time met her sister's eyes with a radiant glance.

Yet the thought entered her mind that it ill beseemed her to express so
much pleasure in a worldly amusement. Her glance fell in shame, and she
gently continued in that tone of self-compassion which was by no means
unfamiliar to the members of her family. "True, though the Emperor is so
noble, and both he and the Burgravine were so gracious to me, at first--
and not only for a brief quarter of an hour, but a very long time I could
feel no real pleasure. What am I saying? Pleasure! I was indescribably
desolate and alone among all those vain, bedizened strangers. I was like
a shipwrecked sailor washed ashore by the waves and surrounded by people
whose language is unfamiliar."

"But half Nuremberg was at the ball," her sister interrupted. "Now you
see the trouble, darling. Whoever, like you, remains in seclusion and
mounts a tall tree to be entirely alone, will be deserted; for who would
be kind-hearted enough to learn to climb for your sake? But it seems
that afterwards one and another----"

"Oh!" Eva interrupted, "if you think that any of your friends gave me
more than a passing greeting, you are mistaken. Not even Barbel, Ann,
or Metz took any special notice of your sister. They kept near Ursel
Vorchtel, and she and her brother Ulrich, of course, behaved as if I wore
a fern cap and had become invisible. I cannot tell you how uncomfortable
I felt, and then--yes, Els, then I first realised distinctly what you are
to me. Obstinate as I often am, in spite of all your kindness and care,
ungraciously as I often treat you, to-night I clearly perceived that we
belong together, like a pair of eyes, and that without you I am only half
myself--or, at any rate--not complete. And--as we are speaking in
images--I felt like a sapling whose prop has been removed; even your