with me as if I belonged to her. She taught me to embroider and to do
other fine handwork. Whenever she went with me into the garden and
through the estate, she taught me all about the trees and flowers. I was
often allowed to pick the violets that grew in great abundance beneath
the hedges and in the grass at the border of the little woods. Oh, what
beautiful days those were! Soon they were to become more perfect still
for us.

"But I received an impression in those days which remained in my heart
for a long while like a menacing power, often frightening me so that I
was very unhappy. Once my father came down very silently from the
castle. When my mother asked him if anything had happened he replied,
and I still hear his words 'Young Bruno has inherited his ancestor's
dreadful passion. His mother is naturally more worried about this than
about anything else.'"

"Look at him," Kurt said dryly, glancing at Bruno, who was sitting beside
his mother. For answer Bruno's eyes flashed threateningly at his
brother.

"Oh, please go on, mother," Mea urged. She was in no mood to have the
tale interrupted by a fight between her brothers.

"It seemed terrible to me," the mother continued again, "that Bruno, my
generous, kind friend, should have anything in his character to worry his
mother. Often I cried quietly in a corner about it and wondered how such
a thing could be. I had to admit it myself, however. Whenever the three
boys had a disagreement or anybody did something to displease Bruno, he
would get quite beside himself with rage, acting in a way which he must
have been sorry for later on. I have to repeat again, though, that he