every hue; the magnificent avenues of grand old trees, and the
innumerable, lovely little nooks to be found here and there in the
park, all breathed a charm which reminded Carmen of what she dimly
remembered about her father's plantation and hacienda in Jamaica.

Alexander and Hans were also at home for the holidays; and while Adele
rambled with the latter through park and garden, Carmen, who shyly
avoided Alexander, was entertained by her hostess, to whose warm
motherly nature the girl was attracted with genuine, childlike
heartiness. It was indeed her society, more than anything else, which
contributed to Carmen's happiness at Wollmershain, for she felt
embarrassed in this new kind of life; and the remarks which her
peculiar dress occasioned were especially annoying. To avoid being
conspicuous, she had already laid aside the white cap; but her beauty,
enhanced by the coils of glossy hair which crowned her queenly little
head, was so remarkable, so foreign-looking and striking, that she
seemed like some rare exotic which, in all the luxuriance of its
loveliness, had been transplanted from the land of palms to our colder
soil. There was in her manner an odd mixture of pride and humility,
dignity and modesty, which gave her all the reserve of a woman and the
winsomeness of a child. Perhaps it was the knowledge of the fact that
the peculiarities of the Sisters elicited so much ridicule from the
world that caused her to use her pride as a defence and a weapon, when
in company with any one save Frau von Trautenau. She always seemed
ready to do battle with Alexander, and yet he had never by word or deed
given cause for such a feeling.

"She is full of pluck and mettle like a thoroughbred horse!" said old
General von Bergen, who, with his daughter and his adjutant, had come
up from the barracks on a visit. "It is a pleasure to provoke her; her