Soon the house lay in deep quiet: even the sick
child in the highest story lay calmly sleeping on her cool pillows. She
did not even notice when Mrs. Maxa stepped up once more to her bedside
with a little lamp. Before herself retiring she wanted to listen once
more to the child's breathing. Only the two new friends were still
talking long after midnight.
They understood each other so thoroughly and upon all points that Bruno
had proposed in his enthusiasm that they would not waste one minute of
the night in sleep. Salo expressed his wish over and over again that
Bruno might become his comrade in the boarding school. But finally
victorious sleep stole unperceived over the two lads and quietly closed
their eyes.
CHAPTER VII
THE MOTHER'S ABSENCE HAS CONSEQUENCES
Next morning Salo was allowed to go into his sister's room in order to
say good-bye to her. She looked at him so cheerfully that he asked with
eager delight, "Do you feel so much better already, Leonore?"
"Oh, yes, I feel as if I were at home," she replied with shining eyes.
"I feel as if our mother had come down from heaven to take care of me."
"When you can get up and go downstairs you will be happier still. I know
how much you will enjoy meeting the whole family," said Salo. "Then you
will feel as if you were in a real home that belongs to you."
"It is such a shame that you have to go," Leonore sighed, but this time
the tears did not come quite so urgently.
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