at Vetturi is no comrade of yours, and why do you stop and talk with
him? I do not like it in you. You are not proud enough. Such people
should not speak to us unless they are spoken to."

Anton looked at her with astonishment. There was a sharpness in her
words and voice which surprised him. She noticed it, perhaps, for she
gave him a bewitching smile, and continued:

"See, I am proud of you, and you must be proud of yourself. Such a man
as you are! People ought to take off their hats when they speak to you.
I wouldn't say good-day to a rascal, and you ought not to either.
Perhaps you think I'm angry. Don't think that for an instant. It's only
that I have no patience with a liar. Whatever a man does, if he
confesses it, you feel like helping him; but a liar, a hypocrite----"

"But, Thoma dear," interrupted Anton, "lying belongs to badness; a man
who is bad enough to steal, must be bad enough to lie."

"I understand everything at once. You need not always explain a thing
to me twice. I could see a liar or a hypocrite perishing before my eyes
and not help him until he----"

"Oho! You're getting excited."

"Yes, I always do when I'm on this subject. But enough of this. What
are the cottagers to us! See there, it was there by the pear-tree that
you said good-by to me, when you went to the war. See, it is the finest
tree of all. It looks like a great nosegay."

"And before the flowers become fruit you will be mine."

CHAPTER XIV.

Anton asked about their neighbor's daughter, Thoma's old playmate.
Sadly she told him how she had broken with her only friend. Anger and
shame reddened her cheeks as she related to him how her old playmate
had, on her wedding day, worn a wreath which she had no right to wear.
Thoma's lips quivered when she said:

"They say that Cushion Kate's mother was forced to stand at the church
door with a straw wreath on her head, and a straw girdle round her
waist. That was hard, but just. But for the girl to lie so, before God
and man; to accept an honor to which she had no right. To know it
herself and yet be so bold----. There, that is just like Vetturi. I
have no patience nor friendship with a liar, whether rich or poor, man
or woman. He who will not take the responsibility of his own acts may
go to perdition. Indeed, it is not necessary to tell him so, for he has
already gone there. You laugh? You are right! Such an honorable man as
you are doesn't need