wanted to ask you if Kurt can sleep
beside you in the guest room and Salo could sleep in Kurt's bed in my
room."

"What are you thinking of," the uncle said irritably. "You should hear
what your mother would say to that. The idea of having a Wallerstaetten
for a guest and offering him a bed which has been used already. That
would seem a real crime in her eyes. That can't be; no, it mustn't. I
hope you can see it, too, don't you?"

"Yes," Bruno said, much depressed, for he had to agree. But Uncle could
not stand such downcast spirits.

"Listen, Bruno," he said, "you realize that we can't do it that way. But
an uncle knows how to arrange things and that is why he is here. This is
the way we'll do. I'll sleep in your bed, and Salo and you can sleep in
the guest-room. Will that suit?"

"Oh, thank you, Uncle Philip! There is no other uncle like you," Bruno
cried out in his enthusiasm.

So Uncle Philip's last difficulty was solved for to-day and everybody was
willing to go to bed. Soon the house lay in deep quiet: even the sick
child in the highest story lay calmly sleeping on her cool pillows. She
did not even notice when Mrs. Maxa stepped up once more to her bedside
with a little lamp. Before herself retiring she wanted to listen once
more to the child's breathing. Only the two new friends were still
talking long after midnight.

They understood each other so thoroughly and upon all points that Bruno
had proposed in his enthusiasm that they would not waste one minute of
the night in sleep. Salo expressed his wish over and over again that
Bruno might become his comrade in the boarding school. But finally
victorious sleep stole unperceived over the two lads and quietly closed
their eyes.

CHAPTER VII

THE MOTHER'S ABSENCE HAS CONSEQUENCES

Next morning Salo was allowed to go into his sister's room in order to
say good-bye to her. She looked at him so cheerfully that he asked with
eager delight, "Do you feel so much better already, Leonore?"

"Oh, yes, I feel as if I were at home," she replied with shining eyes.
"I feel as if our mother had come down from heaven to take care of me.