"Yes, if you will for-rgive my calling your country an evil. I was unhappy—too unhappy to stay where every day I saw something to make me worse; and that evil was gr-reater than to banish myself, even though I do love my country dearly."
"Was it necessary for you to come so far? Could you not find peace in your own land?"
"I thought not. You see—if I do not weary you I will tell you. Shall I tell you?"
"You never weary me," returned Mrs. Carroll, heartily. "I shall consider that you do me an honor if you care to speak to me about yourself."
"It shall be only a little," began Friedrich, repenting of his expansiveness. "Perhaps I have told you that I am the older of my family. I have one br-rother four years younger. Our parents are dead several years, and Maximilian is married two years ago with Hilda von Arnim."
"You spoke of them both when you were ill; in your delirium, you know."
"Of Max and Hilda? What did I say?"
A sharp note was in Friedrich's voice.
"My dear Baron, I must make the humiliating confession that long disuse has impaired sadly my understanding of German. If you should speak to me very slowly, probably I could comprehend you, but at that time you were not speaking slowly."
"My nurses?"