And shall I confess something? I believe everything hard can be more
easily borne, if we can cast it impatiently forth like the sea of which
you speak; with me one thing is piled on another and remains lying there,
as if buried under the sand."

"Until the hurricane comes, that sweeps it away. I don't want to be an
evil prophet, but you surely remember these words. What a wild, careless
thing I was! Then a day came, that made a complete revolution in my
whole nature."

"Did a false love wound you?" asked Maria modestly.

"No, except the false love of another," replied Henrica bitterly. "When
I was a child this fluttering heart often throbbed more quickly, I don't
know how often. First I felt something more than reverence for the one-
eyed chaplain, our music-teacher, and every morning placed fresh flowers
on his window, which he never noticed. Then--I was probably fifteen--
I returned the ardent glances of Count Brederode's pretty page. Once he
tried to be tender, and received a blow from my riding-whip. Next came
a handsome young nobleman, who wanted to marry me when I was barely
sixteen, but he was even more heavily in debt than my father, so he was
sent home. I shed no tears for him, and when, two months after, at a
tournament in Brussels, I saw Don Frederic, the son of the great Duke of
Alva, fancied myself as much in love with him as ever any lady worshipped
her Amadis, though the affair never went beyond looks. Then the storm,
of which I have already spoken, burst, and that put an end to love-
making. I will tell you more about this at some future time; I need not
conceal it, for it has been no secret. Have you ever heard of my sister?
No? She was older than I, a creature-God never created anything more
perfect. And her singing! She came to my dead aunt's, and there--But I