h left. Don't let yourself want for anything, or
Hansei either, and my child least of all, for we can now afford it,
thank God! And I want to be with you for a long while yet, dear mother.
It often makes me feel bad that I can't be a mother--I mean a true
mother; but when I come home I'll make it all up to my child; and
Hansei, put all your money out at interest until I get home; remember,
it doesn't belong to us, but to our child, whom we deprive of its
mother.

"Mademoiselle Kramer, who is with me all day, was born here. She'd
rather be in the city, and she says it used to be much prettier here
than it now is; that everything used to be like the little garden
yonder, where there are walls and rooms with doors and windows, all
made of shrubbery. It's all very pretty and I like to go there, but
when I've been there a few minutes I am almost frightened to death: for
I feel as if I and the trees were bewitched, and I get away as soon as
I can. Mademoiselle Kramer is a very good person, but nothing is
quite to her taste. She's been used all her life to riding and fine
eating and sitting about; and mother, just think of what I have eaten
here--live ice! People here are so clever they can preserve ice and
make it up so that you can eat it. Yes, if that could satisfy one's
appetite, there wouldn't be any hungry people with us in the winter, or
even in the summer, further up the mountains. And mother, you once told
me a fairy-tale about walls that have ears; but this is no fable, it's
true and quite natural. They have speaking-trumpets, running through
the whole palace, and you can speak through them, and if I want
anything in my room, all I've got to do is to go up to the wall and say
so and in a minute it's there.

"This is a beautiful day and that makes me think that you have it as
well as we, and that the same sun that shines on us here shines on you,
too.

"The main business here is taking walks. Every one must take walks
here. They call it taking exercise, so that they can get up their
appetite and keep their limbs from getting stiff. They even take the
horses out walking when there's nothing for them to do. Early in the
morning, the grooms ride out a long way with them and then come home. I
often wish the horses could only take me home for an hour. I often get
homesick, but I am well and hearty and only hope it is the same with
you. Your

"WALPURGA.

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