had come after her to ask how the bishop was, and who wished to take her
share in soothing the pain of her darling.

How well her little surprise had succeeded!

But what came over the child? She started to her feet as if lightning
had struck her, as if an asp had stung her, looked horror-stricken into
her mother's eyes, and then, as Susannah was on the point of clasping the
little head to her bosom once more to kiss the aching, the cursed spot,
Katharina pushed her away, flew, distracted, through the sitting-room
into the vestibule, and down the narrow steps leading to the bathroom.

Her mother looked after her, shaking her head in bewilderment. Then she
turned to Heliodora with a shrug, and said, as the tears filled her eyes:

"Poor, poor little thing! Too many troubles have come upon her at once.
Her life till lately was like a long, sunny day, and now the hail is
pelting her from all sides at once. She has bad news of the bishop, I
fear."

"He is dying, she said," replied the young widow with feeling.

"Our best and truest friend," sobbed Susannah. "It is, it really
is too much. I often think that I must myself succumb, and as for her--
hardly more than a child!--And with what resignation she bears the
heaviest sorrows!--You, Heliodora, are far from knowing what she has gone
through; but you have no doubt seen how her only thought is to seem
bright, so as to cheer my heart. Not a sigh, not a complaint has passed
her lips. She submits like a saint to everything, without a murmur.
But, now that her clear old friend is stricken, she has lost her self-