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Rh, alone with her brother. We must pretend that, Constance. I don't think they intend to come back. Henri has been very excited lately: he fought Eduard, came to blows with him, for ill-treating his sister. You know how fond they are of each other, Emilie and Henri. It's almost unnatural, in a brother and sister. Now they've run away. . . Oh dear, Constance, I am so terribly unhappy!"

She threw herself into Constance' arms, sobbed, with her arms round Constance' neck:

"Constance, Constance, help me! . . . I have no one to turn to, no one I can talk to. Adolph is helping me with the business-matters; Otto too. Louise is very kind; but she and Otto think that Emilie ought to divorce her husband, on the ground of cruelty. But, Constance, in our class, men don't beat their wives! It never happens. It's an awful thing. It only happens with the lower orders! . . . Oh dear, Constance, I am so unhappy! . . . The business-matters will be settled . . . But there are debts. I thought that we were living within our income, but I don't know: there appear to be debts. Bills mount up so . . . I did so hope that the boys would finish their course. Frans will; but now Henri . . . that mad idea . . . going away with Emilie . . . running away . . . nobody knows where . . . Oh dear, Constance, I am so unhappy: help me, do help me!"

She lay back limply in Constance' arms and the