Felix Lanzberg's Expiation

ather's house, and was no longer condemned to

is a day in which death and misfortune seem like ghost stories, invented by old women--no one believes them. The birds twitter joyously,

. The same heavy brown hair, as if sprinkled with gold, clusters at her temples, and her eyes still

or baby was a sickly child, and great skill was required to bind the little soul, which seemed so anxious to fly back to heaven, to this earth. Day and night, in spite of her o

e with her, this time could not indu

sician said recently, "You may be proud of the child, Baroness. How you have raised her,

ok his head as he loo

e, but, in the midst of the charming spring

tender pink little feet, and the little neck on which the water drops down from the small golden head. The nurse is meanwhile busy removing the bathing utens

" cries Elsa at last, as baby pulls harder and

eth, laughs with all her little body, and finally

y wishes to go to sleep," whispers Elsa to her bi

s pretty white bed. But when she thinks it asleep, it opens its blue eyes, and stretching o

he closes her eyes. There she lies, her hair full of golden lights, the unusually long, black lashes resting on the round cheeks, leng

she sees the quiet smile with which her husband watches the chil

ing, as he softly leaves the nursery with Elsa. "I wish I c

any longer?" she re

not very

With such old married people as we are,

u thin

to you?" she asks him, looking at him curiously; the noblest w

as before, but I would be bitterly sorry for your prett

golden rain and red acacias--a gay, shimmering picture under an endless blue sky. Everything lives and breathes. The birds twitt

fe and pleasure, and in the enchanting music suddenly mingles a soft crac

of bushy white blossoms. Elsa gazes before her at the lovely nature, the mixture

earth looks," s

any rate he is more conscious of his feeling for her, and treats her more tenderly, is more thoughtf

rom Felix to-day," say

what bitterly. "Does he

e money for him," says

A

but that cannot last,"

lsa shrugs her shoulders,

uined--a very unpleasant condition, especially with a wife like Linda. I do no

emark Elsa co

mpression. Did you ever hear a really happy man assure one in every letter: 'I am very happy'--'Ev

t years of her marriage she had never written anythi

is present frequent contact with the

into society? I no longer try to understand Felix. Hm!--he is weak--could never refuse a woman anything; if one had asked

e takes on a rigid expression and she grows

il!" murm

he tone in which Marie Dey said to me last spring, when she returned from Rome: 'I have often met your sister-in-law; she goes a great deal into society--one sees her everywhere. Your brother does not seem to find as much pleasure in society as h

y malicious," say

and guards one's self!" cries Elsa, and adds with a bitter smile

a!" admoni

but now I cannot think of him without anger. Heavens, when I think of his return I tremble! I kno

o return in the latter part of June or the first of July. He

rn?" murmurs

must soone

Erwin, what will strangers think of his re

n so tragically," says Erwin, hasti

, unresponsibly. To think evil of one who is far from one is a pleasure to malicious people, and to the best is

she then continues, "I will do my utmost to make life endu