that Tony could appreciate, for her own parents and grand-parents also had treasures which had been brought from Paris. The three girls soon made friends. They were in the same class and slept together in the same large room at the top of the house. What delightful, cosy times they had going to bed! They gossiped while they undressed--in undertones, however, for it was ten o'clock and next door Mlle. Popinet had gone to bed to dream of burglars. Eva Ewers slept with her. Eva was a little Hamburger, whose father, an amateur painter and collector, had settled in Munich. The striped brown blinds were down, the low, red-shaded lamp burned on the table, there was a faint smell of violets and fresh wash, and a delicious atmosphere of laziness and dreams. "Heavens," said Armgard, half undressed, sitting on her bed, "how Dr. Newmann can talk! He comes into the class and stands by the table and tells about Racine--" "He has a lovely high forehead," remarked Gerda, standing before the mirror between the windows and combing her hair by the light of two candles. "Oh, yes, hasn't he?" Armgard said eagerly. "And you are taking the course just on his account, Arm-gard; you gaze at him all the time with your blue eyes, as if--" "Are you in love with him?" asked Tony. "I can't undo my shoe-lace; please, Gerda. Thanks. Why don't you marry him? He is a good match--he will get to be a High School Professor." "I think you are both horrid. I'm not in love with him, and I would not marry a teacher, anyhow. I shall marry a country gentleman." "A nobleman?" Tony dropped her stocking and looked thoughtfully into Armgard's face. "I don't know, yet. But he must have a large estate. Oh, girls, I just love that sort of thing! I shall get up at five o'clock every morning, and attend to everything...." She pulled up the bed-covers and stared dreamily at the ceiling. "Five hundred cows are before your mind's eye," said Gerda, looking at her in the mirror. Tony was not ready yet; but she let her head fall on the pillow, tucked her hands behind her neck, and gazed dreamily at the ceiling in her turn. "Of course," she said, "I shall marry a business man. He must have a lot of money, so we can furnish elegantly. I owe that to my family and the firm," she added earnestly. "Yes, you'll see, that's what I shall do." Gerda had finished her hair for the night and was brushing 87 her big white teeth, using the ivory-backed hand-mirror to see them better. "I shall probably not marry at all," she said, speaking with some difficulty on account of the tooth-powder. I don't see why I should. I am not anxious. Til go back to Amster-dam and play duets with Daddy and afterwards live with my married sister." "What a pity," Tony said briskly. "What a pity! You ought to marry here and stay here for always. Listen: you could marry one of my brothers--" "The one with the big nose?" asked Gerda, and gave a dainty little yawn, holding the hand-mirror before her face. "Or the other; it doesn't matter. You could furnish beau- tifully. Jacobs could do it--the upholsterer in Fish Street. He has lovely taste. I'd come to see you every day--" But then there came the voice of Mile. Popinet. It said: "Oh, mademoiselles! Please go to bed. It is too late to get married any more this evening!" Sundays and holidays Tony spent in Meng Street or outside the town with her grandparents. How lovely, when it was fine on Easter Sunday, hunting for eggs and marzipan hares in the enormous Kr� garden! Then there were the sum-mer holidays at the seashore; they lived in the Kurhouse, ate at the table-d'hote, bathed, and went donkey-riding. Some seasons when the Consul had business, there were long jour-neys. But Christmases were best of all. There were three present-givings: at home, at the grandparents', and at Sesemi's, where bishop flowed in streams. The one at home was the grandest, for the Consul believed in keeping the holy feast with pomp and ceremony. They gathered in the landscape-room with due
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