discomfort and the most arduous mental conflict. True, the measures
adopted by her friends seemed to have guarded her from the attacks of the
old Countess Rotterbach; but Fran Rosalinde, since she had been allowed
more freedom to move about than her mother, who had been confined to the
upper story, felt like a boat drifting rudderless down the stream. She
needed guidance and, as Els now ruled the house, asked direction from her
for even the most simple matters. Clinging to her like a child deserted
by its nurse, she told her the most hostile and spiteful remarks which
the countess never failed to make whenever it suited her daughter to bear
her company. During the last few days the old lady had again won
Rosalinde over to her side, and in consequence an enmity towards Els had
sprung up, which was often very spiteful in its manifestations, and was
the more difficult to bear, the more rigidly her position as daughter of
the house forbade energetic resistance.

But most painful of all to the volunteer nurse was the sick man's manner;
for though Herr Casper rarely regained perfect consciousness, he showed
his unfriendly disposition often enough by glances, gestures, and words
stammered with painful effort.

Yet the brave girl's patience seemed inexhaustible, and she resolutely
performed even the most arduous tasks imposed by nursing the sufferer.
Nay, the thought that Wolff owed his life to him aided her always to be
kind to her father-in-law, no matter how much he wounded her, and to tend
him no less carefully than she had formerly cared for her invalid mother.

So she had held out valiantly until, at the end of a long, torturing
week, something occurred which destroyed her courage. On returning from
an errand in the city, she was received at the door of the sick-room by
her future mother-in-law with the statement that she would take charge of