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256 middle of May, for Countess Hortense was very ill. Should God be pleased to restore her to health, perhaps the Princess would make a short visit to the castle, but this was quite uncertain. When Mrs. Proshek read the letter she could not restrain her tears, and the children, seeing their mother weep, wept also. Willie had only a few more marks to erase, and now all their bright hopes were dashed to the ground. And that the dear, good Hortense should die seemed dreadful to them. At their prayers, they never forgot to offer a Pater-noster for her restoration. The children, how-ever, were soon comforted, but Mrs. Proshek, who usually spoke little, now spoke still less; and whenever Grandmother entered her room, she saw that her daughter's eyes were swollen from weeping. She therefore sent her out to visit the neighbors and so forget her sorrows. She was always glad when Mrs. Proshek went, for she knew that after all her daughter was very lonely in that isolated little house, and would have preferred to live in the busy city, to which for so many years she had been accustomed. She had been very happy in her marriage, but the one unpleasant thing about her life was that her husband spent the greater part of the year in Vienna, and she was obliged to live in fear and anxiety without him. And now she was not to see her husband, nor the children their father for a whole year! "A life for a life," said Grandmother. Johanna, Grandmother's second daughter was to come home with John; she wanted to see her mother, to have a long visit with her, and to get her advice, for she was about to be married. Grandmother had looked