“Oh dear, I don’t want to disobey her! But I don’t like to be scolded at from morning to night, whether I do right or wrong.”
“Derette will not treat you in that fashion. She has a good temper, and is bright and cheerful.”
“I am so glad to hear it! I get so tired—”
Leuesa suddenly broke off her sentence.
“You look young for the work,” said Gerhardt.
“I am older than I look. At least, people say so. I am twenty-one.”
“Dear! I should not have thought you eighteen.”
“Oh yes, I am twenty-one,” replied Leuesa, with a bright little laugh; adding with sudden gravity, “I think I am much older than that in some ways.”
“Hast thou found life hard, poor child?” asked Gerhardt sympathisingly.
“Well, one gets tired, you know,” replied the girl vaguely. “I suppose it has to be, if one’s sins are to be expiated. So many sins, so many sufferings. That’s what Mother says. It will be counted up some time, maybe. Only, sometimes, it does seem as if there were more sufferings than sins.”