seem out of sorts with every one about you."

"But mamma, with whom can I have any real companionship? I have not a
single friend in all Tannenburg. I have nobody in all the world with whom
I can be intimate."

The mother suggested that Paula might be a little more friendly with her
sister Lili, and also with Miss Hanenwinkel. But Paula declared, that Lili
was much too young, and the governess much too old. The latter was really
only twenty, but to Paula she seemed very old indeed. For girls to be
intimate, she declared they must be of the same age, so that they could
thoroughly understand each other's feelings, and they must be always
together. Without such a friend Paula said there was no real pleasure in
life, for a girl needed some one to whom she could confide her secrets,
and who would tell her own in return.

"Yes, Paula is at the romantic age," said her brother. "I am sure that for
a long time she has peeped into every field flower to see if it would not
suddenly unfurl a hidden banner, and turn into a Joan of Arc. Every little
mole that she sees in the fields, she half suspects may wear a seal-ring
on his little finger, and be a Gustavus Vasa in disguise, searching amid
the mole-hills for his lost kingdom."

"Do not be so teasing, Jule," said his mother reprovingly. "There is
certainly something very delightful in such an intimacy as Paula
describes. I had such an experience myself, and the memory of that happy
time is dear to me even now!"

"Oh, do tell us again about your dear friend Lili, mamma," exclaimed
Paula, who had often heard her mother speak of this intimate friendship,