breastplate of mail, and after all it is only a foolish girl's heart like
any other, and now in its twenty-first year has given its love to a man
for the first time."

But Paula interrupted her: "I love the traitor no more! No, I hate him,
hate him beyond words! And the rest of them! I loathe them all!"

"Alas! that it should be so!" sighed the nurse. "Your lot is no doubt a
hard one. He--Orion--of course is out of the question; but I often ask
myself whether you might not mend matters with the others. If you had
not made it too hard for them, child, they must have loved you; they
could not have helped it; but ever since you have been in the house you
have only felt miserable and wished that they would let you go your own
way, and they--well they have done so; and now you find it ill to bear
the lot you chose for yourself. It is so indeed, child, you need not
contradict me. This once we will put the matter plainly: Who can hope to
win love that gives none, but turns away morosely from his fellow-
creatures? If each of us could make his neighbors after his own pattern
--then indeed! But life requires us to take them just as we find them,
and you, sweetheart, have never let this sink into your mind!"

"Well, I am what I am !"

"No doubt, and among the good you are the best--but which of them all can
guess that? Every one to some extent plays a part. And you! What
wonder if they never see in you anything but that you are unhappy? God
knows it is ten thousand times a pity that you should be! But who can
take pleasure in always seeing a gloomy face?"

"I have never uttered a single word of complaint of my troubles to any