But five years after this discussion dressmaker's, but they never saw Laura she was not there, and Karl was not wear it. The entertainment was never there either. Laura had not married, given. At the end of one blissful week Trudi, who was ten years younger, had Laura was told that the marriage could not finished school, and their only heri- not take place. Her father could not tage was debt and disorder. If it had give her the dowry the Justizrath denot been for Onkel Gottfried it must manded for his son; could not even have gone hard with the girls. There promise to furnish for the young were some relations in a distant part couple; could do nothing his style of of Germany, but they were steady-go- life promised. With expressed regret ing thrifty people, and the name of and implied contempt the Justizrath Spiller was taboo amongst them. They and the Referendar departed. No one did not offer to do anything for Laura blamed them, and no one except Onkel and Trudi, who must have been brought Gottfried thought twice about Laura. up badly, and were probably as silly Her father was absorbed in his finanand extravagant as their parents. cial worries, and her mother was as They wrote polite letters and advised usual absorbed in herself. A year the girls to stay in Berlin. Onkel Gott- later both parents died, and since then fried was a poor man himself-too poor Laura had put the hopes and dreams of to offer a girl a home. But he took girlhood from her. To earn bread by charge of Trudi until she had finished day and sleep by night she must work her training, and Laura from the first with all her strength, and she had done took charge of herself. so, not unhappily. Now, thanks to Onkel Gottfried, she had butter to her bread, and at the end of the winter term Trudi and she had gone to Dresden for an Easter holiday. Twelve years ago these things had happened, and a little farther back still other things had happened that shook Laura roughly out of the fool's paradise in which a pretty girl lives. She had been wooed, she had thought she was loved, for the space of a week she had been unofficially engaged. Her mother, a born fool, spread the news in whispers before it was authentic. Laura was going to marry Referendar Reimann, the only son of Justizrath Reimann. eine glänzende Partie, "a match of the first brilliance, my dear; but don't say a word to anyone yet because, although everything is settled and the young man is desperately in love, the two fathers still have to arrange some small details," and so on and so on, in the ear of every gossip in the little town. A gown of great price and elegance was ordered for Laura to put on at the entertainment Frau Spiller proposed to give in celebration of the event when it became officialwas ordered and created. Some of Laura's friends saw the gown at the "Just for once," Trudi had coaxed"just for once, let us pretend to be rich and young and happy," and Laura, half frightened, but greatly tempted, had given way. They had taken four hundred marks, twenty pounds, with them, and they had spent the whole stupendous sum in three weeks. They had certainly been very extravagant. That was six weeks ago, but it seemed to both sisters that they had known Privatdocent Caspar Grote and his mother, Frau Professor Grote, much longer. It was the Frau Professor who had first made friends with them in the Dresden boarding-house. She liked the look and the behaviour of the sisters. They did not seek acquaintances, they were neat and quiet, and the elder one mothered the pretty young one. It was disappointing to find that they were schoolmarms earning their own living. She had not guessed it from their air. But she did not withdraw her countenance, and in an expansive moment Trudi told her about the leg acy left to Laura. "I do not understand that at all," the Frau Professor said heatedly. "Why was half the money not left to you?" "But, dear Frau Professor, I was not Onkel Gottfried's god-child," said Trudi. The Frau Professor seemed to think that had nothing to do with it. "Next Saturday I expect my son," she had said when she had known them about five minutes, and it seemed to Laura that henceforward whatever they did, and whatever they talked of, led sooner or later to the Frau Professor's son. Before Saturday came Laura was tired of them both. "When the son comes I hope we shall be left more to ourselves again," she said, but Trudi only agreed halfheartedly. She felt fluttered by the thought of Caspar's coming-the incomparable Caspar, who had never given his parents a moment's anxiety, except when he had measles, and of whom his parents expected great things. "I like Frau Professor," said Trudi. "I like a little of her," said Laura. "I like Herr Caspar," said Trudi, when she had known that hero half a day. "So do I," said Laura, "but I don't believe he will ever do great things." Six weeks later the sisters had not essentially changed their point of view. Laura still thought the mother a managing, conceited woman, whose exaggerated estimate of her only son made her tedious company. If Caspar had been the phoenix his mother thought him, as an everlasting subject of anecdote and adulation he would still have palled. "Caspar is a genius," the good Frau Professor would say too seriously, and too often. But Caspar was not a genius-in Laura's shrewd opinion. He was a worthy pedantic young man, with mild blue eyes and an immense belief in his mother. How any woman could set an an aureole around his tow-colored head passed Laura's understanding. When she compared him with her Referendar! But Trudi seemed to think comparisons were odious. She spent most of her leisure time with her new friends, and never ceased to sing their praises. However, though Laura was often lonely now she was not unhappy. For twelve years she had been so starved of all she wanted that her additional income opened new worlds to her. She bought new clothes for Trudi and herself when the second quarter was paid, and she took two tickets in the second circle for "The Merchant of Venice," a play she was studying in English with her class, and greatly desired to see. She did not like it as well in English as in German, and was pleased to think that on the stage she would hear it in her mother-tongue. "But it is wonderful," she said to Trudi. "For three months this money will give us all the pleasures we want. I count our new clothes a pleasure. They were not exactly a necessity. With a little more careful mending and patching, our old ones— "Laura!" cried Trudi. "The old ones were so shabby and out of date that people stared at us in the street." "I never noticed it. They kept us warm. Still, I shall enjoy seeing you in the new ones, and in wearing my own. We are as well off now as many a young pastor or professor. How wise Onkel Gottfried was to put us in the way of supporting ourselves." "I would much rather be supported," said Trudi. "I hate teaching." "I know you do," said Laura anxiously. "But what else is open to you?" Trudi blushed. On the whole, the time between Easter and Whitsuntide passed pleasantly and uneventfully. At least, on looking back when June came, Laura could not see the landmarks that led to the present situation. In her company Caspar had never made love to Trudi. She could not picture him as a lover at all, or as anything but an amiable, rather stupid, young man who took his insufferable mother at her own valuation. Laura supposed the illusion of love prevented Trudi from seeing him in his true colors, but she could only make guesses at her young sister's state of mind. They never discussed Caspar or the Frau Professor now. It was partly Trudi's reticence that told her story. She would come back from her friends with her eyes alight and her cheeks aglow, and have never a word to say of what had put her in such good spirits. To be sure, the young man had offered some instruction in botany that the young woman had accepted with gratitude; but Laura could not understand why Herr Grote, discoursing on funguses, should send Trudi home to her in a happy dream. However, she understood everything better after the Frau Professor's birthday. This event fell on Whitmonday, when all the pleasure-resorts of Berlin were bound to be inconveniently crowded. Nevertheless, the Grotes decided that, as they always had an expedition and a feast in honor of it, they would have both this year, and invite the sisters to accompany them. That will show you the stage of intimacy reached by the two households. They would not have asked acquaintances to join them on an occasion so intimate and so costly, because the programme could not be carried out for a few pence. They were to take an electric car to the Grünewald, dine at a restaurant there, and after a long day in the coun try return to Berlin and have supper with the Frau Professor. Laura would have enjoyed herself very well if she could have walked in the woods with Trudi only, or even alone. Bnt when the loaded electric cars disgorged them, her head ached already with trying to hear and answer a flood of empty babble amidst a din: Frau Grote was a woman who must always be talking, and always of her own affairs. Even these suburban woods were fresh and beautiful on this young June day, and Laura longed to give her mind to them. But she knew that her companion was like the woman, overheard by Heine, who cried, "What do the trees matter to you?" when she was asked to have eyes for them: Was gehen Dir die schöne grüne Bäume an? She had to tell Laura all about her birthday presents, and the bunch of lilies of the valley the cook had brought from the market, and the wicked price of asparagus-ends this year, the headless ends the thrifty German housewife buys and puts in her omelets. She hoped Laura liked rhubarb, because there would be rhubarb for supper-Caspar said it agreed with him better than unripe gooseberries, and it was a pleasure to get anything the dear good boy desired. Such a marvellous present he had given her -a true work of art: his photograph, cabinet size, in evening dress, and holding in his right hand his pamphlet on green mould in damp cupboards -a work that had created a sensation, nothing short of a sensation-and next to the photograph the Frau Professor valued Trudi's cushion; that was a masterpiece, really and truly a masterpiece. "Alackaday," thought Laura, "now Trudi is to be set up for adulation next to Caspar. What does it all mean? I foresee that I shall soon think Trudi a bore. Embroidery is not her pastime at all, and the stems of her flowers were broken-backed-but where is Trudi, and where is Herr Grote?" "I don't see Trudi and Herr Grote," said she. "I thought they were just behind." Frau Grote, who carried a large oblong green tin holding rolls and sausage for a "snack" at eleven o'clock, looked unperturbed. "We have the food with us," she said. "But where can they be? They must be hungry too." "Your sister is with my son. You may feel quite easy about her. Caspar, perhaps, prefers to eat a trifle at a Restauration. He considers al fresco meals a little undignified. My blessed husband did too. But he has been so long dead, and I have been so long used to turn round every penny and make it do service as two-how easy life would be, Fräulein Spiller, if it could be carried on without money!Allow me to offer you a slice of brown bread and liver-sausage-if we had nothing to consider but poetry and romance I am a highly romantic nature, -and so is my Caspar,-but we also have to consider what is due to our position-have we not?" Laura, who was hungry, ate brown bread and butter and liver-sausage with satisfaction, but she did not feel at all satisfied about Trudi. It was out of the question that Caspar's handkerchief should be thrown to her with his mother's approval. A man of his matrimonial value might once in a thousand years choose a penniless girl, but never since the world began had a Frau Professor encouraged such folly. Caspar Grote! a sane, sound young man with steady work and hopes of advancement. He must-Laura saw it herself-he must marry a girl who could furnish the flat, buy the house linen, and add a solid sum to the small yearly income. He would find such a girl at a moment's notice whenever The Cornhill Magazine. "I am not happy about Trudi lately," she said to Frau Grote. "She says so often that she does not like teaching, and yet she will have to teach all her life." "She says it to me, too," said Frau Grote. "I wish she did not get such ideas into her head." "They are natural ideas. Trudi is young and pretty." "But she must earn her bread." "Trudi is womanly and domestic. She would like a home of her own." "Every woman would," said Laura. "But many of us have to make one for ourselves-as best we can." "It is never the same thing. Trudi said quite frankly the other day that she hoped she would not be an old maid." "Every girl hopes it; but there is no other fate before most girls of our class who have no money. I think that women should make themselves more independent of marriage. There are other things in life if you have eyes and ears-and a little money." "But you say that Trudi has no money." "What is mine is Trudi's." (To be concluded.) THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SITUATION. THE REAL ROOSEVELT. The Roosevelt legend is exploded at last, and Mr. Roosevelt has achieved this himself. In spite of so much convincing evidence to the contrary, the world insisted for years on regarding him as the one upright, sincere, and convincing man in American politics. Mr. Bryan was, of course, the self-seeking revolutionary. Mr. Roosevelt helped to perpetuate this legend when he nobly wrapped himself in his own virtue and descended from the Presidential pedestal. In those days he disdained to violate constitutional precedent as established by Washington and accepted by Jefferson, Grant, and McKinley by according to the desires of his friends and standing for a third term. He managed, it is true, to advertise himself still better by his African big game shoots and subsequent European tour. Here crowned heads and potentates generally gave him very uncalled-for réclame, and he returned their effusions by lecturing them on the proper deportment of kings and correct policy to be pursued in administering oriental dependencies. Some Europeans were scandalized, many amused, and a few responsible persons pretended very foolishly to like it. But all this blague and blatancy rather helped to swell the Roosevelt bubble in America, and it was clearly too much for the recipient's mental equilibrium. The office of a weekly review is all too small for the ambitions thus inflated by insincere and inexcusable flattery. Mr. Roosevelt is now sighing again to be in the White House, and, what is more alluring, in the limelight. He cares nothing about constitutional precedent, and loyalty to his friend or his party, and has rapidly developed by easy gradations what Mr. Taft calls with bitter incisiveness "neurotic radicalism." We take no particular credit to ourselves for an accurate forecasting of the situation because a moderate gift of observation might have enabled anyone to see through the great Roosevelt boom. The Saturday Review foretold the probable result of the promotion of the Taft candidature. The demand for a third term in succession would have been too great a breach with precedent, so Mr. Taft was put in to keep the place warm for the great man. But Mr. Taft does not see it so and declines to be hustled out of his second term if he can help it. Therefore we have all the elements of a pretty dispute within the Republican Party itself, to say nothing of a battle far-reaching in its results between all parties throughout the Union. The first phase of the strugle to be settled lies within the Republican Party, and its result will be determined within a few months, for we shall know then whether the majority of delegates are pledged to support a Taft or a Roosevelt nomination. It is not of much avail for foreigners to speculate on this, as the outcome is completely obscure even to Americans. The President's supporters are confident that they will secure the choice of their man at the Convention. But it must be remembered that the President's record has by no means altogether pleased his own party. His tariff policy has been vacillating and has given no satisfaction to anyone, while he has not arrested the Trust legislation, fear of which is gravely interfering with business generally and keeping down prices in Wall Street. He has, however, dealt uprightly with the Judic |