s
against the two men so fully armed with injustice.

The picture of the four puppets which Fate had dancing on its thread
now underwent a change which completely altered the situation. The eyes
of the boarders were no longer directed in anger and injured dignity at
the pretty widow, but fell with complacency and sympathy upon the
weeping girl, who now found friends at the expense of another, as so
often happens--if one loses, another must win.

"Really, can none of us do anything to help Mamsell Rauchfuss to
compose herself?" Herr Leinhose shot out of the door, and returned with
a glass of cold water. "Here, Mamsell," he said as gently as a child's
nurse, "drink a mouthful of this!" Frau Marianne looked up in
amazement; such a note in his voice she had never heard! The two men
had always been well taken care of, only too well, by her, and they had
absolutely no excuse for seeking revenge upon her for fancied wrongs.
But when a man woos, he likes to see the woman in need of help, however
much this characteristic alters after he has won her.

"Oh dear!" thought the pretty widow--"There it is!" She could do
nothing but look on while both of them offered their services to the
young girl. Their voices grew tenderer and tenderer--positively carried
away by emotion. The poor lonely girl felt some good from these kind
voices; she began to be more composed, and looked up.

The rosy face, slightly swollen from crying, under the crown of red
hair, quite visibly inflamed the enthusiasm of the boarders. They
simply poured forth kindness and amiability; and Frau Marianne could
not be too far behind them for fear of making herself ridiculous; so
she was forced to show a certain amount of motherly tenderness toward
the disturber of her peace.

Poor thing, she was now learning by experience that love is not to be
ensnared by correct deportment and just deserts. So she was obliged to
put up with it while her two well-nourished boarders, on whom she had
lavished so much conscientious labor, escorted the little brat home in
the darkness to the Ettersberg. She was also obliged to endure it when
the stupid girl, in her passionate anxiety, threw her arms around her
once more, saying, "You would be sad and unhappy--and you're so pretty
and nice! Oh, if I could only learn to be like you!"

It was hardly necessary for young Beate to have brought so much
disturbance into the house of the unfortunate widow; for Captain
Rauchfuss soon after