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 to myself, now it's coming. I don't know if I was pleased or annoyed; I only know I found it rather tactless and ridiculous of the others to have arranged the situation like this. Erik sat for some moments pulling away at his cigar, until the fire glared from under the white ash. I could see he felt nervous. At last he said, 'I am so happy to see you again, Julie.'

'It makes me happy too to see you.'

'I longed for you so much amongst all those strange people.'

'But you wrote very seldom, and such short letters too.'

'You know how difficult it is for me to express myself in letters.'

'Didn't you make any friends at all in Vienna?'

'Yes. I made one. A Dane I met in a boarding-house where I stayed. He and I became very good friends. I talked to him very often and a great deal about you.'

'About me, Erik?'

'Yes; I told him I had a little foster-sister, the daughter of the man in whose house I had spent my student days, a young girl who had always been so dear and good to me———'

'For whom you did a thousand foolish things, and whom you often saved from the dark room and her father's anger by taking her sins on your own shoulders. But where is your friend now, is he still in Vienna?'

'No, he left long before I did; he had to be back at the beginning of the season.'