"Thank you very much. But let me ask you, if I may, where you heard that
odious nickname? I hate it."

"From the same person who told you the secret that my Pulcheria is called
Pul!" said Rufinus; he laughed and bowed and left the two girls
together.

"What a dear old man!" cried Katharina. "Oh, I know quite well how he
spends his Days! And his pretty wife and Pul--I know them all. How
often I have watched them--I will show you the place one day! I can see
over the whole garden, only not what goes on near the convent on the
other side of the house, or beyond those trees. You know my mother;
if she once dislikes any one... But Pul, you understand, would be such
a friend for me!"

"Of course she would," replied Paula. "And a girl of your age must chose
older companions than little Mary."

"Oh, you shall not say a word against her!" cried Katharina eagerly.
"She is only ten years old, but many a grown-up person is not so upright
or so capable as I have found her during these last few miserable days."

"Poor child!" said Paula stroking her hair.

At this a bitter sob broke suddenly and passionately from Katharina; she
tried with all her might to suppress it, but could not succeed. Her fit
of weeping was so violent that she could not utter a word, till Paula had
led her to a bench under a spreading sycamore, had induced her with
gentle force to sit down by her side, clasping her in her arms like a