"A letter?" he inquired. "A letter from Uncle Kutowski to you?"
"Yes," she answered, crying.
He simply put his hand in his pocket and produced the letter. "Is that it?" he asked.
Elly supposed, with sobs, that it must be it.
But as he looked as if he were going to wrench open the envelope, Hertha considered it her duty to interfere.
"You surely will not be so unchivalrous," she said, "as to pry into other people's secrets."
"I shall certainly be so unchivalrous," he responded, and tore the envelope open.
"For shame," said Hertha, and turned away.
But he read aloud, "'The Smiling Stars,' serenade composed for and dedicated to Fräulein Elly von Sellenthin, as a token of his esteem and regard, by Kurt Brenckenberg. Cand. phil."
Whereupon he gave a little whistle and slowly ripped the beautiful verses into tiny fragments, which he scattered at his weeping sister's feet.