but I think--I think they said--the shoes belonged--but I did not attend.
However, they were talking of a groom--a freedman--a stammerer. . . ."

"Then they certainly are hunting down an innocent man," cried Paula with
a deep sigh; and she sat down again in front of her toilet-table to
finish dressing. Her hands still moved mechanically, but she was lost in
thought; she answered the child vaguely, and let her rummage in her open
trunk till Mary pulled out the necklace that had been bereft of its gem,
and hung it round her neck. Just then there was a knock at the
door and Katharina, the widow Susannah's little daughter, came into the
room. The young girl, to whom the governor's wife wished to marry her
tall son scarcely reached to Paula's shoulder, but she was plump and
pleasant to look upon; as neat as if she had just been taken out of a
box, with a fresh, merry lovable little face. When she laughed she
showed a gleaming row of small teeth, set rather wide apart, but as white
as snow; and her bright eyes beamed on the world as gladly as though they
had nothing that was not pleasing to look for, innocent mischief to dream
of. She too, tried to win Paula's favor; but with none of Mary's devoted
and unvarying enthusiasm. Often, to be sure, she would devote herself to
Paula with such stormy vehemence that the elder girl was forced to be
repellent; then, on the other hand, if she fancied her self slighted, or
treated more coolly than Mary, she would turn her back on Paula with
sulky jealousy, temper and pouting. It always was in Paula's power to
put an end to the "Water-wagtails tantrums"--which generally had their
comic side--by a kind word or kiss; but without some such advances
Katharina was quite capable of indulging her humors to the utmost.

On the present occasion she flew into Paula's arm, and when her friend
begged, more quietly than usual that she would allow her first to finish
dressing, she turned away without any display of touchiness and took